CULTURE OF ASCENT

After many albums of songs featuring imitations of Yes stylings, Glass Hammer released this album with a Yes cover (South Side Of The Sky) and even had Yes' own Jon Anderson adding some background vocals on the album. What is surprising, however, is that after the cover song, Fred Schendel and Steve Babb finally find their own style, play very few imitation licks, and come up with a winner of an album.

The South Side Of The Sky cover is not bad. The first and final verse are played in an electronic/Eastern style, and work well. The middle section is fair, but stays too close to the original.

The remainder of the album is where the value comes in. The songs are very strong modern prog, with a heavy guitar style, and strong keyboards. There are a few guitar passages and bass lines that still sound a bit like Yes, but the comparison ends there. This is much closer to a great Spock's Beard or Transatlantic album than an ancient classic.

Jon Anderson's part is low key. The only place he's noticable is on the backing parts of Life By Light. He probably showed up near the end of production, and they found a few places to add his voice.

Still, this is a great album.