Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Marentič, Matic
Label: Self-released
Released: 2015
Length: 61:32
Rating: 3.5/5
Matic Marentič is a hugely promising musician, arranger, composer, guitarist and singer who last September put out his solo studio debut, titled with a single letter: »M«. This 21-year-old from Postojna certainly doesn’t lack ambition or drive, and despite his youth, the kid has already racked up some gold-plated experience. Among other things, he was taught guitar by none other than the »most illustrious« Eki Alilovski, guitarist of Mary Rose, and his father Igor (the mayor of Postojna, by the way) showed him a few of the basic steps into the world of rock, with the two of them playing together in Črna gradnja.
The album »M« brings a bundle of 14 songs, all written by Matic, with most of the lyrics contributed by other collaborators. It’s an album that carries on the hard rock legacy of past deeds by Slovenian musicians, as well as the international hard rock scene. Among younger-generation Slovenian bands, we can file it alongside, say, Pelhan, Forgotten Eden and Broken Arrow, while the album’s very melos and sentiment certainly owe a debt to the influence of older bands like Mary Rose, and before long we also bump into Šank rock and Rdeči Baron, and of course you can’t ignore the influence of international bands with a recognizable hard rock pedigree, like Whitesnake, Mr. Big, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Scorpions and a few others in that vein.
The guy deserves congratulations for his grand scale, ambition and courage. You can tell just by looking at the CD itself. From the design to all the important details, like the barcode printed on the »tray card«, which means you can buy this album at Petrol stations (Slovenian music stores have gone under anyway). As expected, the musical substance of the songs doesn’t bring a musical revolution; the arrangements lean on the tried-and-true melodic hard rock format, where, artistically speaking, you can’t say or discover anything new.
So, Matic is a rocker. The material suggests, especially thanks to the rich guitar playing Matic shows off on the album, that the man could have recorded a fully instrumental album, but he chose to include vocals too. A hefty 13 songs show that the young musician is full of potent ideas, which he has nicely packaged into musical singability, heads and tails, but above all it’s clear throughout that Matic is first and foremost a guitarist. On the album he fired off a few outstanding guitar lessons, which, within sparkling and attractive solo seasoning, keep the level of musicality high the whole way through. So. All in all, the album »M« is a quality studio debut. Especially considering this musician’s short track record, which shows he’s developing into a strong arranger and composer.
In Slovenia we can only be glad that young musicians like Matic still get excited about a genre that is, in many ways, »archaic« and dying out these days, and which, let there be no mistake, is hugely demanding when it comes to arranging as well as performing. Why do you think there are always so many punk bands popping up around here? Because it’s simply the easiest to play. However you look at it, the material on »M« doesn’t hide a few moments of beginner’s naivety, which are totally painless and, thanks to Matic’s drive, actually endearing. Though you can’t dispute the effort for a second and it deserves all respect, some parts of individual compositions could be musically even better defined, optimized in terms of better fit between verse, chorus, pre-chorus and mid-eight passage. So there’s still some room left in the future for achieving more compact songs. One more factor plays into this. A few songs are even a touch too long, and let’s be honest, ten would have been enough. So trimming the arrangements, picking the best ideas among the best and polishing that selection leads to a potential upgrade of the musical vision. That’s more or less advice for the future. Melodic hard rock can be a real »dog« if it doesn’t »grab« you on the first go. Nuances can decide here, say, wrongly placed harmonies in multi-part vocal lines in the arrangement, etc… So the album still hides some untapped expressive arsenal, or reserves. And as said. The genres of hard rock and AOR are extremely demanding undertakings in terms of production and compositional arranging. That’s why you can’t dispute the great heart and courage Matic poured into this album.
Vocally, Matic is a solid singer. But not a brilliant one, just as neither Steve Vai nor Joe Satriani are brilliant. He’s on pitch in the melodies, and he handles the meter perfectly well too. It’s only his vocal power that fluctuates, and he doesn’t manage to develop it to its optimum. But then, from Matic, whose voice is still developing and growing, you couldn’t expect, let alone demand, that he’d handle vocal duties at the highest level, or at the level of Sergej Škofljanec (San Di Ego, ex-Requiem) or Žanil Tataj – Žak (Mary Rose). So the guy sings solidly, but he’ll still have to eat a few more plates of homemade žganci.
»M« is, as a studio debut, a very nice musical achievement, especially given the impoverished Slovenian hard rock scene, and Matic and the friends who helped him record it can be more than proud of it and can credibly represent it on Slovenian stages with the greatest of pleasure. Given the exceptional musical talent embodied in this musician’s character, we can expect rapid artistic maturing in the future too, which will surely show on Matic’s future studio documents. Until then, let’s wish him all the luck and plenty of creative drive.
Lineup
Matic Marentič – guitar, vocals
Jernej Štajnrajh – keyboards
Tadej Lukić – bass guitar
Jan Štefančič – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Igor Marentič – bass guitar, backing vocals
Klemen Ogrizek – drums
Aleš Turk – keyboards
Marino Legovič – keyboards
Jadran Ogrin – backing vocals
Production
Jadran Ogrin
Track list
1. Besede
2. Le poglej jo
3. Srčni kralj
4. Kdo
5. 005 (bonus FENS 2013)
6. Hočem le
7. Za vse dneve
8. Pravi čas
9. Profesor
10. Princ na belem konju
11. 1:05 (bonus)
12. Enaki
13. Knjiga vseh mojih predstav
