MAROON – When Two Worlds Collide

The marriage of Heavy Metal and Hardcore created a music genre that was named Metalcore. The great response from the Metal community drove, actually still does, a great deal of bands into the chase of the leading role in this freshly born music scene. During their efforts, most of the bands simply tried to reproduce the successful recipe, releasing albums that sound pretty much the same. Unfortunately, the result ends up being that some of the new bands end up getting lost in the crowd, leaving their albums floundering somewhere in oblivion, unless they fall into that hybrid category where they add elements of diversity and creativity to their sound.

Fortunately, Maroon belongs in the second category described above. The five-piece band from Germany was formed in early 1998, and made the first steps in the form of a MCD and a split EP with the band Self Conquest. Their debut album, Antagonist, earned much attention and gave them the opportunity to tour Europe with some additional shows in South America and Japan. The band’s schedule was really packed with live dates as soon as the next release, Endorsed By Hatred, saw the light of the day. The momentum built upon the stages brought the band to Denmark to record When Two Worlds Collide in the Hansen studios during the autumn of 2005.

“24 Hour Hate” gets you by the throat with fast tempo drums and shredding guitar riffs. Apart from the Hardcore shouting vocals, the song can be easily characterized as Thrash with major influences from the almighty Slayer in the The Haunted performing style. “… And If I Lose, Welcome Annihilation” continues in the above style with the additional support of the ton-heavy rhythm guitars. The classic guitar break, “Sirius” is just the calm before the storm. The latter bears the name “Wake Up In Hell,” and kicks in with a lot of double pedaling and angry screaming. The melodic break just before the very good guitar solo adds some more points in favor of music diversity.

In the riff-driven track “Annular Eclipse,” there is a guest appearance by Mercenary’s Mikkel Sandager. His clean and melodic vocals take the song for a while nearby the Heavy Metal territory enriching Maroon’s sound. The clean guitar instrumental, “Arcturus,” is a short intermission to the Thrash Metal assault that returns with “Confessions of the Heretic” and “There Is Something You Will Never Erase.” In both songs, there are very good guitar solos proving the bands’ intentions to evolve the sound away from the narrow path of Metalcore.

The instrumental “The Omega Suite Pt. II” comes to surprise the listener with the slow tempo, the low-tuned guitars, and the depressing atmosphere that remind of Paradise Lost during the beautiful Draconian Times era. Next, there’s the classic Maroon track “Sword And Bullet” with the fast double pedaling, the melodic riffs, and the screaming vocals … and “Vermin” that leans towards melody with a clean guitar intro that breaks to a headbanging rhythm section with ton-heavy guitars.

After the instrumental, “Koo She,” comes the last album track, “Below Existence,” that starts with some atmospheric and melodic keyboards and continues with a fast and compact rhythm section. The clean guitar break somewhere in the middle simply underlines the aggression in Maroon’s compositions, which finds its way out as soon as the fast tempo returns.

When Worlds Collide comes to prove that all the fuss created around Maroon’s name with Endorsed By Hate was completely justified. The band took their sound to the next level slowly but steadily, creating a more personal sound that will please their fans and will bring some new faces to the already big Maroon “family.”