Those first few Ceremony records were some next level shit. They were so angry and abrasive, but you could see the band pushing boundaries and growing with each release. By the time the band dropped Zoo in 2012 I was losing interest and wished they would just stick more to the hardcore sounds that I liked. I didn't want more growth and trying different sounds... I just wanted the aggression. Zoo did grow on me, and I did end up really liking that record, but after that one, I was done. I did not care to see where the band went from there.
When The L-Shaped Man was released in 2015, it barely registered on my radar. I think that maybe my buddy, Doug, liked it, but it didn't seem like it was going to be for me. Nine years later, and a solid year after I started being turned on to different music in 2023, and this kind of music is very much going to fucking be for me.
I was hanging out and listening to Zoo earlier this year, and the time felt right to finally give Ceremony's next album a chance, and right out of the gates, I fucking loved it. I can certainly understand why I wouldn't have appreciated this back when it was released, but it fits into that different style of music that I've been craving lately. Sometimes you need to wait until the time is right.
When I was looking to buy a copy of the record, I found a tour pressing of the record available on Discogs for a decent price. The Discogs listing says that each one is "unique", with the singer hand drawing the shape on the front of each cover... but the shape is damn near identical to the original, so it isn't really as cool as it sounds.
I'm sure my thoughts on this are exacrtly the same as yours. I had zero interest in this when it dropped and it marked the end of my relationship with Ceremony. I should probably give it a chance as my tastes have always been similar to how yours have 'developed' the past few months.
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