“He sounds like a cross between John Petrucci and Andy Timmons,” was what a friend of mine said to me. The subject of discussion was the guitar player on James LaBrie's solo album Elements of Persuasion. While the album itself ended up being somewhat unremarkable, I found myself perking up every time the guitar solo spot came around. No prizes for guessing who the axeman responsible was. After several listens, I was able to make sense of my friend's claim – this guy had monster chops combined with a head for melodic and tactful (if a bit deliberate) phrasing. A most effective pairing, I do declare.

However, following that, Sfogli dropped under the radar, peeking up once more to help out the prolific Dream Theater side-project database by contributing on a Jordan Rudess record. It didn't help much that since 2005, we've been bombarded with excellent albums on a regular basis, so attentions naturally drifted elsewhere.

Fast forward 3 years, and word is received that our man has a solo album out. Suddenly, all the goodwill comes rushing back and it's all, “Oh, that dude! His shit was tight! Let's check this out.” So we went in with a good deal of expectation and weren't disappointed. That's a bit surprising, considering how optimism has screwed us over in the past, but looking gift horses in the mouth isn't polite. Plus, I don't know jack about horses, so it'd be a little pointless too.

It seems that, in the time since we last heard from him, ol' Marco has become to the guitar hero community what Rogue is to the X-men. He taps into the essence of the guys that obviously inspired him and displays a remarkable ability to recreate the sound that's associated with them while simultaneously maintaining some of the Sfogli Factor in his playing that prevents the output from descending into complete plagiarism. We haven't received word on whether the dudes who're being channelled are transformed into lifeless husks after he's done, but if that's the case, he should definitely do Jack White or some equally useless wanker next.

The guy wears his influences on his sleeve so brazenly that you can pinpoint them in nearly all the songs. The title track is a dead ringer for Petrucci's Jaws of Life in several places, Memories sounds like a bonus track from that mellow live album with Petrucci and Rudess, Seven and Sunset Lights have generous doses of Steve Morse, plus Spread the Disease and Farewell sound like Timmons worship to me. There's probably several others that I missed, too – Genius is a nod to the jazz-fusion wankers, Texas BBQ a hat-tip to all the chicken-pickin' varmints from down south and Never Forgive Me fills in the spot for obligatory sappy ballad. All in all, he gets everything wrapped up neat and tidy.

Thing is, all this homage is evident in the composition of the song, and it works, because it's not just the guitar hogging all the limelight while everybody else shuffles around in the background. True, the emphasis is on the leads, but there's plenty of rich orchestration and dynamics happening with the rest of the instruments, and that's what elevates this above a lot of other guitar albums. And Sfogli's playing style, despite all his heavy influences, still manages to be his own in the big picture. There's still something very deliberate about his playing – as in, if you asked him to freestyle and jam, I think he'd sound different than he does on these songs. However, he arranges stuff so fluidly and seamlessly that it all comes together beautifully. Not to mention, a lot of times, some licks will come out of nowhere and totally own you so that you're left thinking, “What the fuck was that?” It's a good kind of disorientation.

I suppose it could be a point of concern to Sfogli that he still doesn't have a clear sound of his own. But in honesty, with today's near-saturated world of music, that's becoming exceedingly rare, and I think it's cool that the guy's record plays out almost like a compilation album of guitar gods. Far as I'm concerned, there's always room for stuff of this caliber, no matter how derivative.  I do want to thump whoever did the hatchet job on that album cover, though.



Year of release: 2008
Label:  Lion Records