Review Enchant - Blink of a eye.

5th album and man does this one is great.
Paul Craddick is out and Sean Flanagan is in, with a more nervous and powerful drum set.
Doug Ott finally gets to do all the music.
And the result is quite worth it.
A wonderful collection of songs from the haunting opening track about having killed someone through the hateful last one  and going by the love songs and so on. Every song has a great part in it  if not all great by itself.
Ted Leonard manage to sounds like Hogarth of old, almost whiny but not, powerfully evocative and weepily just what it needs to fill the lyrics with emotion whatever the subject is.
The production is top notch as always.
Can't really  add more except go and buy it but the limited edition with the bonus track with simply is the best track of them all, and is a intrumental. And is as good as it gets... demonstrating the prowess   can be conveyed by music only and with emotion...hell it even makes me misty in the eyes and not that many band can do that.

Definitly for me the best and most complete album so far even with different styles since the first one.
Great job guys !

Afterthoughts 3 : Operation Mindcrime - Queensrÿche

Good old days of yore when metal was just plain hard rock  with straight songs, catchy line and not over extended technical prowess.
Here is another concept album and a pretty powerful one. Deeply entrenched in the desillusional USA of the nineties, the band delivers tracks after tracks of great and catchy songs while Geoff Tate delivers lyrics full of venom and bitterness.
Revolving around a poor guy who gets recruited to fight the corrupt system, he is brainwashed to become a killer for "an underground organisation working overtime".
He is helped (and falls in love with ) a hooker turned sister and such.
Sounds ludicrous ?
The critical lyrics about the society is quite easy and almost- almost- naïve but the mix with the great songs makes the whole stew work (revolution calling  !)
It is definitly the 90ies in sounds and all but yet there was a  great part of it and this one is definitly on the good side.

Review ENCHANT - Juggling 9 or dropping 10

4th (and an half) album from  Enchant. Bass thumping maestro Ed Platt  is back but now it is Keyboard Begninus that leaves the band.

This album firmly entrenches the Enchant sound with many great songs.
The limited edition contains photos, sleeves notes, notes about the songs, and a brief history of the band. Great jumping point.

On the music notes, still the great HDCD sounds with composition benefitiing of the return of Ed and musics from Douglas Ott and Paul Craddick at most.
On the lyrics side, Ted let loose and starts unraveling pretty big texts about life and its many sides.
Going from having trouble with handling life, alzheimer, death and the fear that paralyze you, changing life, loosing innocence.

 Enchant stills continues to deliver good music that begin to get better and better but still does not hold to the first album but this one is a good one and maybe not great songs but lots of very nice ones that makes J9oD10 maybe not a great album but a cool one with a nice emphasis on the part of TED singing and the lyrics.
Here 's my favorite track,  JUGGLING KNIVES.