iSound

Depending on who’s counting, there are anywhere from 100 to n-frigging-thousand subgenres of rock music a band can slide into for easy categorization. And depending on where you drop the laser on Fair to Midland’s Serjical Strike debut, The Drawn and Quartered E.P., at least half of those subgenres are being reinvented at once. But to call this Dallas quintet (who, ironically, get their name from an old Texan play on the term “fair to middling”) merely “eclectic” is to sell them way short. No, Fair to Midland are masters of fusing those subgenres into something that’s cohesive, intensely focused, and in a bold new category all its own. The Drawn and Quartered E.P. finds Fair to Midland proving why Serjical Strike owner and System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian personally chose them for his already boundary-challenging label’s roster. The EP’s studio tracks—“Orphan Anthem ’86” and “Kyla Cries Cologne”—showcase FTM’s flair for combining progged-out virtuosity with lead-heavy riffs, ...