Rush & Enchant

[|ngenius]

I was talking about Enchant with some friends of mine a couple of days ago, speaking about how good they are and suggesting the best albums to buy. They bought "J9 or D10" and one of them snapped to me: "Hey!! This song is a mix of Rush or what?! This is a mere fake of Rush, I hope this is the tribute album or something". Needless to say that it left me astonished, because even when there's certain similarities between the two bands, I fail to see that "Rush mix" in "Paint the Picture".

An opinion is just an opinion, and there's a lot of people saying the Enchant structures are too simple, the guitar sound too poor (what?!) and I saw a critic where Ted's voice was considered so close to Steve Walsh's (Kansas) and Enchant bases their sound on repetitive AOR sounds. At this point I'm simply puzzled, but I wanted to know what do you think about this. In my personal opinion, the constitutive elements Enchant are made of might be linked to some inherited musical culture but they're quite innovative in many ways. Hedge your bets.


|ng.

 

[The Stormbringer]

Well, Ted does sound like Steve Walsh, but in a good way. Besides, sounding like him isn´t exactly a bad thing...
About the "Rush fake" stuff... J9 certainly is the album of theirs that reminds the most of Rush (just take the "Xanadu" intro of "Paint the Picture" or "Shell of a Man" with its lead bass), but once again, it´s more like a tribute to Rush and not an imitation. Words like "fake" or "repetitive" should never be used when talking about Enchant, anyway.

 

[StocktontoMalone]

I don't think they are copycats of anybody....They have their own distinct sound. And a great one at that.

HOWEVER, the beginning of 'Paint the Picture' is definitely almost note-for-note with the riff/melody in XANADU.

Go search for your copy of A FAREWELL to KINGS....and happy listening...

 

[jyng]

To me, most bands have their influences from other bands they've heard. When Rush first heard Led Zeppelin they were very influenced by the way Robert Plant sang as well as Jimmy Page's guitar playing. I've read quite a bit of articles that say Rush's first 3 albums sounded totally like Led Zeppelin. I disagree with this. I think Rush's first 3 albums sounded very influenced from Led Zeppelin, but to me they still had their own sound. Or if you think about it, after Queensryche had been around awhile, a ton of bands started copying their style.

I don't think Enchant intended to copy Rush's Xanadu guitar line or even their song 'Blindsided' has a part that sounds a bit like STP's 'vasoline' song, but I don't think they did this on purpose. It's just how the song came out when they were creating it. I think Enchant is very influenced by Rush and many other bands, but I think Enchant still has their own sound and style. Even if the guitar line in 'Paint The Picture' is almost the same as 'Xanadu' the bass and drums still give this song a totally different feel. When I was in a band many years ago, I remember a friend coming up to me after a show and telling me the middle part of one of our songs sounded exactly like a part in Metallica's 'Creeping Death'. I went home and gave that song a listen and sure enough, the guitar line sounded exactly like it!! But we never intended to copy this, it just happened.

On the other hand, I tend to think that Rush, Queensryche, etc. would be honored to see how much of an influence they've been on these other bands. That's a very big compliment when someone else wants to sound like the music you've created!

Jay

 

[Demonspell]

The Xanadu/Paint The Picture similarity is probably the most frequently asked Enchant question besides "when are you going to tour the US?" I actually hear more Rush influence in Blueprint than Juggling, mainly because the drum fills remind me of the Professor...

 

[Frank]

I frequently hear, and subsequently rediscover, elements in several Enchant songs that remind me of parts of Rush songs. But that's where the comparison ends for me.

I've listened to so much music I could probably find commonalities in many many more songs amongst other artists.

 

[The Stormbringer]

By the way... are there any modern Progressive Rock bands that were not influenced by Rush?

 

[DiscoDave]

By the way... are there any modern Progressive Rock bands that were not influenced by Rush?

Sure. But they all suck.

 

[keeper of the flame]

Well what if they were influenced by Rush or sound like them? I always think that more of the same is good when you like it. At some point in time Rush wasn't very active in the studio anymore (after Test for echo) so Enchant filled that gap quite nicely. I like the Rush influences in Color me or in Tug of War (the song). There are also Marillion influences, especially on Blueprint, but also in Comatose. These guys listen to other porgbands as well, so when writing they are definately influenced.

Besides I like Ted's voice much better than Geddy's. I am a big Rush fan (got almost every album) but there's something about Geddy's voice that bugs me. Fortunately their great skills make up for that.

 

[The Stormbringer]

I really like Geddy´s voice, although it took some time to get used to it. He does sound like a woman (I first thought of some cartoon figure, though... ) sometimes, but he just has charisma-a-plenty, that´s what counts for me.

 

[|ngenius]

Go search for your copy of A FAREWELL to KINGS....and happy listening...

Yeap, I'm certainly not much into Rush, aside from a bunch of tunes. In any case, I don't pretend to isolate Enchant by forgetting those unavoidable similarities between bands that, after all, play a kind of music equally labeled. Even accepting that strong tinge of Rush in many elements, it takes a serious effort to see boring structures, poor guitar sounds and so on. That was the remarkable difference. And I don't see the similarity between Ted Leonard and Steve Walsh, sincerely.


|ng.

 

[The Wickerman]

Well, I do think that "Blueprint of the World" was heavily derivative of Kansas, but after that, they definitely developed their own sound. And the people who say they're too simple, or repetitive, or whatever, are just the snobs who think you have to have 10 minutes of pointless wanking in every song to be "prog". Of course, every band will always have its share of naysayers, but I think Enchant are a very talented and creative band.