UMUR
"Surface" is the fourth full-length studio album by US, Wisconsin based death metal act Morta Skuld. The album was released through System Shock Records in 1997. It´s the successor to "For All Eternity" from 1995. It was the last Morta Skuld release in their original run as they disbanded in 1998. Their two-album deal with Deaf Records/Peaceville Records expired with the release of "For All Eternity" and I assume the three-year break between albums was a consequence of Morta Skuld having to shop labels.
Stylistically almost nothing has happened in the world of Morta Skuld, who still deliver predominantly mid-paced US death metal like they had done on all preceding releases. The sound production is a bit thinner and packs a little less punch than the preceding releases, but the songwriting is very similar. So this is another run-of-the-mill US death metal release which is well performed and relatively well produced but lacks an identifiable songwriting style.
So since "Surface" features a slightly less powerful sounding production job, I´d pick one of the two releases which came before this one if I wanted an introduction to Morta Skuld, but other than that you could pick any of the first four releases and they´d give you just about the same type of listening experience. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.