Glass Hammer
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist
Glass Hammer is an American progressive rock band from Chattanooga, Tennessee, created and led by Steve Babb and Fred Schendel.<ref name="Official Biography">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Times Free Press">Template:Cite news</ref>
Babb and Schendel, who founded the band in 1992, are the only constant members in the lineup, having surrounded themselves by various guest performers. The different lineups included several lead vocalists, including Michelle Young and Jon Davison. Originally a studio project only, the band occasionally performs live, especially since the early 2010s, but never does large-scale tours.<ref name="Times Free Press"/>
HistoryEdit
Origins and early years (1992-1997)Edit
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.<ref name="Prog Rock Website">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Times Free Press"/> 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.<ref name="Official Biography"/>
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.<ref name="Prog Rock Website"/> 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.<ref name="Official Perelandra">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is another concept album, this time inspired by C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia and Space Trilogy book series.<ref name="Official Perelandra"/>
After a small tour to support the album, Young left the band in 1997 to pursue a solo career.<ref name="Prog Rock Website"/> The same year, the band released Live and Revived, a live/compilation album consisting of recorded live rehearsals from the previous tour and unreleased material written shortly after the release of Journey of the Dunadan. The album was originally limited to 1000 copies, but was later re-released. In parallel to Glass Hammer, Babb and Schendel created a techno/dance project, titled TMA-2, releasing two unsuccessful albums, Artifact One (1996) and Tick Tock Lilies (1998), before dropping the project.<ref name="Prog Rock Website"/>
Moore / Bogdanowicz years (1998-2009)Edit
In 1998, Glass Hammer released their third studio album, On to Evermore, which saw Moore acting as main lead vocalist.<ref name="Official Evermore">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was followed two years later by Chronometree, another concept album following a young man who becomes convinced that aliens are trying to communicate with him through his albums. Guest Brad Marler provided lead vocals for the album.<ref name="Prognaut Chronometree">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Susie Bogdanowicz, who had provided backing vocals on Chronometree, joined the band as a full-time member, while Moore stopped acting as drummer, acting solely as singer on studio works, and also as guitarist in concerts; this would go on to become Glass Hammer's longest and steadiest line-up, which would be featured on the next four albums, the first being The Middle-Earth Album in 2001, their second album based on Lord of the Rings after Journey of the Dunadan. Jokingly marketed as a live album recorded during a performance at The Prancing Pony, an inn in Lord of the Rings, the album's first half emulated the sound of a band actually performing at the inn, while the second half was recorded like a traditional studio album.<ref name="Official Middle-earth">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Middle-Earth Album was followed by Lex Rex the following year.<ref name="Allmusic Lex">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The band's seventh studio album Shadowlands was released in 2004.<ref name="Allmusic Shadowlands">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Official Shadowlands">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Official Inconsolable">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="Official Nearfest">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Official Lex Live">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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.<ref name="Official Ascent">Template:Cite news</ref> 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. 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 name.<ref name="Something Else! Three Cheers">Template:Cite news</ref>
Davison years (2009-2014)Edit
Later in 2009, both Bogdanowicz and Groves left Glass Hammer, and Schendel and Babb recruited new singer Jon Davison and new guitarist Kamran Alan Shikoh. Together, this new line-up released three studio albums: If in 2010, Cor Cordium in 2011, and Perilous in 2012. The albums saw a return to progressive rock, with a shift towards a symphonic rock-oriented sound compared to previous albums.<ref name="time if">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Interviews">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Official Cordium">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Official Perilous">Template:Cite news</ref> All three albums were very positively received, and resulted in a notable gain in popularity for the band.<ref name="Interviews"/>
In 2013, the band re-releasedThe Inconsolable Secret, with several tracks re-recorded with Davison and Shikoh and included in a third disc.<ref name="Official Inconsolable"/>
Meanwhile, Davison was selected by Yes as their new lead singer, which resulted in him having a reduced role in Glass Hammer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2013, Bogdanowicz and Groves re-joined Glass Hammer, while Aaron Raulston joined as full-time drummer on January 17.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> With this seven-members line-up, the band released Ode to Echo in 2014, featuring all current and former full-time lead vocalists in the band's history, with current members Babb, Schendel, Bogdanowicz, Groves and Davison, and contributions by former vocalists Walter Moore and Michelle Young.<ref name="Prog Rock Mag Echo">Template:Cite news</ref> After the release, Davison would quit working with the band due to his work with Yes, although he would only be officially removed from the line-up years later.
