ON TO EVERMORE

Glass Hammer officially began in 1992 when longtime friends Steve Babb and Fred Schendel began writing and recording the Tolkienesque concept album Journey of the Dunadan. They released the album independently in 1993 and were amazed when several thousand copies were purchased through the internet, The QVC Shop At Home Network, several international distributors, and their own toll-free order number. The stage was set for a successful career that now includes numerous albums and an enthusiastic, world-wide fan base that continues to grow at a steady rate. [Glass Hammer's official site]

This third album "On To Evermore was originally released on February 18, 1998 under Arion Records/Sound Resources label. It's a continuation, story-line wise, from their previous release Perelandra which revolved around a fantasy world they named it as "Evermore". The masterminds of the album are still the duo Steve Babb and Fred Schendel. The liner notes give a little more aid in following the plot.

The band expected that the centerpiece of this album is the almost seventeen minute epic "Arianna" (track 5). The music is basically a keyboard-drenched composition with some good guitar crunch all over the passages. It moves too slow from the opening "On To Evermore" (7:00) where there is hard to find catchy tagline melody. The melody and harmony do not really move naturally even though there are some catchy notes but do not move smoothly from one segment to another. When it moves to the next tracks "The Mayor Of Longview" (5:26) and "The Conflict" (5:45) I find not only catchy melody this album suffers but it lacks soul and energy. Everything sounds to flow in floating style with no firm base where the notes are leading to. Even, I am not quite impressed with "Arianna" (16:41) which not only suffers in melody but it has structure issue as each segment do not contribute a cohesive whole to the epic.

Having known the music of Glass Hammer, I can only say that this is a neo progressive music which should be compared to Marillion, IQ, Pallas, Pendragon. Talking about Marillion, if you compare "On To Evermore" with Marillion's debut album "Script for a Jester's Tear", this one lacks on catchy melody, soul & energy, and of course the structural integrity of the songs it contains. Despite all of this, I love the keyboard solo di "Arianna" and stunning guitar solo in "Only Red". Unfortunately they do not help much when I look at the overall album. "This Fading Age" is really a poorly composed music (so sorry for being honest .) as it lacks catchy melody and does not flow naturally, too boring for me. Only for collectors of neo prog this album is suitable. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW (i-Rock! Music Community)