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BREAK

Enchant

Heavy Prog


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Enchant Break album cover
3.59 | 110 ratings | 12 reviews | 10% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

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Studio Album, released in 1998

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Break (5:02)
2. King (4:33)
3. My Enemy (6:57)
4. Defenseless (4:54)
5. The Lizard (4:44)
6. Surrounded (4:18)
7. Silence (3:35)
8. In The Dark (5:49)
9. My Gavel Hand (5:03)
10. The Cross (6:53)
11. Once A Week (6:23) *

* Absent from US edition

Total Time: 56:32

Line-up / Musicians

- Ted Leonard / vocals, bass (1)
- Douglas Ott / guitar, bass, vocals (1,3), producer
- Michael "Benignus" Geimer / keyboards
- Paul Craddick / drums, piano (11)

With:
- Bob Madsen / bass (5)
- Tony Mariano / bass (11)

Releases information

Artwork: Thomas Ewerhard

CD Inside Out Music ‎- IOMCD 028 (1998, Germany)
CD Inside Out Music America ‎- IOMACD 4002 (2000, US) Omits track #11

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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Buy ENCHANT Break Music



ENCHANT Break ratings distribution


3.59
(110 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(10%)
10%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(41%)
41%
Good, but non-essential (36%)
36%
Collectors/fans only (8%)
8%
Poor. Only for completionists (5%)
5%

ENCHANT Break reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Mellotron Storm
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars June 27 has been an important date for me since 1980 when I went out with my future wife for the first time. As I recall, I introduced her to the green party I supported back then, and we had a blast just driving around listening to music and going to the beach. She did ask me to turn the music down at one point which was funny because back then I had only one volume setting.Ten ! I also remember standing on the beach looking at the water, she was behind me sitting on a picnic table when I turned around she was laughing her head off, and wouldn't tell me why until months later. Apparently she was sitting on the edge of the table and lost her balance and did a header into the sand, and she was too embarassed to tell me being it was our first date. We ended up getting married on this same date as well (a few years later) even though it fell on a Monday. I tell you all this because my father in law who has lived with us for the last 2 years died on this date (this morning) at 6 am. It kind of changes the significance of this date to me now as you can imagine. I had this disc all set to review this morning and decided to go ahead with it anyway.

The band thanks Mike Portnoy and DREAM THEATER for "continual backstage passes & letting us lubricate your audience !" I have to tell you that I love the sound these guys create. Very melodic with a very high level of musicianship from each member.These guys can play ! "Break" has lots of atmosphere to open and when it kicks in it really reminds me of INCUBUS. This is such a great contrast,the atmospheric passages with the powerful, heavy sections that just smoke ! The drumming really stands out as well as the synth work. "King" has a RUSH-like intro as melodic and tasteful guitar melodies follow. Nice guitar solo after 3 minutes. The bass and drum combination is killer ! "My Enemy" is where Ted shines on vocals as a beautiful guitar solo comes in .The bass is prominant again and the synths provide a nice backdrop. A mournful guitar solo to end it.

"Defenseless" has a cool rhythm with synths that is contrasted with a heavier passage where Ted singing his heart out. Some ripping guitar after 3 minutes. "The Lizard" has synths,grinding guitars and steady drumming. The guitar melody 4 minutes in is great. "Surrounded" has a beautiful guitar solo 3 minutes in, but the drums and synths really shine on this song. "Silence" has a Lifeson like solo early,and the drumming to end it is a highlight. "In the Dark" has these RUSH-like synths 4 minutes in. Wow ! And the drumming is again amazing ! "My Gavel Hand" has a real catchy melody with incredible guitar work that reminds me of Vai. "The Cross" has more great vocals as the guitars grind relentlessly away. Blistering guitar solo 4 1/2 minutes in.

This is easily a four star record for me. Favourites are "Break" and "The Cross", but all the songs are so good. Music to smile by.

