About

Alex Mari is an Italian vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.

His original music moves within the territory of melodic metal, shaped by cinematic textures, pop-rooted melodies, and arrangements with a prog-leaning sensibility.

His imagery blends dark, metaphysical, and dreamlike atmospheres with songwriting centered on melody, voice, and the emotional construction of each song. His songs are often conceived like scenes: fragments of memory, dreams, struggles, visions, and inner transformations, where music and visual imagination merge into a single narrative.

Original Music

Alex Mari’s new solo chapter takes shape with Origins, an album born from the recovery and transformation of songs written between the late 1990s and the early 2000s.

Some of these songs had already appeared on Ancestral Whispers, the EP released by Ophiura in 2007, while others remained tied for years to the live dimension or to material never officially released.

It is not simply a re-release, but a metamorphosis.

Old songs are brought back to light with a new artistic, sonic, and personal maturity. Origins thus becomes a bridge between past and present, memory and rebirth, metal roots and cinematic vision.

The Ophiura roots represent a fundamental part of this journey: not just a previous chapter, but the place where many ideas, images, and musical directions first began to take shape.

Through the solo project released under the name Alex Mari, those roots are revisited without nostalgia, becoming the foundation of a broader, more personal, and recognizable identity.

Current Projects

Alex has been the vocalist of Barock Project since 2016, an Italian progressive rock band with international activity.

He is also the singer and founder of Night Pleasure Hotel, a rock/AOR project whose debut album Portraits was released in 2024.

Alongside these bands, the solo path released under the name Alex Mari opens a more personal phase of his original production: a place where roots, experiences, and vision can transform into a new creative direction.

Barock Project, Night Pleasure Hotel, and the solo project Alex Mari currently represent the main expressions of his original artistic activity.

In Barock Project, Alex is part of the line-up as the band’s vocalist; in Night Pleasure Hotel and in the solo path released under the name Alex Mari, his authorial dimension finds greater space, connected to songwriting, arrangement, and the overall artistic vision of the project.

Studio & Collaborations

Over the years, Alex has collaborated in different areas of rock and metal, both in the studio and live.

He is a backing vocalist in Michele Luppi’s band, a role that represents an important part of his vocal and professional path.

He has also recorded backing vocals for Rhapsody of Fire on the albums Legendary Years, The Eighth Mountain, and Glory for Salvation, contributing to notable productions in the international symphonic/power metal scene.

Alex has also collaborated with Max Fogli on several productions, including the album Maledetta Riviera, contributing as author/co-author, musician, and vocalist on some songs, as well as on the singles “Milan Skriniar,” “Lido Nazioni,” and “Notte Rosa.”

His collaboration with Max Fogli also dates back to the album Invidia Kamikaze, released in 2007 by Max Machete / FPC.

Live Highlights

Live activity has always played a central role in Alex’s path, not only as a singer but also as a musician and performer.

With Ophiura, he carried out live activity between 2006 and 2015, bringing original material in both Italian and English to the stage.

In 2017, he collaborated as a live backing vocalist with Secret Sphere at Metalitalia.com Festival and Rock Towers Festival at Estragon in Bologna.

In 2011, he also took part as a stand-in singer in Markonee’s UK tour, opening for Vain’s Hot Stage Lights Tour 2011.

In addition to his original projects, his experience in tribute and cover bands dedicated to artists such as Queen and Iron Maiden contributed to his growth as a frontman, interpreter, and performer.

While these experiences are not the center of his current artistic identity, they are part of the path that shaped his relationship with the voice, the stage, and the audience.

Voice, Instruments & Training

Alongside his artistic activity, Alex has developed a long path of musical study and training.

He earned a second-level academic diploma in Pop/Rock Singing at the “F. Venezze” Conservatory in Rovigo and attended the Jazz Singing course at the “G. Frescobaldi” Conservatory in Ferrara.

His vocal training also includes studies with Michele Luppi through the “Voice Control” method, as well as earlier modern singing lessons with Gloria Aleotti.

In the instrumental field, he studied guitar with Luca Longhini and Michele Canella, while also complementing his main training with self-taught study of bass and piano/keyboards, used as tools for songwriting, arrangement, production, and live performance.

Since 2011, he has also been active as a vocal coach, bringing to his teaching activity the same attention to voice, interpretation, and artistic identity that characterizes his musical path.

Sound

Melodic metal — cinematic textures, pop-rooted melodies, prog-leaning arrangements.

Alex Mari’s sound is born as a meeting point between rock/metal roots, melodic sensibility, and cinematic vision.

Rather than adhering rigidly to a single genre, his music gathers different influences — from rock to metal, from pop to progressive, from orchestral atmospheres to more intimate and visionary suggestions — reworking them into a personal synthesis.

It is a language in which different worlds can coexist without losing their identity: not as simple references, but as colors placed at the service of the song, the image, and the emotion.

Discography

Original Projects / Main Albums

2026 — Origins — Alex Mari
2025 — Live Voyager — Barock Project
2024 — Time Voyager — Barock Project
2024 — Portraits — Night Pleasure Hotel
2021 — The Boxset — Barock Project
2019 — Seven Seas — Barock Project
2017 — Detachment — Barock Project
2011 — BeMind — Ophiura
2007 — Ancestral Whispers — Ophiura

Collaborations — Albums

2024 — Maledetta Riviera — Max Fogli
2021 — Glory for Salvation — Rhapsody of Fire
2019 — The Eighth Mountain — Rhapsody of Fire
2017 — Legendary Years — Rhapsody of Fire
2007 — Invidia Kamikaze — Max Machete / FPC

Collaborations — Singles & Compilations

2025 — “Sick Love” — Night Pleasure Hotel / compilation We Still Rock... The World
2022 — “Notte Rosa” — Max Fogli
2021 — “Lido Nazioni” — Max Fogli
2020 — “Milan Skriniar” — Max Fogli