Ceremony's debut 7", Ruined, has been, by far, my most listened to EP of the past year. Ruined was the most intense 7 minutes of hardcore in a long while. Reminiscent of Infest, Ruined made the listener want to jump out of their chair, throw the chair through the window, throw their mother in after it, and then light the house on fire. It was that good.

I wasn't sure if the band would be able to pull off a full-length. Would it start to get boring after a while? Can the band be creative enough? Could they get past the "sophomore slump?"

Yes. Quite frankly, they have created a modern hardcore masterpiece.

Ceremony is best at fooling the listener, creating a slow sort of buildup that is fairly accessible to the listener. Then, suddenly, they kick you in the face with buzzsaw guitars and furious vocals. Before you can even comprehend what is going on, the song ends, leaving you to question what you actually just heard. This is Ceremony's key to success, and they are able to switch this process up enough so that it never gets old.

They also show themselves to be a very flexible band. They have the brutally fast parts, parts that are easier to bob your head to (and, while bobbing, running over to whoever is closest and punching them in the face), slower, droning interludes, and even throw in a cover of the Red C's "Pressures On," showing that they can even pull off sounding like a punk band.

The 7 tracks on Ruined are also included at the end of this album, pushing it to a blistering 20 songs in 20 minutes and 28 seconds.

After the album is over, the listener is left gasping for air, not really understanding what just happened, but yearning to experience it again. And again.

And again.