Enchant's Time Lost can be seen as a companion piece to Wounded - indeed, its most recent rerelease was as part of a remastered 2CD set with Wounded on the other disc. The first four songs, in fact, hail from the Wounded sessions - and the original plan was to just put this out as an EP of those off-cuts - but then the band decided that they may as well also take the opportunity to revisit some of their earliest material which they might not otherwise find a good home for.

As such, the last three songs (Interact, Standing Ground, and Mettle Man) in fact consist of pre-Blueprint of the World material, with Ted Leonard adding in vocals and Ed Platt redoing the bass since the original recordings dated from before they were in the band. One might think that this would result in a confused, disjointed mess, but it ends up working surprisingly well.

Perhaps part of this stems from the nature of the songs cut from Wounded. On that release, the band generally shifted to a somewhat heavier sound, with lots of Dream Theater and Rush influence, compared to their sound on A Blueprint of the World; by comparison, the Wounded off-cuts here are all a bit less prog-metal-ish, and so are a bit closer to the band's neo-prog roots than that release was. This already means that they sit fairly naturally next to the earlier material, which of course would have predated their injection of Dream Theater influence into their sound. (The major touchstone I'd identify for both halves of the album, in fact, would be synth-period Rush.)

As you might expect, the fact that this is an odds-and-ends album does mean that consistency is an issue; in particular, I found Foundations sufficiently uninspiring that I nearly gave up listening partway through it. The other three Wounded off-cuts are decent, but as far as Foundations go... well, the kindest thing I'll say is that the decision to leave it off Wounded showed good and sound judgement on the part of the band.

However, I thought things really perked up with the early tracks - Interact is a ten minute epic which really helps make up for the comparatively simplistic Foundations, and Standing Ground and Mettle Man might be the band's best tributes to the Rush sound to date. With the album ending on such a high, it's easy to forgive a slump in the middle of the running order, and I'd say on average this is actually an improvement on Wounded, which given its disjointed origins is truly impressive.

InsideOut released this 2CD compilation of the second and third Enchant albums, in remastered form, in the same year as they put out their remaster of A Blueprint of the World, the debut. Wounded, in particular, benefits from this treatment; as with Blueprint, Wounded suffered a little from somewhat shaky mixing and mastering in its original incarnation, but the sensitive reworking offered here goes a long way towards correcting things, though it doesn't completely fix everything.

Releasing these two albums as a single package is also an apt choice, because you can very much take them as companion pieces - since Time Hurts was originally going to be an EP of tracks cut from Wounded, before the band decided to expand it to album length by digging up some pre-Blueprint material and having Ted Leonard and Ed Platt record new vocals and bass parts for them (since Ted and Ed hadn't been in the band when this material came together).

Taken together, the two discs reflect different sides of Enchant's sound, with Wounded finding them edging in the direction of Dream Theater-esque prog metal (without quite going full metal themselves, ending up in a sort of heavy prog borderland between prog metal and neo-prog), whilst Time Lost is more rooted in their early neo-prog sound, with a healthy dose of mid-1980s Rush for flavour, and as such this collection will offer something to all Enchant fans who don't already have these albums - whether you prefer their early neo-prog style or the heavier approach they subsequently evolved into.

Ninth overall studio album for Arena and third and final release with overall fourth vocalist Paul Manzi, 'Double Vision' came out in 2018 and has since been one of the better received modern neo-prog releases. This album definitely takes on and expands that creative sonic line running across the entire era of the band with Manzi as the lead vocalist - shorter, catchier songs that have a strong classic hard rock edge, whilst preserving the band's progressive pedigree. A fair presentation for a well-seasoned band full of talented musicians, most of which are also involved in several other projects in the realm of prog.

A solid album for sure, but also one whose initial impression fades away after repeated listens, it is one of these records you can definitely appreciate for what it is, but the passing of time, with the ageing of the album, indicates that you do not have too much use for it, when compared to other releases by the same artist. Apart from this, I would probably never understand that horrendous cover art showing this software-manipulated nausea-causing image of a double-eyed, double-mouthed red-eyed man. Kind of fits the music, especially the ominous, spookier tones, but by itself it is a really bad album art.

