ENBOUND: "And She Says Gold"

Rating: 9/10

Inner Wound Records/MusicBuyMail 2011

Review by Kimmo Toivonen

Now here's a band that should make a sizeable splash in the Metal genre. Formed by Mike Cameron Force (Zonata, Poem) in 2006, the band's been working on the direction and the sound of the band, and now in 2011 they're "ready to go". The curiously named "And She Says Gold" features 13 very melodic, progressive metal songs and a rather fine cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It". In a genre that is rather crowded, a band has to have something special, and I think Enbound has just that. It's a combination of fine songs, interesting arrangements, superb musicianship and a great vocalist. The singer in question is Lee Hunter, and this is his first recorded foray to Heavy Metal. His real name is Lars Säfsund, and some of you might know him as the singer of superb AOR band Work Of Art. He's done a lot of other things too, including Swedish TV show "Singing Bee" and musicals. I already liked his voice as the singer of Work Of Art, but on this album he really gets to shine, thanks to the very versatile material.

And the songs... while the songs have the typical tricky tempo changes and complex structures, they're still very accessible even to a non-prog fan like me. There are a lot of gloriously melodic choruses on the album which should please even the most hardcore AOR fans, and guitar-freaks will get a kick out of listening to young virtuoso Marvin Flowberg's excellent playing. I might point out that none of the songs overstay their welcome, as there are no standard 7 minute prog epics with endless solos.

My favourite tracks of the album include "Under A Spell", "Love Has Come", "Combined The Souls", "I Am Lost To You" and "Descending", but there are really no weak tracks on the album. "Shifting Gears" is probably the one song I like the least, it's the album's most aggressive track with a bit of a modern metal vibe, but even that one has some very melodic parts.

"And She Says Gold" is highly recommended for fans of vintage Queensrÿche, Seventh Wonder and Kamelot. I think we might have the Melodic Metal album of 2011 here.

Website

MySpace