Maroon is a vegan straight edge metalcore band from Nordhausen, in Germany which formed in 1998. Heavily influenced musically and politically by mid-1990s vegan straight edge hardcore acts such as Earth Crisis, Day of Suffering, Loxiran and Morning Again, their music also displays influences from metal acts such as At the Gates, Metallica, Sepultura and Slayer.
Maroon released a demo cassette in 1999 entitled The Initiate although all 4 songs can be found on later releases. Their first CD, Captive in the Room of the Conspirator, was recorded at Headquarters Studion in Berlin in spring 2000 and released that year on the (now-defunct) Kerosene Recordings label, featuring such songs as "The Solution' which strongly advocated a vegan lifestyle and support for animal liberation and earth liberation. The band began touring Europe, opening for many hardcore acts including their idols Earth Crisis and Morning Again.
Later in the year Maroon released an untitled split 7" with Absidia on the Crap Chords label, featuring the song "Wasted" from The Initiate. That winter the band went back to the studio to record a split CD with Self Conquest entitled The Key, this time using 101 Studios, also in Berlin. On the heels of this recording, released by Beniihana Records the band went back on the road once more, touring Europe and opening for bands including Heaven Shall Burn and Caliban.
In November 2001 Maroon entered Rape of Harmonies Studios to record their debut full-length, Antagonist, released on legendary US vegan straight edge hardcore label Catalyst Records. Antagonist features a number of hard-hitting songs including the vegan straight edge anthem "Still Believe in What Has Fallen Apart" and a cover of Canon's animal liberation rallying call "Declaration". The album soon became one of Catalyst's biggest sellers in both the US and Europe, leading to more European tours.
After some line up changes Maroon switched labels to Alveran Records in 2003, who then re-released Antagonist. February 2004 saw the band at Denmark's Antfarm Studio recording a new full length album entitled Endorsed by Hate. Following the recording, original guitarist Marc Zech left the band, and was replaced by Sebastian Rieche. The album was released in Europe in June, and between June and December of 2004 Maroon played 60 shows across Europe, including major festivals such as With Full Force and Pressure Fest. In October the band switched labels again, signing to Century Media Records. In early 2005 Century Media/Abacus released Endorsed by Hate in North America. Many of Maroon's die-hard vegan straight edge fans felt let down by Endorsed by Hate due to its general lack of overtly topical lyrics, especially after the inspiring "Antagonist". As opposed to previous releases, the new album makes no mention of veganism, straight edge, animal liberation or earth liberation in the lyrics, liner notes or artwork. Another disappointment for these fans was the change of Maroon's website address from "blank">http://www.xmaroonx.com" to "http://www.maroonhate.com", leading many fans to believe that Maroon have "sold out" on straight edge. In March of 2006 Century Media released Maroon's newsest full length album "When Worlds Collide". Stylistically it was very similar to "Endorsed By Hate", but many of the lyrics returned to their old stand-bys, seemingly in an attempt to appease their core fans. Aside from dealing with veganism/vegetariainism, the first song on the album, "24 Hour Hate", features many lyrics in quotation marks in the liner notes. These are all vegan straight edge hardcore references, and are as follows: "burn it down" (1990s hardcore band with _Hardline members), "destroy the machines" (1994 l.p. by Earth Crisis), "firestorm" (seminal 1993 e.p. by Earth Crisis), and most provocatively the chorus features "HANDS OFF THE ANIMALS" (from the song "Cultured Sadism" by Raid, the second Hardline band after Vegan Reich).
October, 2007 saw the release of their 2nd album for Century Media titled 'The Cold Heart of the Sun'. Like their previous outing, the album continued the bands stylistic change towards Metal and further away from their Hardcore past.
