Rock music stalwarts SEETHER are set to unleash their ninth studio album, “The Surface Seems So Far”, this fall, continuing their legacy as champions of raw emotion in a landscape dominated by fleeting trends and manufactured sounds. The first single off the unapologetically aggressive 11-track collection, due out September 20 via Fantasy Records, is the blistering album opener “Judas Mind”.
“‘Judas Mind’ is a song about reaching an understanding that there are bad actors in our lives that are trying to force an outcome for us that we don’t see as our destiny,” shares SEETHER frontman and songwriter Shaun Morgan. “It’s about rising up against people who have a vision for you that you don’t share.”
Known for their enduring anthems like “Broken”, “Fake It” and “Words As Weapons”, SEETHER returns with “The Surface Seems So Far”, showcasing their trademark blend of aggression and introspection. The track list for the new album — the follow-up to 2020’s “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum”, which boasted three No. 1 hits — sets the tone for an honest and exhilarating journey through themes of melancholy (“Regret”),self-reflection (“Same Mistakes”),and raw emotion (“Dead On The Vine”),with catchy hooks and driving bombast emphasizing its many twists and turns. Adding to SEETHER‘s impressive catalog, Morgan and his bandmates — Dale Stewart (bass),John Humphrey (drums) and Corey Lowery (guitar) — sound alternately confident and confessional, full of vitriol and vulnerability throughout “The Surface Seems So Far”, which Morgan produced with veteran producer Matt Hyde (DEFTONES, SLAYER) as engineer and mixer.
SEETHER, known for their authentic and electrifying live show, will support the release of “The Surface Seems So Far” on the road this fall on a co-headlining tour with SKILLET. The 18-date outing launches September 17 in Asheville and will travel across the U.S. stopping in such cities as Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Houston, Dallas, Albuquerque, Denver, Omaha, and more before wrapping October 20 in Minneapolis. SEETHER is also set to perform at Louder Than Life and Aftershock festivals during the fall tour.
With five gold and platinum albums and two dozen Billboard Rock Airplay Top 10 hits including 20 No. 1s at U.S. radio throughout a career spanning over two decades, SEETHER is as vibrant and relevant as ever. Hailing from South Africa, Shaun Morgan proudly draws inspiration from his grunge and hard rock roots, crafting a unique sonic identity that propelled the band’s gold-certified American debut and continues to resonate deeply with fans worldwide. The rock quartet, who also founded the annual Rise Above Fest for nearly ten years to raise awareness for suicide prevention and mental illness, remains a beacon of integrity on “The Surface Seems So Far”, which promises to captivate both loyal fans and newcomers alike with its blend of memorable hooks, driving rhythms, and unapologetic rock spirit.
“The Surface Seems So Far” track listing
01. Judas Mind
02. Illusion
03. Beneath The Veil
04. Semblance Of Me
05. Walls Come Down
06. Try To Heal
07. Paint The World
08. Same Mistakes
09. Lost All Control
10. Dead On The Vine
11. Regret
This past May, Morgan explained to Ronni Hunter and Lewis of the 99.7 The Blitz radio station why he and his SEETHER bandmates weren’t ready to perform any of the material from their follow-up to the “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum” album. He said: “We live in such a horribly overconnected world that even the smallest things that make life slightly more exciting, even for us, I think it’s cool. So, if we played [the first single] live, it would be all over the Internet by the next day, and then it kind of blows the surprise. And maybe we should, so we don’t talk it up too much. And [people will be], like, ‘Oh, this is what it was about.’ But I think anticipation is a good thing.
“We finished this in January, we mastered it in the beginning of February, so we’ve been sitting with us for a long time too,” he explained. “So we’re also excited to get out and play it. But, again, I think anticipation is not to be underestimated as far as just how much it can mean when you finally get to the day… You used to wait for album releases, like, ‘Oh, my God. Finally we can go to the store and we can buy the album. We can go home. We can read the lyrics,’ all those kinds of things. Those don’t exist anymore. More often than not, albums just kind of arrive and [you’ll] be, like, ‘Oh, they have a new album? I had no idea.’ And that’s kind of a sad world. We used to all line up around the block to go get a new album when it came out, so any bit of anticipation we can [build is what we intend to do].”
Asked if there is an increased amount of pressure every time he and his SEETHER bandmates go into writing a new album, Shaun said: “The idea is not to put any pressure on yourself with a deadline. And when it’s ready, it’ll be ready and you’ll know. So if you had a deadline, you’d panic and you’d write stuff for the sake of writing it. But I think, at the end of the day, as long as you understand that once it’s finished, it’ll present itself as finished, and then you can go, ‘Okay, it’s finished,’ and you can move on. But, having said that, then you get into recording, and you’re done recording, and you’re, like, ‘Ah, I should’ve changed that,’ and now it’s too late. You can’t change those words anymore. So it’s always evolving, and it’s always a process. But I think, as far as from, ‘All right, we’re done with that tour. Let’s take a couple months off, and then we’ll start again.’ It’s always a thing of, like, ‘All right, well, let’s see what happens.’ And the first three months might be garbage, but at least it’s starting to get the gears moving again. And then eventually there’s a stride that you find yourself in. And then, again, it’ll complete itself and you’ll know when it’s done. And then it’s, like, ‘Hey guys, label guys, we’ve got this album for you.’ And, thankfully, they’re not a very intrusive A&R company; they pretty much leave us to our own devices. And that’s great too, ’cause you don’t have some guy breathing down your neck and trying to put his thumb on the scale to make you sound a certain way or do a certain thing.”
Photo credit: Alex Berger
