WOUNDED

"Wounded" is the second full-length studio album by US progressive rock/metal act Enchant. The album was originally released in 1996 through Dream Circle Records but it saw a more widespread release in 1997 through InsideOut Music in Europe and through Magna Carta Records in The United States. It´s the successor to "A Blueprint Of The World" from 1993. The quintet lineup who recorded the debut album is intact on "Wounded".

"Wounded" features a slightly harder edged progressive rock/metal sound to the sound on "A Blueprint Of The World" (1993), but Enchant are generally not a very hard edged or heavy metal oriented band. Their songs can be relatively heavy though. The music is dynamic and often shifts between mellow verses and more loud and catchy choruses featuring the soaring high pitched vocals of Ted Leonard. The rhythm section are skilled and drive the music forward, but to my ears the omnipresent use of thin sounding slap bass is completely out of key with the rest of the music. A more conventional bass style would have suited the material much better.

The songwriting is relatively straight forward vers/chorus structured, but does feature instrumental sections to spice things up. It´s not overtly complex music though. "Wounded" was produced by guitarist Douglas A. Ott, who also produced half of the tracks on "A Blueprint Of The World" (1993), and although he does a slighly better job here, than he did on the not very well sounding debut album, "Wounded" is still not a professional sounding release to my ears. The vocals sound detached from the remaining part of the music, the guitars are placed too low in the mix, and the drums also feature a rather strange tone. "Wounded" is just not a very well sounding release.

When that is said "Wounded" still has quite a few redeeming qualities making it a decent quality release. It´s an album for fans of hard edged progressive rock or soft progressive metal, which is intriguing, but not too challenging. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)