You could never accuse Seether of reinventing the wheel. Since they emerged in 1999, the South Africans have stuck rigidly to churning out angsty, postgrunge-indebted hard rock that has often felt wearingly derivative. At the same time, there’s something to be said for knowing where your talents lie. Seether have built a career on chunky, mid-tempo crunch, as on opener Judas Mind, and they have a loyal fanbase who clearly thirst for it. It’s this audience that will eat up a genuine earworm like Illusion, the Alter Bridge-isms of Walls Come Down, the Alice In Chains-esque vocals of Paint The World and the muscular riffs of Same Mistakes. For everyone else, The Surface… will be a flat, familiar affair that they’ve heard done many times before – either by Seether themselves, or by more superior bands. ■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Papa Roach