Band: Scratched Surface
Title: Nine Novembers Fall
Label: self-released
Distribution: Bertus
Release date: 2008
Review: CD

The history of the German formation Scratched Surface goes back to April 2004. At that time, the members were between thirteen and seventeen years of age (!). The year after, the band released their promo-MCD Look Away Blind, which got good reviews (among which Demo Of The Month at Bloodchamber), and in mean time the band hit the stage with bands as The Exploited, Dismember and Ektomorf. The modern-sounding music Scratched Surface stand for gets called ‘melodic Thrashcore’, which is a pretty easy but very correct definition, I guess. Nine Novembers Fall stands for a mixture of technical yet uncomplicated Thrash Metal, groovy and rocking Deathrash, punky Hardcore and powerful, moshing, pumping Metalcore into a barbaric, merciless hybrid. The harsh and pounding tracks are interspersed with a few melodic parts, injecting some necessary variation. However I wonder if this debut is strong enough to make this German band’s name known outside their home country. This formation does have an own face (a scratched one, as you can guess) and that’s very remarkable for such a young band, but I guess the compositions need something more to convince. Total running time: 35:51 minutes.

73/100

Ivan Tibos.