Enchant - "The New Progressive Rock Gods?!"
by Martin Popoff

Well, they ain't so new anymore, but that's what the band's German label chief had thumped these San Franners as way back when their first album A Blueprint Of The World came out in '95. That tag set the stage for what has been a successful, arguably outsized European presence now five albums later.

"Oh yeah," reflect guitarist Douglass Ott, looking back at those early tours. "When we did our first record we were on a label called Dream Circle Records and the guy who ran it was not the best businessman but he meant well. And he put an advertisement out in all the German magazines saying 'the new progressive rock gods, Enchant'. It was quite a stigmatism and on that first tour we had to live up to so much. It was really difficult. But people were really into it and it made us realize that hey, we've got something here. Unfortunately it took about 2 1/2 years to put out our next album. But yes, they do recognize us. We've been walking down the streets in Europe and guys run up to us and start talking to us. And one time we got mobbed outside one of the gigs and we couldn't even get in because of guys wanting autographs. And that's really what it is. Nobody wants to touch you or rip your clothes off or anything. They want autographs and to say 'hey, I love your music'."

Zoom forward through the albums Wounded, Time Lost and Break, and the Enchant gang are back with an exceedingly hooky affair called Juggling 9 Or Dropping 10, a curious title for an album that is a curious alloy of Styx, Mullmuzzler, '90s Rush and adventurous prog metal.

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