Recent years and live performances (2015-present)Edit
With the line-up now consisting of Schendel, Babb, Bogdanowicz, Groves, Shikoh, and Raulston, the band released their fifteenth studio album The Breaking of the World in 2015.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2016, Carl Groves left the band once again, with the band choosing to focus on Bogdanowicz as vocalist.<ref name="Official Biography"/> With this line-up, they released Valkyrie, a concept album following "a soldier’s struggle to return home from the horrors of war, to the girl who loves him and must ultimately find her way to him"; the album's vocals were focused on Bogdanowicz, although Schendel and Babb also performed secondary lead vocals for the first time in years.<ref name="Times Free Press"/><ref name="Team Rock Valkyrie">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In a shift from their usual recording methods, the band rehearsed the album for several weeks, in order to record the album as if it were an actual live performance.<ref name="Official Biography"/>
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.<ref name="Times Free Press"/><ref name="Team Rock Untold">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Untold Pre-order">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Untold featured vocalists">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> 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.<ref name="Davison 2018">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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."<ref name="Shikoh 2018">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref>
On August 13, 2018, after several weeks of teasing via videos featuring the character of Tom from their fourth album Chronometree released in 2000, the band announced their seventeenth studio album, Chronomonaut for an October 12, 2018 release. A a sequel to Chronometree, the album follows Tom "in the modern day though his mid-life crisis", as "the voices have returned and have been urging Tom to time-travel back to the glory days of the early prog scene."<ref name="ChronomonautAnnouncement">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="ChronomonautAnnouncement2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The release coincided with a remastered re-release of Chronometree with a bonus track.<ref name="ChronometreeRemaster">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref>
On December 8, 2019, the band published two videos about their next album, Dreaming City, stating that "all the basic tracks are down. All the songs have their shapes and their arrangements." They stated that their inspirations included 1970s' Rush, Hawkwind, and Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné novels (the first novel in the series being 1961's The Dreaming City); it would be a concept album themed around sword and sorcery, but in a "more Tongue-in-cheek [way than] people manage to understand sometimes."<ref name="DreamingInterviewPt1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="DreamingInterviewPt2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The album would be set in the same universe as The Inconsolable Secret.<ref name="DreamingSetInconsolable">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref>
MusicEdit
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.<ref name="Official Biography"/>
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.
PersonnelEdit
MembersEdit
Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2
Current members
- Fred Schendel – keyboards, guitars, lead and backing vocals (1992–present), drums (1992-2004)
- Steve Babb – bass, keyboards, lead and backing backing vocals (1992–present), percussion (1992-2004)
- Aaron Raulston - drums (2013–present)
- Hannah Pryor – lead vocals (2021–present)
Former members
- Michelle Young – lead vocals (1993-1997; guest: 1992, 2013), keyboards (1993-1995)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref>
- Walter Moore – drums (1993-2000), lead vocals, guitar (1995-2005; guest vocalist: 2005-2014)
- Susie Bogdanowicz - lead vocals (1999-2009, 2013-2021)
- Carl Groves – lead vocals (2006–2009, 2013-2016)
- Jon Davison – lead vocals (2009–2014; guest: 2018)<ref name="Davison 2018"/>
- Kamran Alan Shikoh – guitars, electric sitar (2009–2018)
Template:Col-2 Former session/guest musicians
- David Carter – guitars (1992-2005)
- Brad Marler – lead vocals (2000)
- Terry Clouse – guitars (2000)
- Sarah Snyder – vocals (2001)
- Bethany Warren (Susie Bogdanowicz's younger sister) – vocals (2004–2014)
- Flo Paris – vocals (2004–2014)
- Matt Mendians – drums (2004–2014)
- The Adonia String Trio – string trio (2005–2014)