Review by progrules
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars I always considered this album by Enchant their least effort. And it's still a very good album, so that endorses my statement that Enchant just produces quality, they simply can do nothing else. So why I think this is their least ? For one thing: a real highlight is lacking on this album. They are all good songs, a few just a bit better than others. Examples of this are My Enemy and Defenseless but I also have a soft spot for The Lizard and My gavel hand, don't ask me why. It sometimes is the case with certain songs. Most of the others are just good no more than that. That means no spectacular instrumental performances or impressive ballads like on some of their other albums. Still recommended for Enchant fans, that's for sure.
Review by UMUR
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars The third regular studio album ( I donīt count Time Lost as a regular studio album) from Enchant saw them changing their style. Break is a well chosen title as the musical style changed if not radically then at least a lot. Off with the long hair and on with the emotional attitudes and more simple songs. I found the first couple of albums from Enchant to be good allthough nothing special but I must say that with Break they hit the right notes to satisfy my hunger for emotional progressive metal.

The first time I listened to Break was at a record store I used to frequently visit. When the title track started I thought wow this sounds like Fates Warning ( Parallels, Inside out period) and after I had listened to the whole album it was still my impression allthough there are other influences too. This is definitely not a ripp-off of Fates Warning but there are many similarities like the simple, subtle way of playing while still maintaining a high technical level, Ted Leonardīs Ray Alder like singing style and the lyrics about broken relationships. The biggest difference between the first two albums from Enchant and Break is the lack of lead guitar and keyboard melodies which Enchant has almost completely abandoned ( There are guitar solos though). The guitar has a very full sound and predominantly plays rythm while the keyboards accompany the music instead of leading it as was sometimes the case on the two first albums. This means that there are much more focus on the vocal melodies which on Break is much stronger and memorable than on both Wounded and A Blueprint of the World. The technical drumming from Paul Craddick is also toned down to a more tasteful style ( some would call it more boring, but I think itīs great).

There are some truly excellent soft progressive metal songs on Break which includes the title track, King, My Enemy, The Lizard, In the Dark and My Gavel Hand. The rest are also great songs and Break generally holds a high compositional level. The technical level is also very high, but donīt expect instrumental runs at the speed of light or strange tempo or time signature changes because Enchant is not that kind of progressive metal band. Like Fates Warning they rely much more on emotion and beautiful subtle instrumental parts.

The musicianship is great on Break and once again I have to mention Paul Craddick for his drum skills. He is the backbone of Enchant and even though he has left behind his crazy technical playing his style is still excellent. Paul Craddick also had a big part in composing the songs on the first four album from Enchant together with guitarist Doug A. Ott. Ted Leonard also needs to be mentioned as he has really stepped up and improved on his vocal performance. His high pitched singing was a bit one-dimensional on the two first albums but on Break he he begins to use a lower register of his voice while still maintaining his high pitched singing style to great effect. The more simple and memorable vocal lines has also helped me to enjoy his voice more. The keyboards from Mike Geimer are also very tasteful while guitarist Doug A. Ott full and warm guitar style is also appreciated greatly by this reviewer.

The production is for the first time on an Enchant album really good. Itīs a great late nineties production. Very warm and stripped of anything but the most important things.

Break was my first encounter with Enchant and I was enchanted right away. Had I reviewed Break back then I would have given it a 5 star rating, but I must admit that I donīt listen to Enchant very often these days. That doesnīt mean that Break isnīt an excellent album, but itīs hardly essential. Iīll give it 4 stars as I enjoy it every time I listen to it even though itīs not so often anymore. Fans of Fates Warning ( Parallels and Inside Out) should take a listen to Break as well as itīs successor Juggling 9 or Dropping 10 as there are some really great songs that at least to me sounds like itīs made by a brother to Fates Warning without sounding like a ripp-off.