Yes, there is a major 22-minute epic closing off the album, and I would say that this is the best track on 'Double Vision', but apart from this one and the pretty solid opener 'Zhivago Wolf', the rest of the songs do not excite as much as older material by Arena. Good by itself, but far from being too special, too daring, necessarily groundbreaking, this album takes its righteous spot as one of the fine releases by the Surrey neo-prog masters. Still, I would go on to call it somewhat safe, keeping in mind that this is the band responsible for 'The Visitor' and 'Contagion', two tremendous releases.

This would be the last album from the classic Renaissance lineup; after this John Tout and Terence Sullivan would quit, and the remainder would reconfigure their sound for the much-derided Camera Camera and Time-Line albums.

The band are also attempting to change and evolve their sound here - but to my ears they do so more successfully. Yes, it's a departure from the sound which had largely served them well from Prologue to A Song For All Seasons, but they'd been ploughing that particular furrow to exhaustion; it was time to evolve or die, and though the classic line-up would ultimately take the latter route after this, they do make an honest bid at the former.

Synths are a bit more prominent, songs are shorter and tighter, and in general a lot of the features which had crept into the music on A Song For All Seasons are dialled up significantly. Another factor is that Michael Dunford is no longer so omnipresent when it comes to the songwriting; from Turn of the Cards he'd at least a co-writing credit on all of Renaissance's songs to Novella; and the only songs on Prologue and Ashes Are Burning which didn't have a Dunford credit on them were old Jim McCarty pieces left over from his tenure in the band, and the only song on A Song For All Seasons which didn't was a Jon Camp piece.

From Novella onwards, Camp had been contributing more intensively to the songwriting, but usually in collaboration with Dunford; here, however, the Camp/Dunford writing partnership is more or less dissolved, save for The Flood At Lyons where Dunford provides music and Camp does the lyrics. For the rest of the album, aside from Sullivan's Forever Changing, it's either Jon Camp pieces (with lyrics by Camp himself) or new Dunford/Thatcher numbers.

Camp even takes on lead vocals on Only Angels Have Wings; by this point it had become rare for Renaissance to feature male lead vocals, since they'd realised what an absolute gift they had in the form of Annie Haslam and, quite sensibly, didn't want to mess with that. Aside from that departure, though, the material here doesn't feel as disjointed as one might expect, with all the songs fitting into the general atmosphere of the album and the album itself representing an entirely acceptable development of the band's sound, adapting to a new era without dispensing with their spirit.

One can imagine Renaissance continuing into the 1980s developing this particular musical strand further and further - but the departure of Tout and Sullivan and the end of their old record deal put paid to that, and perhaps made the more radical changes heralded by Camera Camera seem necessary for the sake of survival. Yes, it's less orchestral, but with this Renaissance proved that they didn't need the orchestra to hand to work their magic - and there's ample evidence here that their prog chops remained sharp even in the context of shorter-form compositions. (Just listen to the brisk instrumental The Discovery if you don't believe me.) Azure d'Or is often left out of the classic run of Renaissance albums, and I feel like that's an injustice - it's at least as solid as A Song For All Seasons, which I'd consider it a companion piece two since it's the other album did in that general style.

It took a little while for Enchant to come back to the studio to record their second album, Wounded, and what's immediately apparent when you listen to it is that their sound has shifted in comparison to the style they aired on A Blueprint of the World.

That was largely steeped in UK-style neo-prog - with touches of Marillion, IQ, and Jadis being apparent - with perhaps a bit of Kansas influence on the side, and you'll still hear flashes of that here, especially in the quieter moments, such as the opening of Fade 2 Grey. Keep listening just a touch after that intro, though, and you'll hear the big difference this time around kick in; there's an extensive amount of Dream Theater influence which has crept into their sound (along with perhaps a touch of Rush, but you can't really be all that influenced by 1990s Dream Theater without getting a little Rush in the mix anyway).

