After back-to-back weekends at Coachella, California hardcore punk outfit Ceremony have dropped a new track titled “Other Hells”, marking their first new material in more than five years.
Running just over two minutes, “Other Hells” moves fast and hits hard. The track leans into the band’s hardcore roots, with driving drums and chaotic guitars pushing the pace from start to finish.
Frontman Ross Farrar explained the ideas behind the song: “‘Other Hells’ started as a meditation on the dualistic arts and the interplay of opposing forces in our lives: awake/asleep, physical/ spiritual, inhale/ exhale,” says vocalist Ross Farrar.
He continued: “This is a constant theme in the work of Ceremony; beauty juxtaposed with the intensity of aggressive music, seeking to create a single, cohesive work through audible, visual, and structural elements. Amid the ongoing rise in politics that lean on tribalism and polarizing rhetoric in an attempt to divide, the song responds by aiming to unify, using punk’s great liberatory force: the slam.”
Earlier this year, Ceremony also released their first live album, Live At The Hollywood Palladium, through Relapse Records. The record arrived two years after their 2024 performance celebrating Rohnert Park, one of the band’s defining releases.
Live At The Hollywood Palladium captures a full set along with an encore, pulling from across the band’s catalog and reflecting their evolution within hardcore and punk. The album was mixed by Taylor Young and mastered by Brad Boatright, keeping the focus on the band’s raw live sound.
With “Other Hells”, Ceremony tap back into their aggressive side while continuing to build on the themes that have shaped their music from the start.
