Enchant - "Blink Of An Eye"
InsideOut 2002
Review by Nigel Bridgeman
Enchant is probably one of the few Magna Carta acts from the early-to-mid 1990s that is still going strong, and it's easy to see why after listening to this, their latest album. Having discarded the 'prog rock' tag a few years back, the band (vocalist Ted Leonard, guitarist Doug Ott, bassist Ed Platt and new drummer Sean Flanegan, replacing Paul Craddick) continue to dish out excellently-executed, moving and thought-provoking rock with a progressive tinge.
Following on from the excellent 2000 effort
Juggling 9 Or Dropping 10,
Blink Of An Eye is something of a disappointment at first – aren't they just rehashing their previous material? However, just like every album the band comes up with it demands further attention with rewarding results. Enchant may not expand their horizons as much as some other bands, but they know what sort of music they're great at and show it in spades.
Every Enchant album has great musicianship, but arguably the band's strongest attribute is their ability to write thoughtful, moving lyrics, which is primarily the work of Leonard and especially Ott, the main songwriter. Whether it's the opening track, "Under Fire" (about being in a kill-or-be-killed situation in war, and the guilt experienced in being the surviving party), "Monday" (an ode to the working man), or "Follow The Sun" (Ott himself says he wrote this as something of a 'rallying call' to the band after long-time drummer Paul Craddick left), you can have just as much of an enjoyable experience reading the lyrics as you would listening to the actual song itself.
It's hard to pick a stand-out track on
Blink Of An Eye, but if forced I would have to go with the album closer, "Despicable" – at first it seems like your normal Enchant song, but a couple of minutes in it changes tempo and becomes an adrenalized and uncharacteristic rocker. Other versions of the album have the bonus track "Prognosis", which I unfortunately haven't heard.
This is yet another great chapter in the underrated career of Enchant. It's not often that a band can continue to release one great album after another which seemingly improve in quality, but this is one such band. Great stuff.
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Enchant - Blink Of An Eye (Limited Edition) from Amazon.com
