Wounded

When this album came out, I was shocked how blatantly the cover artwork mimics the symbolic heart scene from Dream Theater’s Pull me Under clip. I knew Enchant had toured with DT with their first album but with this artwork I started to feel the guys simply just want to become a DT copy. But as with the first album, this second instalment fooled me big time.

It sounds like the band matured immensely compared to “Blueprint”. They found their own sound, no Rush, no Dream Theater or any other influence in the sound. This is Enchant. This sound in fact followed them through on all the discs making the band easily recognizable.

These 9 songs represent a bit rougher bouquet of progrock, the long acoustic arpeggio passages that characterized the first album are much lesser in amount, we got now basically 3 songs that are somewhat reminiscent of the yore. Also, the atmosphere does not come through as mystic as before.

There are now only three major elements standing out. First, Paul Craddick unfortunately did not record such an amazing drumwork as he did on the first album which is a pity. Secondly Doug’s solo work is classes better than what he did previously. He is not and would never become a fast shredder, instead he delivers some tasty solos which are melodic and borderline technically challenging. The top performance comes yet again from Ted Leonard. This guy is just one damn fantastic singer. If in doubts, just listen to song Pure, from 3:53 he keeps a single note for 21 seconds effortlessly like a male siren. It’s just jaw dropping.

There are some songs and melodies that generate a sort of annoying experience in me, this might also be originated from the rougher approach in song writing. The overdriven guitar riffs sometimes seemingly induced Ted to come up with vocal melodies that don’t entice, don’t trigger you to sing along let alone hum along. Good examples are the choruses from Broken and Armour.

Now there are just 3-4 songs that made it to my list of frequently listened tracks and since I am a big fan of the band that’s not a good sign. I mentioned in the beginning that the guys show a more mature face with this album, however on the song writing front, in my view, it’s a step backwards and unfortunately thus this is my least favorite Enchant album.