Glass Hammer - The Inconsolable Secret line-up - Susie Bogdanowicz (vocals),
Fred Schendel (keyboards, guitar, vocals), Matt Mendians (drums), Walter Moore
(vocals) and Steve Babb (bass, keyboards, vocals)
I had Journey Of The Dunadan and got rid of it. The sound is very
neo-prog. Has a
lot of narration (too much) about a medieval story with a terrible American accent which
completely destroys the authenticity of the story. The electric drumming put me off.
-- Jean-François Cousin
All I can say from reading the above review about Dunadan is that this
band must have come a heck of a long way in seven years, because
Chronometree is a superb record! The sound is NOT
neo-prog at all,
but what I'd call very much retro-prog instead - hard to believe this record
wasn't made 25 years ago. As for the group's sound, compositionally I hear
a good bit of Kansas (at their most complex,
on things like Masque and Leftoverture), a good bit of
Lamb-era Genesis, perhaps a little
Yes here and there. What struck me about
this record was how tasteful everything about it was - no over-the-top
singing or playing histrionics to be found anywhere.
The guitarist says his own favorite guitarist is Alex Lifeson
[Rush], but
thankfully this really doesn't show (much) in his playing, and not at all
in the songs themselves. He does some superb Steve Howe-ish spaced-out
delay slide guitar of the kind you heard in Gates of Delirium, and his
acoustic playing seems to me to have more than a whiff of
Steve Hackett in
it (of course Lifeson was no slouch there as well).
The keyboard player sounds influenced by Tony
Banks and Rick Wakeman
perhaps in about equal measure, but is far more tasteful and restrained
than the latter. He plays lots of fat-sounding analog Moog as well as some
gorgeous Mellotron shadings.
The bass player is obviously a Chris Squire
freak and does a damn fine job, as does the drummer who is quite
comfortable in some pretty complex metres. The singer has the perfect voice
to complement it all - he doesn't really stand apart like so many prog
vocalists do, but blends perfectly in the mix. Understated, probably
underrated as well.
Another mind-blowing thing about this band is that they formed in
Chattanooga, Tennessee (though the individual members are basically all
from the surrounding area). As a prog-head who grew up in the Deep South
wasteland, I can attest first hand as to the challenges bands who play this
kind of music face.
I usually don't have much good to say about the more recent brand of
progressive music, let alone newer American progressive ... but these guys
definitely have the touch. -- Alex Davis
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Glass Hammer is a Symphonic
Progressive Rock group from
Tennessee, the only one that I've known ever to exist.
It is also the only prog band with another distinction --
each studio album is better than its predecessor. This is
keeping in mind that GH is a
symphonic prog band. Over a
twelve-year span, Glass Hammer improves with every recording.
Not even any of the great pioneers of prog --
Yes,
Genesis,
ELP, King
Crimson, et al. -- have kept up this kind of consistency.
Glass Hammer consists chiefly of Steve Babb and Fred
Schendel, with lineup changes practically on every album.
In addition to personnel shifts, the more recent albums
usually showcase an army of extras, including choirs,
strings, and other instruments. Most of these come and
go, but some are more steady. It looks like vocalist
Susie Bogdanowicz is a bona fide member of the group,
giving Glass Hammer yet another distinction, as females
are not very often found in symphonic prog bands. The
present lineup also includes Walter Moore, vocalist,
and Matt Mendians on drums.
While it is arguably true that Glass Hammer started out
as a neo-prog group,
their first two studio recordings
exemplifying this genre, somewhere along the way they
decided that this style wasn't for them. The change was
most evident on their 1998 release On To Evermore, which
is in part a continuation of a less-obvious theme on its
predecessor, Perelandra, from 1995. The 2000 effort,
Chronometree, was received with glowing reviews as one
of the year's best releases.
Glass Hammer writers Babb and Schendel also decidedly
exhibit themes of Christianity in their lyrics, and
influences are often drawn from famed Christian writer
C.S. Lewis. Their 2002 album Lex Rex is about a soldier
who searches for the source of true glory and finds it
in Jesus Christ. Their latest album, The Inconsolable
Secret, released in July 2005, is based on a story
written by Steve Babb, symbolizing the stray of humankind
from its Creator God and eventual joyous reconciliation.