Review by Cesar Inca
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Right after the impressive starting poin of A Blueprint of the World, the effective mixture of 80s-style neoprog, melodic prog metal and North American prog (Kansas, Rush) thata Enchant used as their distinctive banner took hold of a well-defined, recognizable scheme. The only other effort with the first (and classic) line-up was the demo collection Time Lost, while other brilliant Enchant efforts such as Wounded and Break underwent unstability problems in the line-up: the case with Break was that the bass player was gone and the rhythm section didn't sound as solid as before (this does not mean that Ott or Leonard are not proficient bass substitutes). On the other hand, the return of Benignus as a permanent keyboard player provided that sort of keyboard-based density (layers, orchestrations and occasional leads) that function so well as a complement to the prominent guitar deliveries (leads, harmonies, riffs, rhythm), missing in a large portion of Wounded. You can notice that the drummer's input is more enhanced in the mix than on previous albums. You can also notice that the band has assuymed a tendency toward shorter compositions, although the writing and arrangement strategies clearly show a continuation of the controlled complexity that had worked so well in Wounded. There may be a slight flirtation with standardized melodic rock and grunge-like guitar riffing in places, but mostly this is essentially a prog rock album from beginning to end. All things considered, the overall balance has to be positive, once again, for Enchant. The namesake opener is arguably the most robust album opener in Enchant's history, romantic in a menacing manner while the guitar shifts between relaxed arpeggios and heavy riffs. 'King' sounds like something that could have appeared in Marillion's Season's End or Holidays in Eden - definitely, Enchant can capture the Marillion heritage better than the original band, and keep it in an exciting level, both compositionally and performatively. Next is 'My Enemy', that comprises one of the most moving Leonard-penned lyrics and one of the most appealing Benignus-written melodies: the deceitful simplicity that encapsulates the track's melodic development augments the emotional depths of this story of a heart incapable of coming to terms with a finished relationship. The interlude with the guitar and synth alternating their solos is simply haunting. From then on, things begin to get a bit average wih the sequence of tracks 4-7: the hints to the new closeness to pop-rock and/or grunge are more evident in these items. The same goes for the very sentimental 'Once a Week', that may remind the listener of Roll the Bones-era Rush. 'My Gavel Hand' is an effective semi-ballad that brings us back to the recurrent moods of the Wounded album, while 'The Cross' recaptures the overall ambiences comprised in this album's first three tracks. While this repertoire is not as colorful as those contained in Blueprint, Wounded or Time Lost, Break still has an undisputed level of Enchant excellence. Those who love prog metal, neoprog and everything inbetween shouldn't miss this band or this album.
Review by b_olariu
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Enchant is one of my fav bands ever, since I've hered them for the first time more then 10 years ago I was instantly hooked on their music. I have a soft spot for them and no one gonna change that even some of their albums like this one Break are not so excellent like I considered top notch and their best from the catalogu Juggling 9 or dropping 10 and Blink of an eye. Break from 1998 is an album in good Enchant tradition, the whole musical spectrum band developed over the years and aswell will keep on next releases is here. Heavy prog well performed with tight musicianship, maybe here is less captivating moments and inspired passages as on next albums. The voice is ok, Ted leonard has a clean perfect tone of voice for such music, the instrumental parts are ok most of the time, the songwritting is littless convinceing here, but not bad at all. The best piece is My enemy , one of the best pieces Enchant ever created with excellent interludes between guitar and keyboards and very worthy vocal parts. Definetly desearves from me 3 stars, good but nothing really special like next two albums who are absolutly the peak of their career and among the best albums in that period. Enchant remain very consistent band over the years with more then 20 years in this field and respectable albums. This year they will release a new album after more then a decade pause. Can't wait. So, 3 stars, good, fans of Tiles, at some point Rush can listen to this band worth every album.
Review by SouthSideoftheSky
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Symphonic Team
3 stars A break with what came before

Enchant started out with a style somewhere between Neo-Prog and Progressive Metal, a path that they followed on their first three releases (1995's A Blueprint Of The World, 1996's Wounded, and 1997's Time Lost). This fourth effort by the band breaks with that style and fits better the category in which the band have been counted here at Progarchives. Yet, to be honest, the progressive elements are less apparent. "Heavy melodic Rock" would not be far off as a description. They no longer sound like Dream Theater, but more like 90's Rush and a bit like 90's Fates Warning. Keyboards are much less prominent in the sound here and guitars are dominant. There is less focus on instrumental breaks and more focus on vocals and riffs.

I find this album listenable, even likeable for the large part. But it is hardly impressive. It is better than some of the band's future releases, but it does not compare favourably with what came before. Another problem with this album is that the songs are rather similar to each other in tone and style and towards the end of the album it begins to feel rather samey.

Break is a worthy addition to a collection that already holds Enchant's first three albums, but it is far from essential.

Review by Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Enchant started out on A Blueprint of the World with a neo-prog sound reminiscent of Marillion, IQ, and Jadis, before moving to a sound on Wounded which was more reminiscent of Dream Theater. (A certain Rush appreciation would be the common thread between these styles.)

