The Melee by Walrus Audio is a shoegazer’s wet dream. I love everything about it, from the neon color enclosure design, the user interface and of course the addictive sound. It pairs a RAT-derived distortion with three reverb algorithms and hands you a joystick to smash them together however you like.
I love how opinionated the user interface is. No endless tone sculpting options, just a few toggles to flip between sensible options for tone and decay length. Plus, the very important distortion/reverb order toggle.
Reading top-to-bottom: the Vol knob sits top-left, and the joystick dominates the top-right. Below Vol you get the Tone toggle, then Decay, then the Order toggle, and the bypass footswitch at the bottom-left. The reverb mode selector with its color-coded LED lives on the right side.
The joystick is the heart of it. Pushing it up increases distortion; moving it left and right adjusts reverb mix. Walrus could have given you two knobs, but the joystick forces you to dial by ear rather than by what you think the right position should be. It encourages a certain degree of chaos. In the demo above I’ve set up sweeps for Tone, Decay and the Order toggle so you can hear each one in isolation.
Holding the bypass switch unlocks modulation depth, with the Decay toggle stepping through three levels. The Sustain switch on the right latches a reverb swell for pad-like sounds.
Three presets anchor the core sounds. Addictive Shoegaze runs reverb-into-distortion with reverse reverb and a light joystick radius, keeping the gain tight and the space smeared behind the notes. Cinematic Vibes flips to distortion-into-reverb with the octave-down reverb and a hard joystick push, giving a cavernous, slightly dark tone. Excessive Post-Rock keeps distortion-into-reverb but pushes the decay up and uses the ambient reverb, which opens up into huge washes.
The distortion is derived from the Walrus Audio Iron Horse, which is a RAT at its core, perfectly voiced for shoegaze. The Dry Distortion preset (bright tone setting, order set to distortion-first, joystick pushed hard) shows the circuit on its own without the reverb doing the heavy lifting. There is a plain ambient reverb, an octave-down reverb similar to the Dark Mode on the Slo, and a reverse reverb that really drives the shoegaze vibe home. All three sound wicked.
The Old Blood Noise Endeavors Screen Violence is the other distortion-plus-reverb box on the site. Both pedals combine drive and ambience in a single enclosure with a flippable signal order. The Screen Violence leans toward stereo textures and modulated reverb; its drive is tube-inspired overdrive rather than RAT-style. The Melee’s three named reverb algorithms give you more defined reverb character, while the Screen Violence’s single Screen knob sweeps a broader palette blurring modulation and reverb together. Want a specific reverse or octave reverb in a compact, opinionated package? The Melee. Want stereo width and a more morphing ambient side? Screen Violence.
Shoegaze and post-rock players are the obvious audience, but the Melee earns its place on any board that needs a one-stop texture generator. The order toggle keeps it versatile: distortion-first gives you a compressed, saturated wash, while reverb-first turns the drive into a gate that chops into a decaying tail. The 200mA current draw means you need a capable isolated power supply. Players who want clean headroom or subtle, controllable effects will find it too committed to the noise. For everyone else, it’s one of the most fun and sonically distinctive pedals Walrus has built.
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