merauder god is i

Released: 19 June 2009 Label: Regain Records

The last time I heard Merauder was in the mid-90s when they released their classic Master Killer album which was about as perfect an example of the kind of metalised hardcore that was prevalent around that time as you could hope to find.

Fast forward fifteen years, give or take, and Merauder are still doing pretty much the same thing mixing huge, occasionally Prong-esque riffs and classic metal solos with the inevitable pit-friendly beatdowns and gang choruses. As you may have gathered Merauder aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel here, they do though do this kind of stuff far more convincingly than most with their music genuinely bridging the gap between metal and hardcore without merely falling hopelessly between the two stools as so many others do.

As enjoyable as this album is though it’s not perfect, some of the songs in the middle of the album are a bit samey and run together with the stench of “filler” in the air, though having said that none of the songs are downright awful either. It’s the occasional spoken-word samples between songs that really grate though, sometimes they can be really effective and add to the album but here I just wanted to skip through them.

When all is said and done though, apart from a few filler tracks and the odd annoying niggle this is a very enjoyable album with at least one genuine classic track in See You in Hell which is the kind of melodic but still crushingly heavy driving ‘metalcore’ song that most of the current flavours of the week only wish they could write.


by Neil Woodfin