Maroon - When Worlds Collide

*=Staff's pick	24 Hour Hate And If I Lose, Welcome Annihilation* Sirius Wake Up In Hell Annular Eclipse* Arcturus Confessions Of The Heretic* There Is Something You Will Never Erase* The Omega Suite Pt. II Sword And Bullet Vermin Koo She Below Existence

Genre	Hardcore	Andre Moraweck	Vocals
Tracks	13	Sebastian Grund	Guitar
Runningtime	47 Min.	Sebastian Rieche	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Tom-Eric Moraweck	Bass
Release	27 March 2006	Nick Wachsmuth	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	God Forbid, In Flames, Caliban

German hardcore act Maroon formed in 1998 as a five-piece straightedge band with political awareness and released their debut Antagonist in 2002. And with their new album When Worlds Collide I guess that something must have happened along the way, since the hardcore band they are being promoted as is far from what I think of the genre. Why this band is labelled hardcore now surpasses my intellect, since this album shows a band that has some occasional hardcore influences but offers a much wider range to their music than simply that. Thrash based metalcore with melodic death metal influences is a far better description of this band if you ask me.

The throttle is pushed to the maximum right from the start and seldom is it being released for more than short times. Hard driven tracks with a healthy dose of determined aggression combined with crushing riffs and melodic solos makes me think of Maroon as a more american sounding band close to God Forbid instead of their german heritage. I also imagine hearing a bit of In Flames from the Whoracle period in Maroon, and a likeness with the song Episode 666 comes to mind more than once. Straight and fast tracks with aggressive vocals combined with melodic guitar leads that pop up every now and then carried forward by the riffs make it hard for me to not see some resemblance with mid-period In Flames songs. And in one track even the later period of In Flames can somewhat be heard in Maroon.

With the track Annular Eclipse Maroon show an even more melodic side when Mikkel Sandager from Mercenary on vocals appears as a guest and gives the crushing track a melodic break. Roger Mirret of Agnostic Front appears in the song There Is Something You Will Never Erase that has some of the hardcore influences in it, but it also has some great guitar harmonies that are astonishing and make me overlook the hardcore parts. The best track on the album is perhaps Confessions Of The Heretic that goes on with marching riffs and brings out some real speed with brilliant guitar leads and hardcore breaks complete with chugging guitars and shows different sides of Maroon in a good combination.

Technical playing and well-performed solos are other things that make Maroon separate themselves from the common hardcore bands. They are high on intensity with songs that you can't help but love when you hear them, but at the same time they unfortunately don't leave any deeper scars when you are done listening. Although, in the end I would like to say that this album is musically intelligent metalcore and by the way Maroon do not limit themselves but show a diverse side, I can recommend this album to hardcore fans as well as thrash followers.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	6	8

Summary
7,5 chalices of 10 - Thomas