Short Reviews [Matterhorn - 2020 - "Outside"]

Norwegian band MATTERHORN is a venture that has developed at a slow but steady pace ever since 2013 as the creative vehicle of composer and vocalist Tommy Sebastian Halseth. The end result is the album "Outside", which was released through Norwegian label Apollon Records at the end of the fall season of 2020. While I understand that Halseth has his main background from the Norwegian heavy metal scene, he explores some rather different aspects of his creativity with Matterhorn. The atmospheric laden landscapes conjured here are much closer to what one might find on the albums made in the Gilmour-era albums of a band like Pink Floyd, with gentle guitar motifs, floating keyboards and a liberal amount of of Mellotron effects coming and going to create layered, majestic and mournful soft eruptions. Complete with some fine guitar solo runs in the same tradition, controlled and often delicate, fragile lead vocals and the obligatory presence of female backing vocalists. That being said, this album isn't a pastiche either, and while using many similar elements the end result is more in the tradition of what is described than a soundalike affair. The elements used are similar, but applied in a manner that create somewhat different end results if you like. Some jazz tinged instrument details appear on a couple of occasions, dampened hard guitar riffs adds a bit more grit a few times, to the point of being borderline metal on one occasion. A small handful of compositions also adds in some details from folk music and world music, with the possibly Mexican or Latin details on opening cut and title track 'Outside' being the most obvious example. And while this may be down to the vocal style on this specific song, concluding composition 'Doden og Meg' did give me some slight associations back to the earlier incarnations of Norwegian band Ym-Stammen. The cut 'Silhouette' probably merits a mention too, but here as the slightly odd one out with associations going towards Americana flavored AOR and, possibly, an artist like Bon Jovi. For my personal taste in music, the most brilliant and intriguing section to be found on this album will be the opening 60 seconds or thereabouts of the cut 'Bruit Blanc' however, as this opening instrumental passage sounds like material pulled straight from German band Eloy's sessions to the album "Ocean", with the rest of this song also featuring some references in that direction. As this was executed in a most charming manner, and in a likable manner to boot, for me this song became a high point of this album experience for me. Matterhorn as of 2020 doesn't really carve out a niche of their own in the progressive rock universe, but their debut album does strike me as a well made and well executed example of open, inviting and atmospheric laden progressive rock of the type that should find favour among many fans of late 70's and early 80's Pink Floyd. Which isn't the worst verdict one can give an album I guess.