It’s not easy to keep track of how many different hardcore and post-hardcore revivals there have been since Ceremony’s 2006 debut, Violence Violence. But over the past two decades, the California-born group has thrashed and danced through them all—consistently reevaluating what a modern punk band sounds like and what they should say to the world. Tell Me Your Dream is Ceremony’s first album in seven years, the longest they’ve gone between full-lengths. They reconvened in the studio with producer John Reis (who previously worked with the group on 2015’s The L-Shaped Man), where they let the basslines take the lead and didn’t shy away from either synths or funk amidst the ferocity. On Tell Me Your Dream, the group chose to bring politics to the forefront, naming global conflicts and crises that affect us all. In a genre where the primary concern currently seems to be personal growth and maintaining a positive mindset, the lyrics to “Madness” feel radical, as lead vocalist Ross Farrar calls out, “I said being young is like being rich/You have this thing that everyone wants/And you waste it/And you waste it.” At its heart, Tell Me Your Dream is an album about refusing complacency and isolation. Whether it’s musically or societally, engagement is the only way to bring change. On “Other Hells,” Farrar repeats what might be the most indelible lesson the band has absorbed from punk: “There’s no them/There’s no other/There’s just us.”