It's not that they go prog metal here - not quite all the way, at any rate - so much as they've decided to explore the sonic gap between neo-prog and Dream Theater-style prog metal without entirely entering the territory of prog metal proper. As mentioned, in quieter moments they do seem to return to their neo-prog comfort zone, at least briefly, but even the heavier moments on the album would be the sort of thing which sounds more like a rock band incorporating a bit of metal influence than a metal band rocking out, though obviously the line there's rather fine.

As a result of all this, it's a bit of a transitional album, and also one which feels somehow less fresh than their debut; mix together several different neo-prog influences and you might sound a bit more original, whereas Enchant's main inspiration here seems to have been "gotta sound more like Dream Theater"; by far the weakest parts of the album are those where it sounds like they're about to drift into full clone mode. Nonetheless, it just about won me over - because even when it would threaten to do that, a curveball would come out and shake me out of that feeling, Enchant having retained just enough of their previous style here that they'll occasionally zig where you'd expect Dream Theater to zag.

The album's major fault in terms of execution is the mix on Ted Leonard's voice; in some sections it sounds absolutely fine, but in others it feels a little disconnected from the music; album opener Below Zero suffers especially from this, which is unhelpful because it means the album leads off with a bad first impression. Wounded, along with its companion album Time Lost, got put out as a remastered 2CD set in 2002 by InsideOut, with a similar remastering job as A Blueprint of the World received that same year, and to my ears a credible job has been done of trying to correct for this, but it's clear that there was only so much that could be done on that front.

This is a real shame, because Ted Leonard's vocals are such an asset to the group, so if they aren't being showcased properly then Enchant are really not coming across in their best light. On the whole, I still think this is a good, entertaining album - say three and a half stars, round up to 3.75 if you are a keen prog fan (particularly if you like Dream Theater and neo-prog) - but it just has too much baggage to hit the fourth star.

This is a 2CD edition of Enchant's debut album, given a careful remaster, plus some bonus material - an acoustic version of Enchanted tacked onto the end of the main album, and a whole extra disc of demos giving fans an insight into the band's early years.

I've reviewed the main album separately, so look under that entry for my thoughts, but I will point out that its original release felt a little shaky on the production and mix front. To my ears, the remaster does a lot to tighten this up. Subsequent reissues seem to have used this as their basis, and it really helps tease out the best of this album.

This was my first introduction to Gentle Giant and I found it too confusing. Although I loved bands like Yes and King Crimson. It even resulted in me avoiding GG for a while.

The next time I gave them I try, I started at the beginning. And I grew to understand the premise of the band. I also grew to like them. A re-introduction to this record was a feat for my ears.

The runaway is an eventful and playful piece of music. Great playing. 9.5/10

An Inmates Lullaby continues the atmosphere of the opener, but then much slower and a bit gloomier. 8.5/10

Way of life is an adventure from start to finish. The number of switch-ups is staggering. Love it. 9.5/10

Experience has great guitar solos and the other instruments are immaculate too. 9/10

A reunion is a nice little tune close to the end 8/10

In a glass house ties the album up nicely 9.5/10

This is a 5-star album in my book.

This is surprisingly good. I found it because I went back to Prog magazine's old demo discs and a track by 'Secret Green' stood out from the crowd. It turned out to be the tip of an iceberg! A mix of New Age and Classical, it certainly sounds like what the Enid perhaps should have become. Unlike early Enid albums which in my view are mostly "Miss", this album is a winner. What's more, it's lengthy too, so there's plenty to enjoy. Probably more "Symphonic" than Prog, but that shouldn't be a problem for those who like the 'Symphonic Prog' genre. To me, there are so few great albums from the last 20 years or so, but this release shows that there has been some great music produced after all. It was a revelation, in fact.

