Enemy Glory Darkly Blessed

Album Review

Nik Venet created the term "writer/singer" for Harriet Schock, and true to form, after the passing of that legendary record producer for Linda Ronstadt, the Beach Boys, Dory Previn, and so many others, Schock released a book on writing songs, Becoming Remarkable, that was a companion piece to one of the final recordings from Venet, her Rosebud album. A Massachusetts writer/singer, Karen Michalson has achieved a similar coup, and this CD by Michalson's band Point of Ares is a companion piece as well, only with a twist. Tor Doherty Associates, publishers in New York, released her fantasy novel, Enemy Glory, and this record appears to be the soundtrack to the book. This is a project the husband-and-wife team of Bill Michalson and Karen have worked on for many years; the original release of Enemy Glory is detailed in the liner notes. The material here, with the exception of five tracks, is "re-arranged and re-written from earlier versions that were included on Point of Ares' 1996 release." The close-to-an-hour's worth of music on Enemy Glory Darkly Blessed was recorded at the end of 2000 into January of 2001. With the success of Harry Potter and The Lord Of The Rings, the fantasy market, a close cousin to science fiction, is going to look for material already on the market. Point of Ares and the Michalsons are ready with this 16-track CD. The music is a jolt, an unsettling blast of a power trio with Black Sabbath riffs that is adventurous because most readers want the lush background sounds that have become synonymous with this genre. This music did reach the world first via the debut CD, and there's a chance it could turn a younger audience on to the book, but it is going to take the artist a lot of arguing to convince movie companies to go with this driving sound rather than John Williams' orchestration. They can cross that bridge when they come to it, because this is pioneering stuff, and the rock audience that will groove on "Battle's One" can certainly seek out the anti-hero catalyst, the character Llewelyn. A strange mixture of Uriah Heep meets Mike Oldfield at some points, it's a complex work worthy of acknowledgement.