FRANCESCO MARRAS
“Out Of The Fire”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

8/10

Francesco Marras is an Italian guitarist, singer and songwriter…best known for playing guitar in the heavy metal bands Screaming Shadows and Tygers Of Pan Tang. As a solo artist, Marras has released four album to date – ‘Black Sheep’ (2011), ‘Time Flies’ (2018), ‘It’s Me!’ (2022) and ‘Out Of The Fire’ (2025).

Featuring ten songs across forty four minutes, Marras performs guitars, bass, vocals and drums programming, ‘Out Of The Fire’ boasting a host of guest musicians – singers David Readman (Black Eye, Voodoo Circle, ex Pink Cream 69), Gianni Pontillo (The Order, Victory), Iacopo Meille (Tygers Of Pan Tang) and Daniele Ledda (Twilight Zone, ex Screaming Shadows), (drummer) Pavel Ljubicic, Marco Cossu and Marco Garrucciu. And with Marras and company all having a metal background, if you’re expecting an all out metal album then think again, for ‘Out Of The Fire’ is actually a mix of metal and rock and everything in-between, the band roaming like nomads, searching out new and fresh pastures to feed on, ‘Carnival Of Darkness’ marching into sight with all the oomph of a hard rocking metal swagger! As I just mentioned, the album is a mix of metal and rock – the kinda mix that was prevalent during the eighties when both heavy metal and hard rock bands were all placed under the “heavy metal”  banner. Even the likes of Whitesnake and Def Leppard were “heavy metal” at one point, and with Marras playing in a heavy metal band, he’s likely to always be associated with metal – how wrong we all are! 

The title song ‘Out Of The Fire’, glides in on the crest of a mellow wave, a wave that becomes an irresistible groove metal-ish guitar riff, the sound of nineties rock colliding with alternative leanings taking centre stage as ‘Out Of The Fire’ (the song) ambles on at a mid tempo, very heavy pace – ‘Lost Souls’ bringing an air of early Whitesnake to the fore! The sassy, seductive blues infused hard rock of the British icons features highly here, ‘Lost Souls’ as attractive as it is infectious, Marras and co. delivering three very different sounds across the albums first three songs – ‘Through My Veins’ making it four! The pace is slowed to the slowest heard so far, so slow it’s almost doom in nature – not doom metal but doom rock, if doom rock existed! However, there’s just too much light and happiness here for ‘Through My Veins’ to fully fall into the dark, brooding depths of doom, ‘Out Of The Fire’ (the album) maintaining its nomadic qualities.

Just how varied can the album get? Very, is the short – and long answer, ‘Rise From The Ashes’ hitting the accelerator hard to roar off at full throttle, a mighty metal gallop pouring outta the album right now, every listener and metaller on the planet rocking their heads back and forth to this one! A definite heavy metal song if ever there was one, ‘Rise From The Ashes’ is a mosh pit pleaser from start to finish! It seems that the slower paced, groove come doom rock feel is favoured for the majority of the album, ‘Cyber Lust’ the heaviest hitting of these type of songs, the bombastic barrage here powerful enough to wobble walls and shake buildings to their foundations – not to mention slam every listener to the floor! And boasting a huge NWOBHM influence, ‘Code Red’ plants one foot firmly on the old school heavy metal monitor to gallop on with pace and power, smiles a mile wide appearing on the faces of everyone, and when I say everyone, I mean all eight billion people on the planet!

Adopting a thundering anthemic feel, ‘Soldiers Of The Light’ shudders the ground with immense force to echo the sound of thousands o’ soldiers marching – the oomph here more powerful than a Force Ten hurricane as Marras and co. invite every listener, fan and follower to tap their feet in rhythmic unison with ‘Soldiers Of The Light’. And with a party anthem feel to begin with, ‘Here And Now’ turns heavier after twenty seconds or so to resume the albums penchant for hard hitting, bombastic metal come rock, ‘Out Of The Fire’ (the album) remaining within the realm of metal and rock and everything in-between as the album closer ‘More Than Life’ looms large over the horizon. Featuring the slowest pace of all the songs on offer, ‘More Than Life’ proceeds to become a canter, Marras and co. adding a little progressive leaning to their armoury as ‘More Than Life’ showcases a little balladry and hymn-like swagger too – the albums finale offering more variation than Heinz!

Overall, a mix of metal and rock and everything in-between, ‘Out Of The Fire’ is infectious and will tightly grab the attentions of both rockers and metallers.

TRACKLIST

Carnival Of Darkness
Out Of The Fire
Lost Souls
Through My Veins
Rise From The Ashes
Cyber Lust
Code Red
Soldiers Of The Light
Here And Now
More Than Life

http://www.francescomarras.com/
https://www.facebook.com/FrancescoMarrasOfficial

This review is the property of Iron Mathew, Frenzy Fire, Francesco Marras and Metal Gods TV. It is strictly prohibited to copy any part of this review, unless you have both of the parties’ permission, or are the band/record label/PR company in question. Failure to adhere to these instructions will be considered as Plagiarism and you will be reported to the appropriate authorities

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