Review Summary: Seether doing Seether things
After over two decades in the post-grunge scene, it’s difficult to make something new and fresh.
The Surface Seems So Far is the perfect embodiment of this. It’s simply just Seether on auto-pilot. After fine-tuning their sound on
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum, the band returns to that success in songwriting… to a fault. Every song follows a structure that has already been laid out before: a foundational, mainstay riff, softer verses, soaring choruses of similar melodic composition, some form of a riffy bridge (occasionally spiced up by some screams), rinse and repeat. It’s Seether playing it safe and formulaic, but that doesn’t necessarily make it bad. “Try To Heal” and “Dead On The Vine” are two of the heavier tracks the band has written in a while, with memorable intro riffs and aggressive riffdowns, the former containing the most visceral screaming from Shaun Morgan in a while. “Walls Come Down” is a positive, uplifting sound that stands out from Seether’s typical style, filled with energy and a catchy chorus. Songs like “Illusion” and “Lost All Control” contain powerful choruses that feature some of their best vocal melodies to date. “Regret” even concludes with the most memorable final chorus in recent efforts in their discography, full of beautiful harmonies and fantastic guitar layering. However, as a whole,
The Surface Seems So Far relies too heavily on what Seether has done before. While the album stands strong on its own, it pales in comparison to what their discography has to offer.
