DRAGHI & VAMPIRI

Five years after the very good ''Profondo blu'' Leo Fiore had been promoted to a full-time member, but the long collaboration of Zauber with Mellow Records had already ended.Thus, the new album ''Draghi e vampiri'' was released independently by the band and distributed by BTF.Several guests participated with the quartet of Zauber with former member Gianni Cristiani offering his flute in one track and Fil di Ferro's guitarist Danilo Ghiglieri playing in some tracks as well.

After the proggy and adventurous material of the previous work any listener would expect a normal following on ''Draghi e vampiri'' with an even more pronounced Italian Prog taste.Instead, Zauber's new album recalls more of their recordings from the 80's, as captured on ''Est''.Too many poppy sensibilities, less instrumental passages and cheesy keyboards around pinpoint a group that struggles to find its music identity and not a veteran act of Italian Prog.An untight mix of light Fusion, Pop Rock, melodic Rock with only shadows of Italian Prog was the proposal of Zauber, suffering from childish keyboards, cliche rhythmic tunes and rather colorless singing lines.Some tracks are even closer to forgettable ballads with mellow orchestal themes around.The only true Prog piece on the album is the long ''Sogni'', a calm composition of spacey Prog with Folk and Classical nuances in a rather melancholic mood.The album contains three covers as well, that couls be only regarded as a sign of limited inspiration.The classic ''750.000 anni fa l'amore'' by BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO is performed under the same emotional level with eventually great vocals by Fieri, but suffers from plastic keyboards.''Can anybody hear me?'' by GRAVY TRAIN is a pounding rocker, not close to Zauber's style, sung in Italian and containing good, electrified guitars, but the band fails to capture the raw feeling of the original version.''Il vento'' by LUCIO BATTISTI is propably the best cover of all with decent singing, more dominant electric guitars and some decent keyboard parts.

Zauber's career can only be seen with respect.I hate to say this, but a band, that survived through the storms of Pop, Dance and Techno Music during the 80's and 90's, always producing decent to great works, ended its long trip in a very dissapointing way, exactly at the time Progressive Rock has turned the page again for its own good.Pale Soft/Pop/melodic Rock was the farewell album of Zauber, not recommended to fans of Progressive Rock.Stick with one or more of their earlier material for some intricate music, this one shouln't be on the list of this otherwise very good Italian act...1.5 stars.