TUG OF WAR

Tug of War is the sixth ( not counting Time Lost) studio album from american soft progressive metal band Enchant. I wasn´t too content with their last album Blink of an Eye which I found very average and signalled that Enchant had lost their will to experiment with their sound. Tug of War is more of the same. It would be wrong to say that this is below average music because it´s definitely made with real skill. I just feel the songs lack bite. It´s pretty obvious that Enchant draw their influences from bands that I don´t normally consider very hard or heavy. In the booklet main composer Douglas A. Ott sites bands like Journey and Kansas as some of his influences and quite frankly those two bands are not what I think about when I say bite. Enchant have used their formula too many times and their music has ended up being good but not that exciting or innovative. They lack exactly what I like about a band like Dream Theater which is the influence from really heavy bands like Slayer and Pantera.

The music is soft power chord driven progressive metal with melodic synth lines as support. Ted Leonard´s voice is the most special thing about Enchant´s music and he does have a really beautiful voice even though he almost sounds too nice at times. Songs like Sinking Sand, Queen Of The Informed, Living In A Movie and the instrumental Progtology are good songs in my opinion while the rest are pretty average. A song like Beautiful is too cheesy for me though and definitely touches soft rock territory which is a mortal sin in my book.

The musicianship is as always good. New keyboardist Bill Jenkins is a pleasant addition to Enchant even though he doesn´t bring anything new. I guess it doesn´t really matter who´s playing what in Echant as long as Douglas A. Ott and Ted Leonard are in control of things.

The production is Enchant´s most bass heavy production to date and you can really hear Ed Platt´s many great bass lines very clearly. It´s a real treat if you love the sound of a bass.

Tug of War is not my favorite Enchant album but occasionally I take it out and listen to it. This is a sure 3 star album for me. Good but not excellent. I´ll recommend that you get Break or Juggling 9 or Dropping 10 instead. Enchant were at the top of their game with those two albums.