Don't let this one slip under the radar. Most of this is not disimilar to the album 'To wake the king' (by Secret Green), which isn't a bad thing, considering how good 'To wake the king' actually is. Being musically greedy, I wanted more though, and I certainly got it with the track 'The Disenchantment'. Richard Wagner taught me what silence can do in music, because it lets so much breathe. 'The Disenchantent will take you on a Classical/Soundtrack type of journey in a profound manner. It certainly puts the "Symphonic" in 'Symphonic Prog'! I always felt that the theory behind Lickerish's old band, the Enid, was to explore the border between Rock and Classical music and both 'To wake the king' and 'Far and forgot' get closer to the ideal than perhaps the Enid have ever done. Five stars? Absolutely. This is amazing music, and I only lucked into it because when the UK's Prog magazine stopped providing demo CD's I started going back over the the old demo discs that I had, right from the first one. As a result I found 'Secret Green' and ultimately two great albums.

In 2006 Roby Munciguerra set up a new Procession incarnation for some live performances and from June to September 2006 the new line up featuring, along with Roby Munciguerra (guitar, backing vocals), also Samuele Alletto (vocals, flute), Stefano Carrara (keyboards, 12 string guitar, backing vocals), Enzo Martin (bass) and "Herman" a.k.a. Max Aimone (drums) plus the guest Danilo Pala (sax) recorded in the Overtone studio in Turin the new versions of the old pieces and a brand new one. Procession's new album, produced by Dario Todesco and Ernesto Ausilio and entitled "Esplorare", was released in 2007 on the independent Electromantic Music label with a nice art work that in some way depicts the intricacies of its musical content...

The opener "C'era una volta" (Once upon a time) starts by a beautiful new introduction with piano and electric guitar in the forefront. From the very first notes you can appreciate the clear sound and the care that the band put in the new arrangements revitalizing the old repertoire with respect and competence. The new vocalist is absolutely up to the task and breaths new life into the story of the child who wasted his time looking for the sense of life, getting old without reaching his goal...

To better underline its apocalyptic, tense atmosphere, the new version of "Uomini di vento" (Men of wind) gives more room to dark organ passages while the hieratic vocals depict the terrible wind that rules on the world and bends nature, guided by its blind will, sweeping away terrorized men and a blurred reality...

Then it's the turn of the melancholic "Un mondo sprecato" (A wasted world) where Samuele Alletto delivers in a very effective way the caustic reflections of the jaded clown protagonist of the piece, perfectly backed by a band able to add colours and emotions in the instrumental sections.

"Esplorare" (To explore) is the only new track on the album and it's a pity since the vitality of Procession's new course is great. It's a piece that deals with the illogical but nonetheless powerful belief that things will change for the better in a new place. The music and words describe a young man that looks for another world to explore, a place where his fantasies will come true. He wears his dreams and sets off but later realizes that is all in vain and begins to feel lonely and desperate while his certainties fade away. He will have to take a step back to find the meaning of life...

The new arrangement of "Il volo della paura" (The flight of fear) is excellent and succeeds in conveying the disquieting feelings that a flock of birds provoke darkening the sky and the need to overcome the gloomy omens that they could represent...

Next two tracks reshape brilliantly, with good taste and respect, Procession's first album, Frontiera, a conceptual work telling the story of a young man who leaves his home and family in Southern Italy searching for a job and a better life in a big city of the North. "Suite 1" includes "Ancora una notte" (One more night), "Uomini e illusioni" (Men and illusions), "Città grande" (Big city), "Incontro" (Meeting) and "Anche io sono un uomo" (I'm a man as well) while "Suite 2" includes "Un mondo di libertà" (A world of freedom), "Un ombra che vaga" (A wandering shadow) and "Solo 1" (Alone).

Then "Fiaba" (Fairy tale) ends the album by painting with new vivid colours the surreal landscape of an imaginary village perched on a mountain that hosts dreamers, poets and musicians. The inhabitants do not need money nor gold to be rich since happiness and peace are their real treasures...

On the whole, an excellent work that gives new life to the old repertoire of the band and leaves some hope for the future.