Band:	Enchant
Album:	The Great Divide
Style:	Progressive metal, Progressive rock
Release date:	September 30, 2014
A review by:	tea[m]ster

01. Circles
02. Within An Inch
03. The Great Divide
04. All Mixed Up
05. Transparent Man
06. Life In A Shadow
07. Deserve To Feel
08. Here And Now
09. Prognosticator

Enchant are a progressive rock/metal band from the San Francisco Bay Area. They have been a part of the Inside Out Music team (Riverside, Ayreon and Haken among others) since 1994. After an 11 year hiatus they are back with their 8th studio album titled The Great Divide. I remember doing an internet search a long time ago for bands "like" Fates Warning (my favorite prog band of all time) and Enchant were one of the results. Not much has changed musically for Enchant since that period because The Great Divide has retained their interesting style of meshing prog rock and metal consisting of memorable compositions, nice vocals and harmonies and great musicianship.

Interestingly, often times when a band decides to come out of the wood work after a huge lay off I am always suspicious about the product being presented. All metal fans have encountered that one bad instance when a band makes a come back only to be a complete failure. The repercussions are harsh: scepticism, negativity and a sour taste in our mouths. All it takes is a single sub-par incident and a really good memory for lofty expectations to become decreasingly low. It may not even be an album that triggers this reflex - for me it was the video game "Duke Nukem: Forever". I now come to expect the worse but sounding like a merchant of doom and gloom this whole paragraph I can acknowledge when a band succeeds in their resurgence, the pay-off is much more appreciated. Thankfully, I get this feeling with The Great Divide (*sigh of relief*).

Musically, the originality in The Great Divide isn't much different for bands of this ilk today. There are many musical directions and contradictions associated with progressive metal music and a different approach would have been cool and refreshing but Enchant have kept it simple, doing what they do best: good fundamentals and not much technicality, which makes it easier to remember the riffs and choruses. Most of the pieces are majestic in presentation, aided by pronounced melody and luxurious vocal symmetry. In fact, Ted Leonard's voice sounds great and is the stronghold for the album. Several instrumental excursions typical with prog metal music are part of The Great Divide's exposition. Nothing shocking, for piano, keyboards and electronics are popular choices, "keynotes," so to speak, and are fusion based with textured guitar interplay. Their is some showmanship, guitar solos are prevalent but thankfully just not enough to irritate me because I still have a hatred for the two minute guitar solo.

However, their are a few punctures in the mold. The lyrics aren't very thought provoking as one would come to expect with prog music - the first few lines of the first song "Circles" are quite cheesy and carry over for much of the album. Neil Peart excerpts they are not. Also, the production sounds a bit "glossy" and "fluffy". The power metal facet feels like it's lacking somewhat. Furthermore, if you are expecting incredible time changes and theoretical complexity, those aspects are generally missing - save for the last song, the all-instrumental "Prognosticator" which contains these elements - in favor of a verse-chorus husk. I suppose all of this leans towards the progressive rock side of things, bands such as Spock's Beard, Satellite and Sylvan have been getting away with it for decades. These "negatives" are trademarks of prog rock and when it's concrete I understand, but The Great Divide cannot decide whether it's a prog rock or prog metal album. I am sure Enchant would argue that's what they were striving for in the genre today and maybe after a few more play throughs I will get it.

I would call Enchant's return to the scene a success. The Great Divide contains over an hour's worth of music and fits quite nicely with what progressive metal acts are doing today. It may have been done before but the music and overall portrayal is something I enjoyed. The album artwork is slick and a perfect representation of the music. I will equate the overall experience with an Olympic event: The Great Divide will not make any event finals, it's not a top 8 performance. Those places are reserved for bands such as Dream Theater, Evergrey and Circus Maximus. But it's definitely a consolation finalist and should be grouped with acts like Hourglass, Dreamscape and Andromeda - in the second to last heat, just missing a chance to go for the gold.