"Usually when a band releases a bundle of unreleased songs, people think, "Well, if it wasn't good enough for any of the albums, it's not good enough for ME!" Now, in some cases that attitude is appropriate. A lot of "reject songs" are junky, but Enchant defies convention with Time Lost. Make no mistake. The seven songs here are as good as anything they've ever done.Time Lost consists of four songs from the Wounded sessions, and three songs from before the band's debut, A Blueprint of the World. All songs are excellent, and it's too bad they couldn't make it onto a "real" album. But hey, I'll take it anyway I can get it.The songs from Wounded are excellent, especially "New Moon" and "Blindsided," which, more than anything, demonstrate Ted Leonard's outstanding singing and lyrics (although the entire band is blessed with excellent poetic sense). They also forcefully exhibit the band's great qualities: emotional songs, dynamic writing, inspiring instrumental chops. Wounded is a very complete album as is, so it's understandable why these songs were left in the closet. Yet, it's very nice to have them. I can't get enough Enchant.The pre-debut songs are simply outstanding, which is remarkable considering the band was pretty fresh. Of course, the songs on this disc have been juiced up with Leonard's outstanding vocals and other touches, but you can still make out the qualities of a spanking new band, full of ambition and energy. You can see they were yet to realize their potential, but they were in touch with their raw talent. The lyrics and music weren't completely refined at this point (they definitely needed a metronome for the middle section of "Standing Ground"), but the band's artistic persona was certainly in place. As for the style of the songs themselves, they would have been nicely slotted into the debut."Interact," the band's longest tune, reaches 11-minutes and never goes off track. The hooks are immense without sacrificing the power of Ott's guitars and Craddick's hyper-drumming. The same holds true for the other two tracks. "Standing Ground" is like the band's anthem, the lyrics a dissertation on the band's artistic philosophy. (Basically, "Make music for the sake of art.") The melodies are slight but very inspiring, working well with the lyrics. The aforementioned explosive jam in the middle is untamed musical action, and that's its appeal. Finally, "Mettle Man" is a quasi-instrumental. Suffice to say, it takes a darn good band to keep one's interest for 8-minutes with no lyrics! Enchant, of course, pulls it off, because they are brilliant musicians and songwriters. There's a brief vocal section at the end, with Leonard breathing a sense of life into the "robot" theme of the song. It's so good it scares me.Time Lost is the low-profile dark horse of Enchant's catalogue, but it is essential for every fan of this band."
ENCHANT : "Time Lost"
Masked Jackal | Ft. Lauderdale, FL United States | 01/21/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"***** - STARS
=============
This is excellent. This is also criminally underrated. In fact, this is one of their most impressive releases in my opinion. The more I listen to it, the more it impresses me....
If you are an Enchant fan, this is without question a must purchace. It's not unlike "Juggling 9" and "Break", very similar feel, and emotion being displayed here. Those two releases are the best of Enchant as far as I'm concerned, so as expected, "Time Lost" holds a strong #3 ranking in my Enchant catalogue....
ENCHANT YOURSELF!!!!
"
Best Hard Rock Band of the 90's
Douglas Tidwell | 12/22/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Enchant is simply the best rock band to come out of the 90's (with the possible exception of the Flower Kings). I'm a fan of 70's and early 80's rock and Enchant is in my opinion a much better band than Dream Theater, the reason is you can enjoy Enchant's CDs over and over again. There is no use for technical proficiency unless you can putit in a good song (a long or short). With respect to this album it includes early tracks of the band and all of them are great songs. I think that with the Break album they have found an unique sound and will give us more good albums"
Enchant - Outakes Album That Is Better Than Much Of Their Of
Steven Sly | Kalamazoo, MI United States | 02/19/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
""Time Lost" is an album that consists of tracks left over from the "Wounded" sessions along with several older tracks that were never released from earlier in the band's career. It is interesting that even though these are "extra" tracks, I think that some of the material is stronger than what they have released on their previous "official" albums. In fact the tracks left over from "Wounded" are better than some of the tracks that made the album. They branch out a bit here with "Interact" clocking in at over 10 minutes. Instrumentally it is one of the band's strongest efforts. The album closer, "Mettle Man" rocks and features some intricate guitar, drum, and keyboard interplay that really suits this band well. Maybe some of their officially released stuff is a bit too polished. This collection seems a bit rawer and for me it works to the band's advantage. Even though this is a collection of outtakes, I think this is the best album the band had done up to this point. If you like Enchant, don't pass this one up. Like Porcupine Tree's "Recordings" album, sometimes the songs that bands pass on end up being some of their strongest stuff."