This album is in my procession for over two months now and I seriously doubted whether I would write a review of `Chains` at all. The fact is that I often find myself really enjoying an album until I have to write a review. Somehow writing about an album makes you listen to the music in a more analytic way, which always results in looking for flaws, references and especially looking for words to describe what you like or dislike about the music. At some point you start losing touch with what you feel while listening to the album. In this case, the feeling I had while listening to `Chains` was so special that I didn’t feel like writing a review, scared of over analyzing it. This review is therefore not about the music, but about the feeling that Ricocher managed to bring back.

Listening to `Chains` made me remember the good old days when you could really long for an album release by one of your favorite bands.

The joy and happiness you felt when you were finally able to buy the album in the store (years ago you went to stores to buy music) and you had the time to listen to it (because you were a student) over and over again. In 2005 the music business has changed. People hardly take the time to get into an album. Time is precious and the amount of music available on the internet is enormous. I remember buying a Marillion album, putting it into my CD-player and not taking them out for literally two or three weeks! Nowadays I’m reviewing one hundred albums a year which means that I hardly have the time to listen to an album for more than one or two weeks.
Ricocher brought back some of the old times I had almost forgotten about. `Chains` is an incredible album that might not be perfect but managed to bring back an intensity I feared almost impossible in the present day music scene.