Forest Hills is a two-piece rock act from suburban New York City that formed in October 2018. It only took them another eight months to release their debut album “Break Free”.
Jack Burton (drums) and Zero Surico (vocals and all instrumentation) met in Los Angeles in September 2018 while Zero was in college. Zero was looking for a drummer to help fill out some of his songs, and Jack was one of the first to answer the Craigslist ad. They exchanged ideas over email, jammed in a local studio and the rest, as they say, is history. Zero grew up listening to his parents’ rock and metal records. His obvious influences have grown to include rock and nu-metal artists like Alice in Chains, Nine Inch Nails, Mindless Self Indulgence, Linkin Park, and MCR.
“Break Free” intertwines Tania Donnelly (Belly / Breeders)-styled vocals over distorted guitars and driving drum-and-bass with Evanescence-styled heartfelt and personal ballads of angst and teenaged pain and Tool-influenced prog. There’s a hat-tip to Nirvana / early Foo Fighters in Mistake, and I found myself listening to mid-90s garage-grunge/metal for most of the 13 tracks. That closing track, Rain, is a real belter and stood out as a great indicator that this band has many, many miles to go (check out their YouTube channel as further evidence).
The mix could be cleaner but as an independent self-produced outing it is quite mature; as good a record as those being released by more experienced outfits with record-label backing.
Jack and Zero haven’t stopped. In an interview for Fem Metal Rocks they were promoting their first record whilst writing the second one. Now the second is in the can, the third is in production! Plus they have a slew of online live music appearances over the next few months so you’ll be able to see the growth for yourself.
Forest Hills debut album “Break Free” – as solid a foundation on which any band would want to build a career.