If it's symphonic prog you are after, The Inconsolable
Secret is a positively phenomenal album, a top contender
for Best Prog Album of the Year, in my opinion. It is,
quite simply, the most beautifully immersive, most
creative, phenomenal work of artistic brilliance that
I've ever experienced. It also exhibits new Roger Dean
artwork, a bluish formation of shaped boulders amidst a
starry-night landscape.
A one-to-five-star rating of every Glass Hammer album follows:
- 1993 Journey of the Dunadan * non-essential
- 1995 Perelandra ** better, still non-essential
- 1997 Live and Revived ** live album, better
- 1998 On To Evermore *** changing styles, better
- 2000 Chronometree ***** Nostalgic of classic prog
- 2001 The Middle Earth Album ***** creative celtic/folk style
- 2002 Lex Rex ***** widely varying themes
- 2004 Shadowlands ***** Awesome; C.S. Lewis based
- 2005 The Inconsolable Secret ***** PHENOMENAL MUST-HAVE
To those who gave up on Glass Hammer after the first album,
I feel sorry for you; you've been really missing out. To
those who gave Glass Hammer a second chance, welcome to the
fold! I will not give any false pretense about it -- Glass
Hammer is my favorite prog band ever. -- David Barro
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Updated 6/28/05
Glass Hammer has, until now, gotten short shrift in the GEPR for
a band of their stature in the prog community. That's simply because,
aside from seeing their live performance at
NEARFest 2003, I wasn't familiar with them, and hadn't had any
fans contributing much aside from the first two entries above. So, I
decided it was time to write to the band and see if they were interested
in rectifying the situation (this was before I received David Barro's
overview above). Steve Babb responded quickly and positively to my
request for promotional materials with a tongue-in-cheek request to
"say really really nice things about us". Well, I'm not going to have
much trouble doing that. But, of course, being a music critic, I also won't
be able to resist a couple of "howevers". I'll start with my opinion of the two
studio albums I received, namely Shadowlands and their latest 2-CD set
The Inconsolable Secret. Then I'll talk about a couple of live releases
which were left out of the previous review.
Shadowlands is a really good album of complex
symphonic prog. Like its predecessors,
it appears to be about 99% Steve Babb and Fred Schendel playing
intricate counterpoints of notes in the studio. Babb plays bass, keyboards and
sings, while Schendel plays keyboards, guitars, drums and sings. This
seems to be the way they did most of their albums in the past, bringing in
Susie Bogdonowicz and Walter Moore to sing the vocals already
penned (usually by Schendel). The other "band members" seem to be little more than
studio musicians who continue to appear on all the albums. This requires the
music to be heavily planned, scored and intellectualized so that the parts will
all fit together after all the overdubs are done. I'm guessing that this is why this
technically beautiful, elaborate and complex album really leaves me pretty
cold. I've listened to it several times now, and it just refuses to grab me
and make me love it.
The Inconsolable Secret is a 2CD set released in 2005, sporting cover art
and a new logo created by prog legend Roger Dean. Musically, it could be
described similarly to Shadowlands, but for some reason The Inconsolable
Secret speaks to me more. Really, it's more repetitious than Shadowlands,
but the themes they repeat are so good that they
stick in my head and I don't mind hearing them in their dozens of variations.
They also appear to have made their live drummer Matt Mendians a real
band member, not just a guy they tour with, and he plays drums on this album
rather than Schendel. Mendians is more of a basher than Schendel
and this gives the music a less clinical feel which I think helps a lot. This is a
great album which has started to speak to me, and continues to grow on me more
each time I listen to it. It has resonances with Yes
(especially the vocal harmonies and Steve Howe-like steel guitar passages),
ELP (lots of Emersonian
Hammond solos) and even
Utopia (a chord progression at the end
of CD1 that reminds me of "Magic Dragon Theater" from Ra). But these
are all just echos, not rip-offs, and Glass Hammer have taken the
influences, blended well with their own ingredients, and come up with something
new and interesting.
