After Journey Of The Dunadan in ’93, Perelandra in ’95, the "inbetweenie" Live And Revived in ’97 and On To Evermore in ’98, Chronometree has to be the album for Glass Hammer. The main influences of keyboardist Fred Schendel remain untouched, yet next to his love for ELP, the big names from the seventies have entered the music. Especially in the domain of the guitar where Terry Clouse (Somnambulist) dares to get close to Steve Howe. The many acoustic sidesteps make your hair stand up. A positive thing certainly has to be the drum sound of Walter Moore, whilst Arjen Lucassen helps out as well. The band sounds more mature now thanks to new found lead singer Brad Marler, whilst the original vocalist Steve Babb has now turned to playing the bass. That nice bass sound is just perfect during the swinging “Revelation” where Schendel rocks the Hammond for the very first time. Like the big names in the seventies there is also more attention for great melodies and the cosntruction of the songs. A nice example is “Chronometry,” bathing in floating mellotron and harmonic vocals before the Rickenbacker sets in and the vocals lean towards Happy the Man. And we’re not even talking about that wonderful organ which gets up and down the scales together with the guitar and those lightspeed Mini-Moog interventions. Sure you’ll find masses of influences on this album but you can be sure that every musician within Glass Hammer approaches the material from a very professional angle and with the right know-how about how prog should sound! As with classic albums such as Close To The Edge, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Dark Side Of The Moon, Chronometree is an album which grows on you every time you listen to it. "A Perfect Carousel" reminds me of the ‘older’ work of Belgian band Machiavel combined with the contemporary sounds of The Verve in order to result in the Yes we all know from their Going For The One period: acoustic guitar on top of a sea of mellotron and a little organ that escaped out of “Awaken.” A Steve Howe soundalike remains active during “Chronos Deliver,” whilst the short but vehement “Shapes Of The Morning” has Rocket Scientists written all over it. In “Chronoverture” you hear elements from Close To The Edge and Tarkus geniously combined into a totally new whole. Prog recycling? “The Waiting” falls apart into two segments the first being very solemn and classical in order to put that heavenly organ in the spotlight once again, whilst the song evolves into a more complex Gentle Giant kind of way. This then introduces “Watching The Sky," an instrumental trifle which could easily have been lifted from the Gryphon or Minimum Vital vaults. If Glass Hammer is a completely new name to add to your agenda then you’ll be sitting in the front row with this Chronometree album. Credit cards accepted. John 'Bobo' Bollenberg |
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