As a sought-after session musician on the Euro hard rock scene, Francesco Marras – you may remember him from his tenures in bands like Screaming Shadows and Tygers of Pan Tang, both ongoing – knows all about versatility, and he uses that broad breadth of experience to good effect on latest solo effort Out of The Fire.

This record is a bit heavier than last offering It’s Me!, with the guitar-slinging protagonist stamping his credentials in the power and melodic metal stakes for anyone to see (or, more importantly hear). Cyber Lust, for instance, which features his Tygers pal Iacopo Meille on vocals, is a prog metal masterpiece, all brooding, hulking riffage and leather-lunged bellow, and it’s an absolute ripper. Elsewhere Francesco proves he still hasn’t got those Whitesnake grooves out of his system with the title track being a serpentine romp helmed by – you guessed it – David Readman.  It’s a fun four minutes, but within the context of the rest of the album it stands out a bit awkwardly to these ears.

Perhaps the best track is Code Red, wherein Marras fuses all his many influences and interests into one very easy to digest gobbet of sleek power rock; The soloing is on point, natch, but you also find yourself marvelling at what an adept creator of earworm riffs Francesco is; You’re never far away from ironclad whistleability, which has to be a good thing, and when Marras teams up with throats slightly more accomplished than his own (Victory man Gianni Pontillo gives a great performance on stirring opening track Carnival of Darkness) you get the feeling that we’re within touching distance of greatness at times. That’s not to say Francesco can’t sing – he can, pretty well it has to be said – but when he sticks to riffing and lets the pros do the singing, you can be pretty sure that all hell’s gonna break loose pretty much immediately…

Good stuff then – great stuff in places – and well worth running an ear over if you love the classic Euro metal sound.

Out of the Fire releases on February 21st.