BLINK OF AN EYE

Enchant was new to me when they participated in the 1995 Magna Carta Yes tribute Tales from Yesterday, to which they contributed a too-faithful rendition of "Changes." I found singer Ted Leonard to be a bit grating, so I rarely listened to it. Still, when I saw a used copy of Blink of an Eye for sale about then years later, I decided to pick it up. I wasn't terribly blown away when I listened to it the first time, although I thought that Leonard's vocal style was much more suited for the band's original material. Anyway, I then forgot about Enchant for another fifteen years or so.

Earlier this year I purchased my first Spock's Beard album, Noise Floor. It was OK, though not great. But interestingly, the lead singer on Noise Floor was Ted Leonard. So I decided to give Blink of an Eye a closer listen.

Blink of an Eye is, my opinion, correctly classified as "heavy prog." Depending on where you drop the needle, it can sound like neo-prog ("Follow the Sun," "Despicable") or Dream-Theater-inspired prog metal (especially on parts of "Monday," "Seeds of Hate," and "Invisible"). A few songs, including the album-opening "Under Fire," "Flat Line," and "Ultimate Gift," are AOR-crossovers.

But from top to bottom, Blink of an Eye is risk-averse. The moves seem to be taken right out of the same late-1990s playbook used by Cairo, Magellan (both of whom are on Tales from Yesterday), and more than a few others. To be fair, that playbook is not inflexible; "Flat Line" and "My Everafter" stand out among the more pedestrian songs on Blink of an Eye, the former because of its melody and lyrics, the latter because of its chord sequence. And Leonard's vocals are much better than they were on "Changes."

In short, Enchant plays it too safe with Blink of an Eye. I get the sense that this is a group that could've produced a more inventive set of songs, but chose to stick to a formula. Maybe their other albums are more adventurous