Review of Maroon - When Worlds Collide

I bet all of those semiliterate Teutonic thrash musicians from the eighties are getting pissed off right about now. See, back in the bad old days, those dudes absolutely ruled the musical redundancy game in the Fatherland, and twenty years later they’re finally being given a run for their money. That’s right, folks; German metalcore is finally beginning to overtake the German thrash explosion of two decades ago in terms of sheer saturation. Maroon are another drop in the increasingly full bucket; When Worlds Collide is, like so many of its peers, an exercise in masterful stylistic execution without a smidgen of creativity to support it.

Maroon are trying pretty fucking hard, and I mean that in the best way possible. Mountains of work have clearly been poured into When Worlds Collide; the riffing is incredibly tight, the songs are elaborate, the vocals are heavily layered and delivered with plenty of the requisite vehemence, and the band technically steps it up to the best of their ability without stretching the genre boundaries too much. Actually, they don’t stretch the genre boundaries at all, and for the love of God I wish they would. Or that SOMEONE would. As obviously well-played and dexterous as this album is, it all breaks down into a big ol’ “same old, same old” stinkbomb. At the Gates/Dark Tranquillity metal parts (the sections more noticeably informed by the latter are the album’s most impressive sections), big chunky Heaven Shall Burn breakdowns, the occasional clean chorus or keyboard segment (as provided by members of labelmates Mercenary), acoustic intervals littered about indiscriminately, wash, rinse, repeat. Even producer Jacob Hansen is doing his best Tue Madsen impression behind the boards.

When Worlds Collide will incite a few incidents of head-nodding or perhaps even absentminded desk-drumming, but really, it’s stale as shit now. A band this obviously talented should certainly be doing something more interesting than this repetitive crap. As ever, metalcore junkies quivering from withdrawal and begging for another hit will probably relish in Maroon’s output, but the rest of you should just save up for something—anything—with more signs of life than this hunk of prepackaged ‘core.

Release Details

Maroon

When Worlds Collide

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