{"id":30675,"date":"2013-07-07T20:25:08","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T01:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=30675"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:36:57","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:36:57","slug":"meroe-suite-524-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/meroe-suite-524-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Meroe | Suite 524<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Matt Karpe<\/span>
\n– Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"MeroeGerman hard rockers Meroe deliver their second album within a year with Suite 524<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Opener \u201cI Am\u201d is a decent start, with some good hard rock riffs and a decent solo from Alex Kah. Vocalist Oli Monroe\u2019s raspy voice is pretty strong and at times his harmonious moments are Bruce Dickinson-esque, if not quite at the same level.<\/p>\n

\u201cBorn To Rock\u201d is a steady flowing rock number reminiscent of fellow countrymen Scorpions and \u201cTwo Of A Kind\u201d contains some pretty good guitar work and stick hitting from Tom Wagner. Otherwise, \u201cTwo Of A Kind\u201d is a pretty punchless track.<\/p>\n

Ballad \u201cMy Heart Is Bleeding\u201d contains acoustic guitar for the verses, which works well until a fruitless chorus hampers proceedings; unfortunately a re-occurring theme on Suite 524<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Thankfully \u201cCrazy\u201d begins a small rallying cry. A good \u201880s glam metal tinged song which brings classic Cr\u00fce and Skid Row to mind, as some fast drumming is accompanied by sleazy guitar rhythms that makes \u201cCrazy\u201d rough and ragged, yet melodic and catchy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWink Of An Eye\u201d is another fast pacer which just tops two minutes in length. Musically it is good- a small alternative interlude you could say.<\/p>\n

\u201cPuppet On A String\u201d is another good song, full of melody and glam influence but let down slightly by a one line chorus followed by a number of \u2018La la laaas\u2019 which comes across slightly amateur.<\/p>\n

Again the album picks ups with standout track \u201cDie Like A Man.\u201d From the first thirty seconds, it is evident that the production is better on here than on any other song, and a lot more experimental. There are some electronic samples, dark chugging guitars that are continuous but addictive to hear, small piano tones and Monroe\u2019s best vocal performance. At five minutes long, it\u2019s the best thing you will hear on Suite 524<\/em>, and leaves you wishing there was more like this included.<\/p>\n

\u201cDream On\u201d is another simple ineffective song, and closer \u201cBlood Red Sky\u201d has a psychedelic intro that soon transforms into decent power metal with thrashing drum work from Wagner.<\/p>\n

Meroe have tried to make a modern hard rock album, which in places has been done, but Suite 524<\/em> falls short in many ways.<\/p>\n

Lyrically there are too many instances where words seem to have been fit in because they either rhyme or there just isn\u2019t anything else to complete the sentence. \u201cMy Heart Is Bleeding\u201d has some decent ballad-like verses, but the chorus dampens the song, and it is not the only track like this. Also there are a few too many songs that Meroe has played safe on, which lack energy and bite to engage the listener.<\/p>\n

The positives are on the tracks \u201cCrazy\u201d and \u201cDie Like A Man\u201d where Meroe prove they have some diversity in their arsenal. Guitarist Alex Kah and Tom Wagner on drums show some good talent, but unfortunately even they cannot save an album that shows brief promise, but not enough quality.<\/p>\n

Genre Hard Rock, Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nOli Monroe- Vocals
\nAlex Kal- Guitar
\nTom Schill- Bass
\nTom Wagner- Drums<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1. I Am
\n2. Born To Rock
\n3. Two Of A Kind
\n4. My Heart Is Bleeding
\n5. Crazy
\n6. Wink Of An Eye
\n7. Puppet On A String
\n8. Die Like A Man
\n9. Dream On
\n10. Blood Red Sky<\/p>\n

Label: Independent<\/p>\n

Webpage: www.meroe.de<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Matt Karpe – Columnist — German hard rockers Meroe deliver their second album within a year with Suite 524. Opener \u201cI Am\u201d is a decent start, with some good hard rock riffs and a […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[336,1103,7611,2267,334],"class_list":{"0":"post-30675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd","9":"tag-hard-rock","10":"tag-meroe","11":"tag-metal","12":"tag-review"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}