TUG OF WAR

Tug of War would be the last Enchant studio effort before a fairly long hiatus, which would be broken over a decade later by The Great Divide. It's not that they outright split or everything - it's just that they stopped making studio albums, despite having kept up a fairly frequent output over the preceding decade.

Perhaps it was high time for a break; I'd thought the album prior to this, Blink of an Eye, was rather forgettable, in part because the departure of original drummer Paul Craddick meant that the band's pool of songwriters suddenly got shallower, with Douglas Ott and Ted Leonard taking on all the songwriting duties when previously they had been shared between more hands, leading to an album with a rather samey sound.

This time around, other hands contribute more - Ed Platt has some credits, as does new keyboardist Bill Jenkins - but Leonard and Ott still shoulder most of the burden, and it feels like the creative well is running dry here. Whilst it has a few more prog flourishes than Blink of an Eye did, this like that album is often painfully generic at some points, and once again I find myself missing the Rush influences which were more evident on their run of albums from Blueprint of the world to Juggling 9 Or Dropping 10.

Just as Blink of an Eye felt like a rehash of Juggling 9 Or Dropping 10, with just a bit less sonic diversity, so too does Tug of War feel like a rote rehash of Blink of an Eye - again, it's pleasant, but it's not memorable. Maybe the band's earlier works had their shakier aspects, but they at least had more personality than this. Taking a good long break to recharge those creative batteries might be just what the doctor ordered.