A record that sold over 100,000 copies should have kept a band comfortable. Instead, Sick of It All, the New York hardcore punk group, felt trapped. Their previous album Just Look Around had proven their appeal, but the label behind it seemed unable to push them further. When bassist Rich Cipriano left, the band decided they wanted out of their contract with Relativity Records altogether. Sick of It All released Scratch the Surface on October 18, 1994.
Relativity tried to sell that contract to other labels for $20,000. The eventual price was ten times that: East West Records paid $200,000. Vocalist Lou Koller explained the jump simply: East West was a major label. Guitarist Pete Koller later said East West signed Sick of It All and Orange 9MM believing hardcore would become the next trend in heavy music. The deal guaranteed the band full creative control.
Writing Scratch the Surface as a full band
With that freedom, the members of Sick of It All set out to make their third studio album, Scratch the Surface. They wrote it over four months, rehearsing six days a week in a Chinatown loft on Canal Street that they shared with Rollins Band. Unlike their previous records, where Lou wrote lyrics and Pete wrote music, this time all four members worked on the songs together. The goal was a darker, heavier sound than before. The lyrics, written by Lou Koller and Armand Majidi, were more introspective than on previous albums.
Lou Koller connected that shift to accusations of selling out after moving to East West. Their sound pulled from heavy metal, speed metal, Oi! and hardcore; Lou named Agnostic Front, Discharge, GBH, early Venom, Motörhead, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Drummer Armand Majidi also cited contemporary New York bands Helmet, Chavez and Unsane. The lyrics, written by Lou and Majidi, were more introspective than on previous albums.
Normandy Sound and the remix
Recording took place at Normandy Sound in Warren, Rhode Island, with engineer Tom Soares, who had worked on all their previous albums. But the band hated his mix, calling it smooth and clean, like 1980s hair metal. So they brought in Billy Anderson to remix and dirty up the sound. Pete Koller said that while Soares spent hours choosing sounds and effects, Anderson just cranked everything. Lou thought Soares was offended by Anderson's involvement.
But the band hated his mix, calling it smooth and clean, like 1980s hair metal.
Only one song, Consume, was mixed by Soares and Anderson together; the Koller brothers considered it one of the strongest on the album. The title track, Scratch the Surface, addressed how hardcore concepts become trends and superficial people. Step Down, influenced by Oi! and featuring gang vocals, was first seen by the band as a joke jam. The cover art was equally aggressive: the band hired a photographer who carved their dragon logo into a wooden block, set it on fire, and photographed the process.
Release, MTV and European promotion
The album came out on East West Records on October 18, 1994, right as the label merged with Elektra Records, causing confusion about how the band was represented. European promotion was strong with posters, billboards and ads, but in the United States it was weaker. Still, the music video for the title track debuted on MTV's Headbangers Ball on December 10, 1994. The video for Step Down later entered MTV rotation, appeared on 120 Minutes and in an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head.
Sick of It All toured for more than two years behind Scratch the Surface. In early 1995 they headlined with Korn, Orange 9MM and Trial, and during that tour Korn's popularity grew faster, which Lou explained by differences in label support and finances. The band also played the first Warped Tour in August 1995. By 1997 the album had sold 250,000 copies worldwide, making it their best-selling record as of 2011.
Despite the attention, Scratch the Surface did not make Sick of It All part of the mainstream. Yet in retrospect it is called a classic, credited with expanding hardcore's audience. The band also links the album to the growth of their fanbase in Europe, where it reached number 67 on the German albums chart and the single Scratch the Surface / Borstal Breakout hit number 95 in the UK.