Regardless of any minor misgivings about the two studio albums, let me say
that I have none of these complaints about the live material. These
consist of two concerts using basically the same set list, firstly their CD Live
at NEARFest, and the DVD Lex Live. Usually I wouldn't talk about a
DVD in a GEPR entry (though one day I'll have to add a DVD section since there's
been a lot of excellent prog DVD releases made recently which deserve to have
their own section [Later note: I've done this since the original writing, see
link below for a more thorough review of Lex Live -Ed.]), but in this case
it's just too good to ignore.
As I mentioned before, I was at NEARFest
2003, and saw Glass Hammer's performance. I felt that this was
a band I should like, but the mix was terrible and I just couldn't figure out
what was going on. I left feeling more confused than anything else, but after
talking with some of their fans from the audience, I was assured that I
shouldn't judge the band based on this performance. I mention this only
because the CD does not suffer from the bad mix; in fact, it's hard to
believe this is even the same concert I attended. The sound quality is
excellent, the playing is superb and full of energy, and the band members are
obviously having a great time and are passionate about the music. This is
what's missing from the studio albums, and what makes this CD something
really special. Unbelievably, the studio version of Lex Rex was
recorded with absolutely no intention of ever being played live, and some
of the sections are dauntingly complex. This was the piece that
NEARFest organizers Rob LaDuca
and Chad Hutchinson insisted they perform live. So, they drafted Walter
Moore to expand his usual singing role to also playing guitar (which
he pulls off without missing a beat!), and also added an acoustic guitarist
and a chorale for this performance. The liner notes state that "we had to
learn how to play our own music". They learned it well, and they play it with
a vitality and energy that doesn't come through as well in their studio work
(though I admit, I haven't heard the studio version of Lex Rex).
The DVD is basically the same concert performed at a different location and
without the chorale. Who needs 'em? There are three female and three
male singers (Moore, Babb and Schendel), and this is
more than enough vocalists to make the harmonies work properly. It's amazing
to see Schendel basically doing the work of two keyboardists and
Moore playing guitar for an extremely full sound. I don't really know
how close it is to the studio version, and I don't care ... Lex Live
is one of the best concert videos I've ever seen in terms of quality of the
music and the energy of the performance. This video is an instant classic and
a must-get for anyone who enjoys Symphonic
Prog in general, and of course for Glass Hammer fans in particular. If
you don't have a DVD player or just don't care about watching the band, the
Live at NEARFest CD is just as good sonically. But personally, I enjoyed
watching these folks play.
Finally, I guess I want to say something about the "Glass Hammer is a Christian band"
thing. Yeah, it's true, there are Christian themes in abundance. For me, and I suspect
for a few other GEPR readers, this allegation wouldn't necessarily be considered to be
a "plus" for a band. But the lyrics are intellectual and thoughtful (after all, it's
hard to find a deeper Christian thinker than C. S. Lewis, who is a major
influence on the band) and not your typical Christian Contemporary Music (neither
sugary "Jesus loves you" songs nor strident "convert or burn in hell" crap). If you
are concerned about Glass Hammer falling into this mold, don't be. These guys
(and ladies) are original thinkers with intelligent, interesting things to say in both
their music and their lyrics. -- Fred Trafton
Addendum 10/17/07
I had already been reading the web site hype about Glass Hammer's newest studio
album Culture of Ascent, and I was pretty excited about it. I count myself among
Glass Hammer's fans even though I was sort of unmoved by some of their studio work
(as I mention in the above section). Still, I had heard enough very good material to have
high hopes for this one.
So, I got it in the mail, and my first reaction upon seeing the song list was, "What?
They're starting the album off with a cover tune of a Yes
song, 'South Side of the Sky'? That's either brilliant or really stupid ... wonder which one
it is?" The answer: BRILLIANT! To be honest, I wasn't all that fond of Yes'
studio version on Fragile. But this version should go down in prog history as the
definitive version of the song. Did I mention they even got Jon
Anderson to sing on it, complete with vocal harmony overdubs? Well, they did, and there's enough
perfect imitation to please the die-hard Yes fan, and enough
innovation to please those who want to hear something new in the old classic. Sorry,
Rick, but Fred Schendel's piano playing is
more precise and emotional than yours was on the original, and he gets some wonderful
new tones in there from his Nord synths to boot! This is just ... well ... brilliant,
and sets the tone beautifully for the rest of the album.
