Merauder have been an underground staple since the band's early demos and legendary shows at clubs like L'Amour's in Brooklyn, N.Y. The group's debut album, 'Master Killer,' remains one of the most heralded releases in the metalcore scene, with songs like 'Life Is Pain' and the title track still being used as stylistic templates for the scene. Merauder recently released 'God Is I,' their first full-length album in over six years. Noisecreep spoke with vocalist Jorge Rosado and he had a lot to get off his chest.

'God Is I' is one of the most compelling album titles we've seen in quite some time. What exactly do you mean by it?

It means do it yourself and stop putting your faith in something else besides yourself. It's up to you to make your life heaven or hell and not God or Satan.

The album is described as your most focused since your first album, so I have to ask why weren't the last few? What was going on in the band at those times?

A lot of bad s--- happened, homie! Drugs, violence and anything else you can think of happened. The label stuff didn't help. We reached a point where we got weak from all of the stress of trying to keep Century Media Records from robbing us. They even ended up owning Merauder's older albums and f---ing us badly. But they really ended up screwing themselves, because when you look at them now, they're struggling to exist. We also had the tragedy of our guitarist [Javier 'Sob' Carpio] dying and Anthony, our lead guitarist, was homeless and out on the streets. Things have been nuts for us, so I knew we had to get it together at some point.

What did you draw from when you were putting together the lyrics on this album? We heard that your drummer was diagnosed with cancer.

He wasn't really our drummer, but more like our good friend helping us out but you would have to talk to him about his condition. We really didn't know much about it till after he stopped playing. But I drew from all of my past experiences and drama. I'm just letting people know that this is our house! No matter what happens, Merauder can't be stopped because we are more than just a band. Our reputation speaks for itself. We keep it on the streets where it came from.

Merauder has been playing a hybrid of metal and hardcore since 1990, but these days there seems to be thousands of bands doing the same. What's your take on the sound and the scene around it?

Whatever bro, it's cool. Very few bands have gotten it right so far. While everyone else is just playing straight-up death metal with typical, slow crunched open chords and dance parts. Just because you're wearing army pants and have short hair doesn't make you metalcore! I don't even wear that s--- bro! It's all white tees and Dickies for me homie! But what metalcore is really about is having the aggressiveness of hardcore and the groove of metal. Now think about that for a minute. It's not the other way around. We metal up our hardcore while grooving out the metal and that's Merauder papa!



Do you think stubborn metalheads have opened up to Merauder through the years, or do you still face resistance that way?



People might talk trash about us because of the way we look and dress. But metal was never about one typical image, if you look at the history of music. It's always about the sound. While others are straying off into different categories, we keep riding the line down the middle. We are straight and to-the-point. You can never get lost in our songs. All of the haters will soon bow down when they see me riding into their towns on a black horse with my gold crown (laughter). All hail the Master Killer! This weed is really good (laughter)!

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