Product Format: CD
Price: £14.16 (exc)
£16.99 (inc)
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Perennial CDS favourite from year 2000 where ELP, YES & FLOYD influences all merge for a keyboard driven Symphonic Prog epic that has it all and more!
This album has been a top seller since it first arrived here in 2000. It is a phenomenal, mostly instrumental prog epic that is really all one long track entitled ‘All In Good Time’. Each passage is split into individual sections (some instrumental), with two songs embedded in the middle. Heavily influenced by ELP, a bit of PINK FLOYD and a fair bit of YES too, the album was written, produced and recorded by Fred Schendel (Hammond organ, Mellotron, Mini-Moog, keyboards, acoustic, electric and slide guitar {lead and rhythm}, auto-harp, drums and backing vocals) and Steve Babb (bass guitar, keyboards, Mellotron, assorted analogue synths, and backing vocals). The duo call in Brad Marler (lead/backing vocals & acoustic guitar), Walter Moore (drums, electric & acoustic guitar), plus Arjen Lucassen (of AYREON) & Terry Clouse (for additional lead guitars). This is a fantastic keyboard based prog album with fine guitar work, good vocal arrangements and top-notch production. Their sound quite blatantly incorporates influences of the best elements of ELP and YES, blending them into their own wonderful brand of stylish symphonic rock, and believe me, seldom will you hear it done better than GLASS HAMMER do it!!
Let’s go into this album in fine detail…
During the opening two minutes this album sounds like a fresh new take on ELP’s ‘Tarkus’, as right from the word go, the band strike up some tremendous Hammond riffs backed by a solid rhythm section and miles of other dynamic keyboard textures – great stuff and a fantastic way to open the album. The ELP feel continues on throughout much of this album, but it does depart slightly when Chris Squire / Billy Sherwood style vocals (more harmonic than Greg Lake resonances) emerge, but the Hammond licks are still in there and kicking, with added waves of Mellotron strings helping carry the main theme of the song along in style. Several hot instrumental breaks follow, and all of this leaves you in no doubt as to who influenced this band the most! At the five minute point things are starting to build toward furnace temperatures with masses of superb guitar/synth soloing coming in on top of the thick, jabbing organ chords, confirming that these guys really can do the business when it comes to dynamic, symphonic, keyboard dominated prog! As the track closes near the six-minute mark a fading Steve Howe styled guitar (like the one on the Yes epic; ‘Soon’) closes the piece down on a swift, but beautifully atmospheric note. A strummed acoustic guitar, with a haunting synth melody, intros ‘Eldritch Wind’ - a strong melodic prog song with a good vocal arrangement, and then it’s straight into ‘Revelation’, which goes straight back into ‘Tarkus’ territory’ with another instrumental passage of fiery Hammond improvisations over tight bass and thunderous drums, later to be joined by an array of singing guitars that sweep the piece off into a different dimension. After three minutes of classy jamming, the vocal part starts up again, and it changes tempo completely with a beautiful mix of close harmony vocals and sombre Mellotron strings, forming a slower, more reflective section that builds into something more substantial as it develops. The piece closes with a guitar and Mellotron spot similar to the one at the end of the opening passage, but this one lasts much longer and sounds totally exquisite, with echoes of a classic from the past in the air, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at the time! That closes part 1 of the ‘All In Good Time’ piece, and the first of the 2 non-concept tracks appear in a blaze of synth solos backed with more stabbing organ textures, getting ‘A Perfect Carousel’ off to a fantastic start. The rest of the piece really cuts it too with the keyboards building layer upon layer, in a sort of Yes meets ELP style, with multi-choral keyboards capping the whole thing off near the close – as classic a piece of symphonic prog as you will get! The more gentle acoustic beginnings to ‘Chronos Deliverer’ are superb indeed, with mournful Mellotron textures wailing behind a reflective, soothing vocal, with little touches of Wakeman-esque synths tinkering away in the background – again, this closes sounding very much like a Yes ballad from the ‘Close To The Edge’ period (or is it ‘Going For The One’?) and (for those who remember them) there’s a bit of MACHIAVEL’s ‘Rope Dancer’ from their magnificent ‘Mechanical Moonbeams’ album in there too – two really excellent tracks from the GLASS HAMMER boys! Part 2 of ‘All In Good Time’ opens in a blaze of instrumental glory, featuring keyboards a-plenty, with the organ initially down in the mix in favour of massed string synths and other ‘big’ keyboard sounds. Heavenly choral voices coupled with fast moving synths duelling with soaring, LYNYRD SKYNYRD-esque electric guitars and percussion complete this massive instrumental soundscape – a real anthemic keyboard fest for all that get off on the synthesizer’s place in the world of progressive music. ‘Chronoverture’ is a shorter, but equally effective instrumental track that sees the return of the organ and piano leads, with highlights in the shape of keyboard runs that evoke images of Rick Wakeman in his prime and soaring guitar breaks that Steve Morse would be proud of and. The piano comes straight in to introduce the final two parts of the main track, and after it’s brief intro, it’s back into ‘Tarkus’ mode; big time, with a fast moving instrumental passage that evokes flashbacks of some of the finest moments in early 70’s prog history. The GLASS HAMMER sound is smoother, adding a more symphonic touch to that raw energy that belonged to ELP, but this only adds to the enjoyment factor for me. You can easily imagine Emerson and Wakeman jamming together in some kind of super-group when you listen to this track, and there is even a fantastic passage just past the half way mark, where a Steve Howe styled slide guitar sound soars up into the heavens and takes the piece into a new dimension for a few short moments – all exciting stuff! After more organ and synth improvisations, a deep bass line brings up the finale with vocals (harmony and solo) returning for the first time in a while. It’s a slowly building, powerfully dynamic piece with all the synths and keyboards taking part in the run up to a climax of sorts. As the final countdown begins the track drops into a kind of atmospheric Mellotron phase, before fuzzed guitars and organ start to build a huge wall of sound that is initially threatening, but then shifts into all-out attack, with pounding percussion and Mellotron choirs driving the piece to it’s conclusion. Just as you think it’s all going to end in total mayhem, the track breaks out into a new melodic theme, with some harmony vocals, more Tarkus styled Hammond breaks, bird-like weeping guitar textures plus some of the harsher, soaring variety, building to a (sort of) false ending, where the sounds of wailing Mellotrons takes things to their final conclusion. Then, we can let you into a little secret…. There’s an untitled hidden track at the end - a special surprise for the fans, but we’ll let you discover that for yourselves!
CHONOMETREE Track List:
All In Good Time – Part One
01. a) Empty Space / b) Revealer (6:45)
02. c) An Eldritch Wind (3:26)
03. d) Revelation / e) Chronometry (8:07)
04. f) Chronotheme [end of part one] (4:41)
05. Perfect Carousel (5:17)
06. Chronos Deliverer (5:47)
All In Good Time – Part Two
07. g) Shapes Of The Morning (1:55)
08. h) Chronoverture (5:59)
09. i) The Waiting / j) Watching The Sky (5:38)
TPT – 48:47