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Enchant - Break

Artist:	Enchant
Title:	Break
Label:	Inside Out IOMCD 028
Length(s):	58 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1998
Month of review:	09/1998

Line up

Doug Ott - guitars
Ted Leonard - vocals
Paul Craddick - drums
Mike Geimer - keyboards

Tracks

1)	Break	5.04
2)	King	4.33
3)	My Enemy	6.57
4)	Defenseless	4.54
5)	The Lizard	4.44
6)	Surrounded	4.18
7)	Silence	3.35
8)	In The Dark	5.49
9)	My Gavel Hand	5.03
10)	The Cross	6.53
11)	Once A Week (bonus on first pressing)	6.23

Summary

After their "inbetweenie" Time Lost, their new one, Break. The line-up does not feature a bassplayer. On Time Lost Ed Platt took care of that, but he seems to have left. Enchant is one of those bands with a sound of their own. My problem with them arises from the dominance of the vocals.

The music

The first track is quite varied in style alternating between low-sung vovcals and the typically high vocals all sung by Leonard. During the highly sung parts, the (heavy) guitars are prominent, but during the quieter periods the acoustic guitar and keyboards are in control. King is the next one up. The song is a little bit more funky, but also has a lameness to it. On My Enemy the music sounds better. It is all quite typically Enchant, but for instance with some keyboard solo's at the end. Again, the vocals are approached are approached in a more varied, this time by the use of double vocals. This track, almost seven minutes is also the longest on this disc. Defenseless opens with acoustics and has some of the Spock's Beard atmosphere in the chorus: organ and a rather dark sound. The vocal melody is as always quite accessible and thoroughly melodic, going into the direction of later Kansas (Power). The Lizard also has the organ presence, but is quite rhythmic, but strangely also some sense of mystery. Surrounded is a nice track, but little is there to say about it. After the alternatively poppy and moody Silence and we get the thoughtful In The Dark. Thoughtful only at first since later we get quite a long instrumental interlude with keyboard and guitar solo's. My Gavel Hand is in some ways like many of the tracks on this album. While the song is rather slow moving, the drummer likes to play a very loose kind of rhythm making the music sound more full and also a little neurotic. The vocal melody is very good on this track, and towards the end the song builds up to a climax. Certainly one of the better tracks. The album closes with The Cross, almost seven minutes long which has a striking guitar riff at the end. The music fades during this riff, but if you are lucky enough to own one of the CDs of the first pressing, a bonus track, Once A Week was added. Opening with acoustics this is a mid-tempo track, almost balladlike with one of the most striking vocal melodies on the album (in the chorus).

Conclusion

Significant differences you will not find between the album of Enchant. There are now maybe a few Spocks Beard echoes, the use of the vocals seems more diverse, and it even sounds like they use the keyboards more often than they did. But the song and the melody are still central to them and the vocals of Leonard are still hallmarks. These vocals have the power to move, but for this it seems the deepness and beauty of the melodies is not strong enough. As such this album is quite nice to listen to, with some good melodies, and less sameness to them than the previous ones, but I feel they still do not realise their potentials fully.