“You finally got what the fuck you deserve.”
Multi-dimensional sonic switchblades are a hot commodity right now, with many groups pooling divergent genre influences into their sound. Of course, this is only meaningful if done correctly. We hear a lot about having too many chefs in the kitchen and its tendency to be degradative, which is completely fair. But when there is an overtly large number of tools at their disposal, that could prove to be even more problematic. Louisville’s very own Surfaced are a rather unique act in terms of painstakingly choosing the best characteristics of their inspirational set pieces to utilize. Normally, hearing Chelsea Grin, The Acacia Strain, and Parkway Drive in the same song would be as ridiculous as it sounds. While perhaps too harsh, there are many who likely wouldn’t be able to pull off such a feat without obfuscating every facet of their output. For Surfaced, this isn’t their first rodeo in terms of counterbalancing differential genre ideals. Their 2023 debut album, Nothingness Forever, presented a textbook standard blueprint on how to achieve fusion without cobbling elements to the point of auditory disarray. With their upcoming EP, Where Angels Fear to Tread, Surfaced have floored the creative pedal and pushed further into a class entirely their own.
For anyone who’s followed Surfaced from the very beginning, the sheer disparity between Where Angels Fear to Tread and their previous work in terms of production will be immediately noticeable. This in no way diminishes the impact that the raw mixing of Nothingness Forever had, but it’s rather obvious that Surfaced have opted for a sharper style of engineering this time around. The heavier moments of this EP hit with the force of implanted C-4. Kentucky hardcore bands may as well have their own proprietary brand of trademark breakdown munitions; between Knocked Loose, Church Tongue, and what Surfaced execute from that standpoint are matched by none. Surfaced had already been at a point of making music to be ass kicked all over, but their decision to up the production ante a hundred-fold introduces grounds for fatality.
What’s even more impressive about Where Angels Fear to Tread, compared to similar projects, is how much substantive composition Surfaced manages to fit into each track despite a compact structure. With no song breaching the three-and-a-half-minute mark, the allotted buffer to waste any time is nonexistent. “Safe In The Presence of Evil” and “Buried In” seamlessly coagulate essential components of death metal, metalcore, and hardcore together for a brief but lethal tandem of triadic drive-by shootings laced in chug-heavy cyanide. Where Angels Fear to Tread can be interpreted as a continuous, highly technical breakdown, and there’s very little to suggest that wasn’t intentional. “Wasted in Hated”, “A Petal Of Ash”, “Another Mistake”, and “The Weight You Choose To Carry” are all shells of the same magazine. Overall, Surfaced have crafted the musical embodiment of all killer and no fucking filler with Where Angels Fear to Tread.
While it’s clear that warp speed underground hardcore ascension is taking place before our very eyes, Surfaced are still irrefutably young and finding their bearings in some respects. Lyrically, Where Angels Fear to Tread won’t match its instrumental counterpart in prowess. Then again, this is almost certainly by design. Expressive superficiality will ultimately become a moot point for many that will be too busy patching themselves back together once Where Angels Fear to Tread’s pick slides and blast beats reduce them to a stack of human pork chop. Even if Surfaced consistently resigns lyricism to being a secondary concern, their pure melodious aptitude will compensate for it to the point of irrelevance; they truly are that musically commanding.
Where Angels Fear to Tread is a stepping stone of hard-nosed maturation for Surfaced. By and large, their footprint was already expansive in the local Kentucky hardcore scene to begin with. Their latest EP brings them one step closer to cementing their place as underground purveyors. Surfaced may be quasi-greenhorns, but they are well above many longtime acts of the same crowded space. More than ever, it’s become quite cumbersome for groups to truly stand out amongst a vanilla curtain. Through a distinctive blend of branched sound and ability to make use of every second given to them, Surfaced tower above their constituents, never to be contended with if they keep this pace.
9/10
Where Angels Fear to Tread releases on August 15 via 1126 Records and can be pre-ordered here.