Guitar Music 9 - "Obsession" Review Featured In AOR Land

Lars Eric Mattsson

Review of "Obsession"

By: Roger Brosel

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even years after his last solo album ("Electric Woodoo"), Finnish guitar player Lars Eric Mattsson comes back with "Obsession". In the latest years we have been able to find him with his own act: Vision. But after this parenthesis he releases this, his fourth solo record. Lars is not the kind of virtuoso that every record means a six-string orgy with two-hundred notes each second. Of course, he can play fast and he shows his axe dexterity quite often as well, but Lars is also worried about the songs, and songwriting hasn't been missed in "Obsession". This recording will amuse fans of Malmsteen or this kind of classically trained hard ("Lay It On The Line"), though "Obsession" is not only that. Some Purple in fine form can be heard in "Long Way Home" or the superb "Just a Leo". The Malmsteen-esque moments come with opener "Caught In Your Web" or "Alive". I would only criticize that Swedish ace Bjorn Lodin seems strained in parts of the record, anyway, on the whole his performance is correct. There is also some more AORish moments like "Time And Again" that could remind you of what Lars did in the second Vision album. Clocking over the seven minute mark, "The Road Goes On" is also one of the best moments with a good instrumental part plus a hooky refrain.

Fans of Scando melodic hard rock should check out this one. Virtuosism and some good tunes make this comeback solo album worth hearing. Some news from Lion Music inform that Vision's debut will be reissued in August and the same will hapen to Lars' first solo "Eternity" during 1999.