In fall 2023, Matt Palmer, Jordan Sweet and Izzy McIntrye, the three high school students who are members of Under the Horizon, played together for the first time. 

In August 2024, the band opened for Great White, playing in front of  600 people at Tupelo Music Hall in Derry. The next night, they opened for a sold-out Queensrÿche show. 

“I screamed for an hour when I found out we were playing Tupelo,” said McIntyre, who sings and plays bass guitar. 

“The last five minutes before we went on stage, there were just a lot emotions. Matty was tweaking. Izzy was panicking, and I was just jumping around. There were a lot of nerves going in backstage,” Sweet said. 

“Then we just went out there and played all these songs we had been playing together for half a year,” McIntyre said. 

Palmer, a drummer and singer, is from Bennington. Sweet, who sings and plays guitar, lives in Greenfield. Both are students at ConVal, and McIntyre is a senior at Goffstown High. The invitation to open for Great White came just six weeks after the band released their first EP, “Under the Horizon.”

The album, which is all original songs, was recorded in April. The digital version of the EP also includes the band’s version of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” by Black Sabbath.

“We sent our tape in to them not really expecting anything, just kind of thinking, ‘What if?’ ” Sweet said. 

Palmer said the band was startled at how fast they heard back from Tupelo Music Hall.

“They got right back to us and said they had some opportunities for us,” he said. “It was awesome. I literally had tears running down my face when I told the others the news.” 

Palmer said playing before such a large audience at what was only their second gig was surreal.

“We went from playing our first gig at Rochester Performing Arts Center for like 20 people to playing for 600 people in Tupelo,” he said. 

The band members agree that what happened after the show was even more surreal, when hundreds of fans mobbed the teenagers, asking for signatures.  

Since their two shows at Tupelo, the band has had steady gigs around New England, including in Manchester, Boston, Maine and Rhode Island. Spring will see their first show in Vermont, and on March 28, they’ll be playing at the Bay State Brawl in Hyannis. 

McIntyre said being recognized by fans is the strangest thing that has happened since starting the band. 

“Six months after we played Tupelo, we went to see WASP in Boston, and some fans recognized us from that show,” McIntyre said. “It was crazy.” 

The seeds of the band were sown when Palmer first saw McIntyre perform at a “Battle of the Bands” event in 2022 at the Hillsborough County Fair. A year later, at the same event, Palmer’s and McIntyre’s bands met again. By this time, Palmer was looking for a different band, and he approached McIntyre about playing together or doing a potential side project.

“My band was falling apart, too, so when Matt asked me, it was just like a door opening,” McIntyre said. 

Around the same time, Sweet and Palmer met through the ConVal rock band Room 301.

“Jordan and I got along really well and had this great chemistry playing together,” Palmer said. “I thought maybe the three of us could get something together.”

Sweet recalled Palmer telling him about McIntyre for the first time.

“He texted me and was like, ‘There’s this girl who sounds exactly like Ann Wilson from Heart and she’s really good and we should go do something!’” Sweet said. “And now we’re here.” 

“There was just a chemistry between us from the first song. It was like, wow – this feels right,” Palmer said. 

All three members of the band have always been musical. McIntyre played the cello since the age of 8, and Sweet was in the South Meadow School jazz band starting in seventh grade. Palmer has been in various bands since he was 11. All three credit their middle school and high school band and music teachers with encouraging them. 

Matt’s father, Mike Palmer, owner of Mike’s Towing in Bennington, worked briefly in the music business and is the band’s manager. Jordan’s grandfather Rick Sweet is the band’s social media manager. The band’s practice space is in the basement of the Palmer home near Crotched Mountain Ski & Ride. 

Under the Horizon is a hard rock/metal band, which the three members say is unusual for people their age.

“We are not in a popular genre,” Sweet says. 

“Not a lot of kids our age like metal,” Palmer said. “They are like, ‘It just sounds like screaming, the guitar is so loud!’” 

Palmer cites Metallica and Pantera as his primary influences. Sweet said his role models are Ace Frehley from Kiss and Van Halen, while McIntyre said Nancy Wilson is probably her biggest role model, but that she gets inspiration from “everywhere.” McIntyre said she ended up as lead vocalist for her old band because “no one else wanted to sing.” 

“We’re a three-piece band; we’re all equal. We all sing, we all play,” Sweet said. 

“We all sing lead vocal to keep it interesting,” Palmer said. “I think it’s unusual that we all share. There isn’t one person who dominates. We’re totally collaborative. We all write, and then we all get together and make it work.” 

“It’s like organized chaos, but it works really well,” Sweet said. 

The band members admit that balancing school with ever-increasing gigs can be a challenge, but all have kept up their grades as their schedule has gotten busier.

McIntyre and Palmer, who are seniors, have one more semester of high school, while Sweet is a junior. 

After graduation, McIntyre is headed to Keene State to study music, while Palmer plans to work, but all three are committed to Under the Horizon. 

“Keeping the band going is our No. 1 priority,” Palmer said.  

Under the Horizon is putting the finishing touches on their new album, which will be released in the spring.

Their next gig is Jan. 11 at Charleez Hill in Lebanon, Maine. On Jan. 25, they play at Bad BRGR in Manchester. For information, go to underthehorizon.org/events.