APOCALYPSE NOW

3.5 stars. RANESTRANE are a four piece band out of Italy and concept albums are their business. Usually they base them on movies like this one but they also covered PINK FLOYD's "The Wall" adding some of their own material. Vocals are in Italian except for some English ones here and there. Vocals are good and so are these musicians who play in a melodic style. The liner notes are great as well giving us the lyrics in Italian and in English.

They use quite a lot of samples from the movie and some go on for quite a while. I find them a distraction but then again I'm the guy who usually avoids concept albums. It's all about the instrumental music for me and certainly the vocals can add to that or be a negative. Everything is good here both instrumentally and vocally but man 78 minutes just kills me. After the fourth track we are 33 minutes in and its a very solid 4 star affair but then "Playmate" comes on and I just don't like the lyrics or the music and it sort of goes down hill from there for me even though the tracks that follow it are an improvement.

If your into concept albums and especially this movie you gotta hear this, I think you will love it. I was never a movie guy so I'm sure that affects my feelings towards this record as well.