Maroon - The Cold Heart Of The Sun

I still donÂ’t know if Maroon is serious or just a joke. Their music sure is aggressive and the band already released three full lengths (and some other eps/splits etc) but on stage the band seems to making fun of everything which has something to do with metal. Besides that the band supported a wide variety of metal bands, examples are Strapping Young Lad, Obituary, Korn, Downset, Arch Enemy, Black Dahlia Murder. This band has toured with bands from almost every genre. In 2007 I saw the first show where the band shared the stage with bands from the same genre! And in this year the band is also releasing their brand new album The Cold Heart Of The Sun!

And that is what I am going to talk about in this review. Maroon’s style can be easily put in a genre, Metalcore. Lucky enough there is always a ‘but’, this band is not one of the bands who makes their music more open for the ‘main stream’ metal audience. They actually make brutal music which kicks in at the first note. For Metalcore the riffs are quite complex and they vary a lot in tempo.

Where the last album had some other styles in the music, this one is more focussed on the genre this band is representing. Even though there are more melodic parts (the intro for 'As Truth Becomes Vain' is something new in Maroon's sound) in the music than on previous efforts, it contains non stop bashing. The fun side of the band shows up in the first track where they play a small sample of what I can recall as an old happy hardcore song (which was also probably a cover).

After their previous record ‘When Worlds Collide’ the band is choosing a clearer path on ‘The Cold Heart Of The Sun’. Songs like ‘Steelbath Your Heart’ and ‘For Those Unseen’ are true mosh songs for the hardcore pits nowadays. These Germans clearly know what the extremely aggressive hardcore youth wants. The strange song on this album is the last track 'Some Goodbyes Are Farewells' which once again features a strange genre which slightly reminds me of Type O Negative.

Maroon made a clear choice on and for this record, more melody and touring with bands from the same genre. The Cold Heart Of The Sun is a very good effort from one of the more productive and acceptable German bands. LetÂ’s hope they can continue delivering this quality in the future! Ace!