California punk stalwarts Ceremony have unveiled “Dark Summer,” the moody third single from their highly anticipated seventh studio album, Tell Me Your Dream, releasing August 7th via Relapse Records.
The track follows “Death Destruction Mayhem,” which drew praise for applying the band’s matured, atmospheric post-punk sensibilities to the aggressive hardcore roots of their earliest days. With “Dark Summer,” Ceremony leans entirely into a shadow-drenched, hypnotic post-punk landscape. Frontman Ross Farrar compares the song’s underlying tension to sonic feedback:
“In Rock ‘n Roll music, feedback occurs when a guitar is purposely moved too close to an amplifier – like a dark summer – when dread finds you amid brilliant sunshine, it feels disorienting, confusing, and chaotic. What you’re left with is malaise, doldrums of sorts that are both beautiful and terrifying.”
The band’s upcoming album reunites them with producer and punk veteran John Reis (Rocket from the Crypt, Hot Snakes). Having previously worked on their acclaimed 2015 record The L-Shaped Man, Reis brought a deeply collaborative energy to the new sessions. Guitarist and keyboardist Anthony Anzaldo notes that the band “really gave him the keys,” allowing Reis to practically join the band’s creative ranks for this record.
That level of artistic trust reflects the decades-long bond shared within the band, stretching back to a grade-school friendship between Anzaldo and Farrar. “We’re bound together like family,” Anzaldo says. “Our relationships are beyond the band. Ceremony is going to live no matter what.”
Following their performances at Coachella earlier this year, Ceremony will hit the road for an autumn North American tour. The headline run starts September 9th in Montreal and will stop in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