- David Wallimann – guitars (2007–2014)
- Randall Williams – drums (2009-2013)
TimelineEdit
<timeline> ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:105 bottom:80 top:5 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/2025 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Colors =
id:Vocals value:red legend:Vocals id:Guitars value:green legend:Guitars id:Keyboards value:purple legend:Keyboards id:Bass value:blue legend:Bass id:Drums value:orange legend:Drums id:salbums value:black legend:Studio_release id:bars value:gray(0.95)
Legend = position:bottom columns:3
BackgroundColors = bars:bars ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1992 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1992
BarData =
bar:Young text:"Michelle Young" bar:Bogdanowicz text:"Susie Bogdanowicz" bar:Groves text:"Carl Groves" bar:Davison text:"Jon Davison" bar:Pryor text:"Hannah Pryor" bar:Shikoh text:"Kamran Alan Shikoh" bar:Schendel text:"Fred Schendel" bar:Babb text:"Steve Babb" bar:Moore text:"Walter Moore" bar:Raulston text:"Aaron Raulston"
PlotData=
width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)
bar:Young from:01/06/1993 till:01/01/1997 color:Vocals bar:Bogdanowicz from:01/01/2000 till:01/12/2009 color:Vocals bar:Bogdanowicz from:01/07/2013 till:09/04/2021 color:Vocals bar:Groves from:01/01/2006 till:01/01/2009 color:Vocals bar:Groves from:01/07/2013 till:01/01/2016 color:Vocals bar:Davison from:01/12/2009 till:11/03/2014 color:Vocals bar:Pryor from:09/04/2021 till:end color:Vocals bar:Moore from:01/06/1993 till:01/01/1995 color:Drums bar:Moore from:01/01/1995 till:01/01/2000 color:Drums width:7 bar:Moore from:01/01/1995 till:12/07/2005 color:Vocals bar:Shikoh from:01/12/2009 till:18/04/2018 color:Guitars bar:Babb from:01/01/1992 till:end color:Bass bar:Babb from:01/01/1992 till:end color:Keyboards width:7 bar:Schendel from:01/01/1992 till:end color:Keyboards bar:Schendel from:01/01/1992 till:end color:Guitars width:7 bar:Schendel from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/2004 color:Drums width:5 bar:Raulston from:17/01/2013 till:end color:Drums
width:3 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Young from:01/06/1993 till:01/01/1995 color:Keyboards bar:Moore from:01/01/1995 till:12/07/2005 color:Guitars bar:Schendel from:01/01/1992 till:end color:Vocals bar:Babb from:01/01/1992 till:end color:Vocals
LineData =
layer:back color:salbums at:01/01/1993 at:01/11/1995 at:18/02/1998 at:01/05/2000 at:05/06/2001 at:01/09/2002 at:04/01/2004 at:12/07/2005 at:23/10/2007 at:24/11/2009 at:14/09/2010 at:25/10/2011 at:23/10/2012 at:11/03/2014 at:31/03/2015 at:27/09/2016 at:12/10/2018 at:15/10/2021 at:06/10/2022 at:27/10/2023
</timeline>
DiscographyEdit
Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2 Studio albums
- Journey of the Dunadan (1993)
- Perelandra (1995)
- On to Evermore (1998)
- Chronometree (2000)
- The Middle-Earth Album (2001)
- Lex Rex (2002)
- Shadowlands (2004)
- The Inconsolable Secret (2005, re-recorded in 2013)
- Culture of Ascent (2007)
- Three Cheers for the Broken-Hearted (2009)
- If (2010)
- Cor Cordium (2011)
- Perilous (2012)
- Ode to Echo (2014)
- The Breaking of the World (2015)
- Valkyrie (2016)
- Chronomonaut (2018)
- Dreaming City (2020)
- Skallagrim - Into the Breach (2021)
- At the Gate (2022)
- ARISE (2023)
- Rogue (2025)
Template:Col-2 Live albums
- Live and Revived (1997; also a compilation of previously unreleased tracks)
- Live at Nearfest (2004)
- Double Live (2015)
- Mostly Live (2018)
Live DVDs
- Lex Live (2004)
- Live at Belmont (2006)
- Live at the Tivoli (2008)
- Double Live (2015)
Others
- Love Changes (1995) – collaborative album by Tracy Cloud featuring Glass Hammer
- Harbour of Joy (1996) – collaborative Camel tribute album by various artists; provided the song "Air Born"
- The Compilations (2006) – compilation of rare/previously unreleased material from 1996-2004
- One (2010) – old recordings by Babb and Schendel from 1991-1992
- The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft (2012) – collaborative album by various artists; provided the song "Cool Air"
- Untold Tales (2017) – compilation of rare/previously unreleased material from 1993-2017
- A Matter of Time – Volume 1 (2020) – reworked tracks from previous albums
Related
- Artifact One (1996) – album by TMA-2, a techno/dance project by Babb and Schendel<ref name="Prog Rock Website"/>
- Tick Tock Lilies (1998) – second and last TMA-2 album<ref name="Prog Rock Website"/>
- David & Goliath - the Musical (2002) – Babb and Schendel <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Do Not See Me Rabbit (2011) – Schendel solo album, released under the name Trurl