NOSFERATU IL VAMPIRO

A young italian group from Roma, formed in 1998 and with some high ambitions already from the start, taking flesh through trying to produce their own grandiose Rock Opera.The initial idea was to come up with their own film script and transform it to music, but recognizing the difficulties of such a project RanestRane decided to dress musically Werner Herzog's classic movie "Nosferatu The Vampyre".After three years of hard work and writing down their own lyrics for the concept, the group started performing their concept live and the public received it quite warm.Finally in 2006 the album was released as a self-produced CD.

The result of the hard work was a 2-CD/100 min. production, which is quite impressive, not really on par with the best concepts of Prog history, but certainly rewarding and well-crafted.Unlike what you should expect, the atmosphere of the album is quite smooth with both melancholic and optimistic moments, based on RanestRane's need to create some really nice melodies and mellow soundscapes.The music actually reminds of bands such as PINK FLOYD, compatriots DORACOR and PANDORA, PORCUPINE TREE and Hogarth-era MARILLION.Among the musical themes there are lot of spoken dialogues, based on the story of the film and delivered through a very professional way, not unlike listening to excerpts from a real film.The tracks are quite short but tightly connected with elements from melodic/atmospheric Prog, characterized by relax guitar solos, spacey synthesizers, sweet piano textures, acoustic soundscapes and sensitive, crystal-clear vocals, but when needed the group adds some more energy with harder guitar riffs, dominant organ parts and soaring synths.Thus, the group managed to blend grandiosity and deep atmospheres with calmer musical textures and melody.Sometimes the mass of sample vocal dialogues seem to overcome the music, but you have to really get into the concept's mood to fully appreciate this very nice work.

The hard work of the RanestRane quartet aka Massimo Pomo (guitar), Daniele Pomo (drums), Riccardo Romano (keyboards, acoustic guitar) and Maurizio Meo (bass) eventually produced a very good album.Lovers of concept albums will find another treasure in this release, which is also essential for all fans of modern and melodic Progressive Rock.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.