Review Summary: Here's a promising band that creates catchy and copied music. Despite initial drawbacks, it actually sounds pretty good.
Upon first listen, I really wanted to hate this EP. Zero System, to me at the time anyway, sounded like a band that was trying to cash in on the Scar Symmetry style of melodic death metal – i.e., the incorporation of a screamed and harsh verse that later transitions to a cleanly-sung chorus. In this case, vocalist Adam Cody would seem to reincarnate himself as Anders Friden for the harsh vocals and then bassist Justin Reich would follow and switch over to a Howard Jones role for the chorus that would follow. I soon learned that sets of annoying synths and digitalized effects that seem to be quite popular these days were also a part of the band’s core melodic death metal sound, a fact that immediately turned me off as well. As such, I was prepared to write these guys off as the product of little innovation and mediocre copying skills that were trying to blend metalcore and melodic death metal rather unsuccessfully.
As it turns out, I made myself give Zero System’s
Meridian a few more honest listens, and though the elements of the band’s sound that I detailed above were indeed a part of the music, I suddenly found myself repeating the band’s melodies in my head; later, I even began to slowly mouth the choruses to “Born To Breed” and “King”. I was intrigued – if the band can at least write catchy melodies, maybe there’s something else hidden within these six tracks. Slowly, as if a veil had lifted, the little details the band had placed in the music began to stand out. Whether it was the looping synth in the reprieve of of “Pure Diesel” or the driving, well-played transition from the intro to the verse of “Oceans”,
Meridian began to show itself as a finely-crafted, if not entirely original, listening experience.
True - everything on
Meridian screams stolen or mirrored, but Zero System do the bands that first did it years ago a fair amount of justice. As alluded to, the US band is certainly catchy - all you have to do is let the initial drawbacks that I mentioned above fade with a few listens. As far as instruments go, guitarist Kyle Odell holds to a standard set of flaying and driving riffs that, while sounding a little recycled, do happen to get the job done. If you are patient, he may even reward you with a pleasant guitar solo – see the finale of “Born To Breed” or “Oceans”. Likewise, drummer Trey Harding adheres to the concept of keeping the rhythms for the songs without drawing too much attention away from the vocalist and guitar player; because of this, Zero System is probably better off in the long run. Combined together, the four band members create a competent, modern-day sound that fans of In Flames or Scar Symmetry are sure to love or hate – solely depending on how they view stealing in the context of music creation.
Meridian showcases a promising up and coming band that plays a catchy blend of melodic death metal and metalcore for the masses. There’s nothing new or particularly impressive about the songs here; however, it is enough of a fun listen to get stuck in one’s head for a while. Give or take a couple of years, let’s see if this little brother of In Flames, Killswitch Engage, and Scar Symmetry can grow up and really start to impress us.
