Glass Hammer

**Glass Hammer** is an American prog rock band who have used The Space Trilogy as inspiration.

From Chattanooga, Tennessee, they were created and led by Steve Babb and Fred Schendel.

## History

Schendel and Babb (then credited as "Stephen DeArqe") first met in 1986, and formed Glass Hammer in 1992 when they began to write and record *Journey of the Dunadan*, a concept album based on the story of Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien's *The Lord of the Rings* on which they performed most vocals and instruments. To their surprise, the album, released the following year, sold several thousand units via the Internet, TV home shopping, and phone orders, convincing them that Glass Hammer was a project worth continuing.

Embarking on a small tour in the south-east of the US, the band was joined by singer Michelle Young (who had been featured as a guest on a single track of *Journey of the Dunadan*), and drummer Walter Moore. With this line-up, they released their second album *Perelandra* in 1995, with Moore performing guitars instead of drums (which were handled by Schendel), and all four members performing lead vocals. It is another concept album, this time inspired by C. S. Lewis' *The Chronicles of Narnia* and *Space Trilogy* book series.

The following year, *The Inconsolable Secret* would mark the last album with the line-up effective since *The Middle-Earth Album*, as Moore would leave his role as full-time member following the release of the album. In parallel to these studio albums, this line-up had also recorded and released the live album *Live at Nearfest* and the live DVD *Lex Live*, both recorded in 2003 and released in 2004.

After the departure of Moore, Glass Hammer recruited Carl Groves as their new male lead vocalists, recording and releasing the live DVD *Live at Belmont* in 2006. After a compilation album of rare/previously unreleased tracks titled *The Compilations*, the band released their first studio album with Groves, *Culture of Ascent*, in 2007. In 2009, the band took a completely different musical direction for their tenth studio album, *Three Cheers for the Broken-Hearted*, a pop rock album without Groves with focus on Bogdanowicz's vocals.Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; invalid names, e.g. too many rogarchives Cheers">Three Cheers for the Broken-Hearted. Progarchives.</ref> The album was received negatively by fans due to departing from the band's usual progressive sound; although Schendel and Babb defended the quality of the album, they later admitted that they should not have released it under the Glass Hammer moniker.

In 2017, the band released *Untold Tales*, a compilation album of unreleased or hard to find Glass Hammer recordings originating from the early 90s to 2017, and as such featured both current and former members of Glass Hammer. On the 2018 Cruise to the Edge festival, on which he was also performing with Yes, Davison performed with Glass Hammer as a guest, marking the first time he performed live with the band. On April 18, 2018, Glass Hammer announced their upcoming live album *Mostly Live*, which does not feature Kamran Alan Shikoh; they also removed Shikoh from the band's lineup on their official Facebook, stating in a post "And then there were four."

## Music

While many musicians have appeared on Glass Hammer albums over the years, Babb and Schendel have remained the core of the band. Both men play a variety of instruments, but Babb mainly concentrates on bass guitar and keyboards while Schendel also plays keyboards as well as various guitars and drums (until the addition of live drummer Matt Mendians to the studio recording band in 2004). They also sing, although a number of other vocalists (most notably Michelle Young, Walter Moore, Susie Bogdanowicz, Carl Groves, and Jon Davison) have also handled lead vocal duties.

Lyrically, Glass Hammer is inspired mostly by their love of fantasy literature (most notably Tolkien and C. S. Lewis) and by their Christian faith. Although by their own admission they have tried to avoid becoming an overtly Christian band, their 2002 release *Lex Rex* was a concept album based on a Roman soldier's encounter with Jesus.

Musically, their most apparent influences are Yes, Kansas, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and to a less noticeable extent, Genesis. While Glass Hammer has, for the most part, combined those influences into a characteristic style of their own, they made much more direct references to the aforementioned bands on their 2000 album *Chronometree*, which told the story of a drug-addled progressive rock fan who becomes convinced aliens are speaking to him through the music he listens to.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Biography - since 1992. *Official Glass Hammer website*.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Courter, Barry. "High-profile concerts give Glass Hammer option to be choosy", October 13, 2017.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Glass Hammer. The ProgRock Website.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Perelandra. Glass Hammer official website.
5. ↑ "The Inconsolable Secret", Glass Hammer website.
6. ↑ Live at Nearfest. Glass Hammer official website.
7. ↑ Lex Live DVD. Glass Hammer official website.
8. ↑ "official page for the album", Glass Hammer website.
9. ↑ Shadowlands. Glass Hammer official website.
10. ↑ "Something Else! Interview: Steve Babb and Fred Schendel of Glass Hammer", Something Else!, May 29, 2013.
11. ↑ Glass Hammer to release Untold Tales in October. *TeamRock* (September 22, 2017).
12. ↑ UNTOLD TALES Pre-Order Now!. *Glass Hammer's official website* (September 11, 2017).
13. ↑ UNTOLD TALES will feature vocalists Walter Moore, Susie Bogdanowicz, Jon Davison, Carl Groves, Laura Lindstrom, Fred Schendel and Steve Babb. *Glass Hammer's official facebook* (September 7, 2017).
14. ↑ Medina, Scott (February 16, 2018). Cruise to the Edge 2018: The Successful Reinvention Of A Progressive Rock Festival. Sonic Perspectives.
15. ↑ Medina, Scott (April 18, 2018). And then there were four.. Sonic Perspectives.