GLASS HAMMER - THE INCONSOLABLE SECRET

GLASS HAMMER - THE INCONSOLABLE SECRET

Disk 1 . . . . . . .40:04
1. A Maker Of Crowns
2. The Knight Of The North

Disk 2 . . . . . . .58:21
1. Long And Long Ago
2. The Morning She Woke
3. Lirazel
4. The High Place
5. Morrigan's Song
6. Walking Toward Doom
7. Mog Ruith
8. Through A Glass Darkly
9. The Lady Waits
10.The Mirror Cracks
11. Having Caught A Glimpse

Line-up
- Fred Schendel: keyboards, electric guitar, steel guitar, vocals
- Steve Babb: keyboards, bass guitar, vocals
- Walter Moore: guitars, vocals
- Susie Bogdanowicz: vocals
- Matt Mendians: drums

additional guests: Sarah Snyder: Featured Soprano, Bethany Warren: Backing Vocals and Girls Choir, Flo Paris: vocals, Eric Parker: Acoustic Guitar, Laura Lindstrom: Vocals, David Carter: Lead Guitar

format: Double CD • Arion Records # SR1320
release date: July 12 2005
Glass Hammer's official website at: http://www.glasshammer.com

Glass Hammer is one of the most remarkable examples of this genre you could coin as "keyboard-based symphonic prog rock" and one of the best contemporary American prog bands. Coming from one of the unlikeliest of places for progressive music, Tennessee, most reknown for its Grand Old Opry and the king of Rock and Roll, Glass Hammer have been known to release several concept albums like 1993's Journey of the Dunadan and 2001's Middle Earth album, obviously based on Tolkien's writings, 2002's sublime Lex Rex album, exploring a Roman theme, and this year's album, centering around an old English medieval theme.

And to consolidate their current place in the world of progressive music, none other than Roger Dean, reknown for his stunning artwork on the Yes and Asia albums, designed the cover art for their latest album, as well as their new band logo. This triple gatefold cover is a splendid piece of work, typical of the best Dean-esque mystical landscape art.

This is a 2-CD album, with nearly 100 minutes of world-class prog, produced and composed by Fred Schendel and Steve Babb. You will find a special section on disk one, featuring the album's lyrics, a high resolution version of roger Dean's artwork, a video of the Inconsolable Secret recording sessions and a novel/poem by Steve Babb called The Lay of Lirazel. Cool bonus stuff.

One thing I must point out is that in many circles, Glass Hammer is considered a Christian prog band, but their "christian" message isn't nearly as in your face as Neal Morse, for example (whom I still admire greatly, but cringe at his over-the-top ultrareligious lyrics). Often, this label tends to turn off some people, but Glass Hammer's lyrics have a good balance, respectful of their faith, while not really trying to drive the christian message overzealously. Here's a quote from Steve Babb about this subject: "GH is “not” a Christian band. I get asked that all of the time. It just so happens that the members of GH are Christian, and that I write a lot of our lyrics based on Christian themes. I think I have mostly done so in a way that secular listeners are okay with. But unlike any contemporary Christian music band I can think of, I have also written on such diverse topics as foul-smelling Dwarves (“No Crown For Balin”), aliens communicating through old prog albums (“Chronometree”) and horses with a taste for man-flesh (“Run, Lisette”). See?"
Exerpt from an interview on www.popthought.com with kind permission by Amy Sturgis

So on to the album. Disk one, called "The Knight", is composed of two tracks, clocking at around 40 minutes. The first track, called A Maker of Crowns, begins with a piano intro that leads to Fred Schindel's trademark Hammond B3 sound, with nice background mellotrons.... aaah, mellotrons! This marks the main theme of the album, an extremely catchy, wonderful melody, very hummable! Halfway through the song, a great keyboard solo à la ELP. The secont track , called "The Knight of the North", begins with a very medieval-sounding violin intro, and much more of the highly Emerson-inspired keyboards, some beautiful guitar interludes, reminiscent of something right out of Genesis' Lamb album, followed by a part featuring some honky tonk sounding piano, and ending in a beautiful, spine chilling choir, singing in latin no less!

Disk two, called "The Lady", has 11 tracks, clocking at 58 minutes. Throughout this disk, the orchestral elements are more present, including a string trio, many back vocalists, giving incredible depth to this CD. It begins with Long and Long ago, featuring a piano intro reminiscent of Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto, great guitar licks on this track. The third track of this disk, called "Lirazel" has this very delicate medieval tambourine percussions and vocals by Suzie Bogdanowicz. The fourth track, called "The High Place", would make Howard Shore proud! Sung in Elvish (really!), with the full orchestral treatment, the spacy choir and celtic flute, it would fit perfectly in The Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Morrigan's Song is again very medieval, slowly turning into a somber melody, leading to another Tolkien-ish melody, called Walking Towards Doom. Quite a temporal shock when it turns into the great Hammond B3/mellotron/piano piece called Mog Ruith, a very enjoyable, intense solo bit. More orchestral interludes with The Lady Waits and The Mirror Cracks, and ending most obviously on a grandiose note with Having Caught a Glimpse, which features a wonderful blend of the orchestral, vocal and symphonic elements.

The album features some stunning production quality throughout, great lyrics penned by Steve Babb and impeccable musical arrangements. This is by far their most elaborate, painstakingly detailed album. Spine-tingling melodies, brilliant solos, great, flowing compositions... Glass Hammer's evolution with this epic album takes them one step closer to perfection! It's one of those albums that instantly hooks on to you and that you'll enjoy listening over and over again. immensely enjoyable album from great storytellers and equally brilliant prog musicians!

My rating for The Inconsolable Secret : 9/10(album reviewed by Robert Dansereau - 5/9/2005)