Their third album, Time Lost, would consist of off-cuts from the Wounded sessions and material from their early years; whilst I thought it was good, and in fact a bit more consistent than Wounded, it also didn't really push their sound forwards (quite the reverse, in fact).

By comparison, Break finds them shifting their sound still further. The neo-prog stylings of their early years are now obscured. Dream Theater is still a detectable influence, but they've steered back from the outright imitation which Wounded threatened to descend into. Filling the gap is an injection of modern melodic hard rock - the sort of thing which lingers on the borderlands of metal without crossing over entirely - but executed with prog sensibilities when it comes to song structures and execution.

Just as Wounded/Time Lost would see them supporting Dream Theater on tour, Break would give the band the opportunity to support the likes of Spock's Beard and Marillion. This is an apt pairing - because all three bands started out in a retro-prog or neo-prog style but would all end up by the late 1990s evolving in a direction where, whilst prog was still an essential component of their sound, they were also unafraid to blend it with much more modern styles and techniques - particularly from indie rock or alt-rock - to offer something new.

The parallels in terms of overall approach would be a big clue to the sort of underlying compatibility of musical philosophy which would lead to Ted Leonard joining Spock's Beard as their new lead vocalist over a decade later. At the same time, with each band selecting different aspects of the prog past to call on and different aspects of present-day music to incorporate, their execution of that overall strategy varied. In Enchant's case, they show a remarkable versatility; Douglas Ott's lead guitar work can go from Steve Rothery-esque soloing to alt-metal shrieking and back again in the course of a single song, for instance.

Once again, Rush seems to be a regular touchstone, with pieces like Surrounded sounding a bit like they could come from a mid-to-late 1990s Rush album - though at this point, it's harder to say who is the influencer and who is the influenced, because of course Rush were actively making records with this sort of sound right at the same time as Enchant were.

Whether all this works for you will depend on whether you feel like the neo-prog revivalism of Enchant's early years was the thing which was truly interesting about them, or whether the idea of a radically updated and reconfigured Enchant sound appeals to you. If you were here for the sound of A Blueprint of the World and were unsure of the shift in direction on Wounded, you might struggle with this one, especially if 1990s melodic hard/alt-rock doesn't appeal.

On the other hand, if you like the sort of influences that Enchant introduce into their music here, then you might find that this is just what the doctor ordered - a golden opportunity for Enchant to truly carve out their own distinct sound which adds up to more than merely the sum of their influences. I'm very much in their latter school - as fond as I am of their early work, I think Break might have been the album which they truly needed to produce at this point in their career, a release which allowed them to forge their own musical identity.

Latest members reviews

4 stars It took US prog rockers Enchant a couple of albums to find a unique sound and direction. Their 4th full-length Break is where things finally started falling into place, after three slightly more derivative albums, inspired initially by neoprogressive rock (Marillion) and later by prog metal in the v ... (read more)

Report this review (#2940499) | Posted by lukretio | Sunday, July 16, 2023 | Review Permanlink

4 stars For some strange reason I'd never heard of Enchant until 4 weeks ago. Saw them mentioned in a list of albums from SPV, saw one for sale on ebay, and now I've bought all of their albums. This is my favourite at the moment. It's not original, so many recongnisable influences but somehow it j ... (read more)

Report this review (#48338) | Posted by | Sunday, September 25, 2005 | Review Permanlink

4 stars Great Album. If you like progressive rock played very well and melodic, this album it's for you. It's very difficult to mix melody and technique but Enchant do it very well. I have all the albums of this band and, for the singing melodies, Break it's my favorite. ... (read more)

Report this review (#1903) | Posted by | Monday, January 3, 2005 | Review Permanlink

4 stars This album is definetely underrated for reasons beyond my imagination si it has moments of strongest feelings, straight hard rock and prog elements that keep the listener tied to it. My favourite straight song of all Enchant songs is King, I like the energy in Doug's riffs. I asked myself why ... (read more)

Report this review (#1902) | Posted by | Sunday, November 7, 2004 | Review Permanlink

4 stars Not much of a prog masterpeice but more of an inteligent metal. The songs are powerfull and dynamic yet melodic. The players are very skillful making the music tight nad clear yet not analy technichal like Dream Theatre stuff. I recommand it for every one looking for something to play loudly ye ... (read more)

Report this review (#1901) | Posted by | Tuesday, August 24, 2004 | Review Permanlink

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