While I was searching the web for info on MAROON I came across the METAL TEMPLE reviews on the previous albums. It is funny, but I am here to add another one that it seems it won't be that bad. Well, let's see.
MAROON is a German band that is struggling to make a stand in the over-crowded Metalcore scene. Indeed, this scene truly suffers from originality by bands that simply reproduce the successful recipe from the past. It is also common truth that Metalcore has little to offer music-wise through the predictable structure and the jumping up and down attitude. Lately, there has been an effort to extend these restricted boundaries in search for something -at least- fresh.
MAROON belong to this category, since they have been trying to create a sound that will differentiate them from the others. Personally, I liked Endorsed By Hatred and most of When Worlds Collide, mainly due to the strong Thrash Metal foundations that ruled the guitars. Well, Order is nothing way too new for my ears. The song are guitar based with distinct riffs that look towards the early THE HAUNTED and SOILWORK days paying the proper respect to the Gothenburg sound. The Thrash backbone offers some quality headbanging time in the double guitar harmonies of Erode or in the ANNIHILATOR riff influenced This Ship Is Sinking. The Metalcore label still haunts the album with the screaming single-sided vocals that I believe spoil the entire atmosphere.
The band has move forward guitar-wise with very good solos and METALLICA based rhythm structures but everything goes to hell (in the bad way) after the vocals have entered. Take for example Leave You Scared & Broken; this song is a killer if you leave the vocals aside. The twin guitars hit you in the face with a SLAYER-like heaviness and the catchy riff that can make you move in the Metal way. But the overused vocals kill the headbanging feeling and make you thing 'enough with the Metalcore.' Something slightly new is revealed in Children Of The Next Level that almost sets foot on the Black Metal scene with shredding riffs and high pitched screams. This seems like a nice move and I think that the band can move to this direction to earn the distinction they have been searching. Schatten is the closing track and comes with a surprise; the band uses for the first time German lyrics that I have to admit sound pretty cool combined to Thrash profile while the clean guitar break adds some diversity.
So, there you have the third MAROON review in METAL TEMPLE that actually is not that bad. The band seems to be working on the studio towards something different and for this they deserve some credit. Watch below the video for (Reach) The Sun from the previous album.

(Reach) The Sun