WOUNDED & TIME LOST

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.