Artist: Merauder
Title: God is I
Type: Album
Label: Regain Records
To say that there’s nothing wrong with this album sounds like faint praise, and it is. New York Metalcore merchants Merauder have been around some 20 years and it’s clear that they know what they’re doing. Although it’s controversial, aggressive and so on, “God is I” struck me as being a familiar brand of Arena Metal which ticks all the relevant boxes. It’s crushing, it’s heavy, it’s melodic, the breaks are immaculately timed, there are guitar solos and much more. The music is clinical but unlike, say, a European band which might have a tradition of swathing sadness, historic wars or even bad weather to call on, there’s very little intrigue. This album is the sort of thing you might hear being played as background music at concerts between bands as equipment is being changed over. For parts of it, I found myself having to stop switching out as it blasted blandly through its metal motions. Of course the fact that this music might be played to the public at large suggests that there are people out there would like it. Let’s face it, there are no shortage of takers for the likes of Hatebreed and Agnostic Front with whom Merauder might be compared.
It’s interesting that in the publicity, attention is drawn to “thug-infused beats” and “seething gang vocals”. It was on the track “Forgotten Children” that I realised that the clichés were rising above the music. “We are your forgotten, we are your children” goes the chant. In fairness I did like the dark and sinister end of “Forgotten Children” There were some tracks which did jump out of the block on this album. “Gangsta” had a good, punchy pace to it and the riff even had a haughty air of Dark Tranquillity about it. The title track “God is I” was insistent and was like a dark version of Soilwork’s “Figure Number Five”. The other one I liked was “Ahora”, an ode to revolution sung in Spanish by Jorge Rosado of Ill Nino fame. Otherwise it’s track after track of highly competent, often brutal but largely unexciting metal.
I recognise that not everyone wants mind-numbing quirkiness or atmosphere with their metal. Merauder are undoubtedly aggressive, and technically they’re extremely tight but for all their claims of originality, I thought “God is I” was formulaic for the most part. I can imagine that many at festivals and concerts will appreciate their brand of metal. As I said at the beginning, there’s nothing wrong with this album.
http://www.myspace.com/merauder
http://www.regainrecords.com
Andrew Doherty
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