The line-up for this album is basically the same as the live band that recorded the Live
in Belmont DVD, which is to say Steve Babb (bass, keyboards, vocals) and
Fred Schendel (keyboards, acoustic guitar, vocals) co-leading the band with alumni Susie
Bogdanowicz (vocals) and Matt Mendians (drums) and new "regular band members"
(whatever that means for Glass Hammer) David Wallimann (guitars) and Carl
Groves (of Salem Hill, vocals). The diversity
of the musical styles of these people really shows, and makes this album a lot more
interesting (to my ears) than the "Babb and Schendel show" albums
of the past. One of these days I'll have to complete my collection of earlier GH
and prove that to myself, but for now that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Every song on this album is a masterwork. The Babb-penned "Sun Song", clocking in at
9:33, is a great follow-up to "South Side of the Sky" with its Yes-like
vocal harmonies and busy Chris Squireish bass work.
Following this, "Life by Light" starts off being sung by Groves, who is then joined by
Anderson singing his trademark DUT-DUTs as
both a lead vocal and as background for Groves. A very cool song also.
But then, GH gets almost prog-metal
with some nice Dream Theater (circa Change
of Seasons, and thus melodic) like heavy guitar from Wallimann in "Ember Without
a Name". Spectacularly accompanied by Mendians' heaviest drumming style, Babb
at his most Geddy Leeish and Schendel growling alongside with some sync-tone
synth playing, this is probably my favorite track on the album. It's also one of the longest
at 16:33.
But not the longest ... that award goes to "Into Thin Air" at 19:14, which is a
"side-long" epic length from the LP days. They pull out all the stops on this one, with
three guest vocalists to help form a choir, plus The Adonia String Trio, three
ladies playing Violin, Viola and Cello. Here's where they best illustrate the theme of
this album, namely the metaphor of the ascent of mountains to talk about the soul ascent
of the spiritual seeker. Which, of course, is why "South Side of the Sky" fits in
well with this theme (hey, I never knew that song was about mountain climbing before,
wonder what else I've missed in the Yes lyrics?).
The album closer "Rest" is more layed-back, with some nice christian lyrics that
are thoughtful and reverent without being preachy (they never even mention "the J-guy"'s
name), and once again about being all alone in the cold like a mountain climber. And, it
ends with a sound effect that takes you right back to the beginning of the album again
if your CD player automatically "wraps around" and starts playing track 1 again after it
completes (like the one in my car does). Very thoughtful.
In summary, Culture of Ascent is by far my favorite Glass Hammer studio
album I've heard so far. These guys (and ladies) just keep getting better. A strong
contender for my "album of the year" for 2007! If you're a fan of
symphonic prog at all, you need this album!
Absolutely essential! -- Fred Trafton
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Gígur - (Not in photo order) Jorge Bringas (electric guitar, keyboards), Ricardo Vilchez (bass),
Mercy (drums) and Iván Tamez (electric, acoustic & slide guitars, ebow, manipulated noises, voice).
Former members include Emilio Delgado (drums on most of the debut album) and Arturo Aguirre (bass).
Gilgamesh 1974 - Mike Travis (drums), Alan Gowen (keyboards), Phil Lee (guitar), Steve Cook (bass)
David Gilmour, sometime around 1970
Gordon Giltrap
Glass in 1977 - Jeff Sherman (guitars, bass, electric piano, bass pedals, vocals),
Greg Sherman (keyboards) and Jerry Cook (drums, timpani, synthesizer, percussion)
Gnidrolog in 1972 (Lady Lake line up) - Colin Goldring, Stewart Goldring, Nigel
Pegrum, Mars Cowling and John 'Irish' Earle (photo by Ian Woolway)
Gnomus - Mika Kallio (Percussion), Esa Onttonen (Plucked String Instruments) and
Kari Ikonen (Keyboards)
Godspeed You Black Emperor performing on a very tight stage