Glass Hammer - "At The Gate": one of the best prog releases of the year

 It’s been a monumental task on many levels, but Glass Hammer mainman Steve Babb and partner-in-prog Fred Schendel have finally completed their trio of albums — and accompanying novel - recounting the sci-fi/sword and sorcery exploits of the thief Skallagrim, his anthropomorphic sword and a quest for love and memory.

The first album in this series, Dreaming City, had several guest artists appearing, especially in the vocal department. And, although the follow-up,... Into The Breach, had a much leaner line-up, between them Babb and Schendel explored a variety of styles including space rock, electronica, playful 7os-inspired prog and even country rock. With At The Gate, the line-up remains compact and the music direction veers much more solidly into classic and symphonic rock territory.

There are big 7os-edged rockers like Savage with its great swaggering guitar and Hammond, and All Alone which is part rocking clarion call, part stark desperation. Occasionally, points of reference suggest themselves — The Years Roll By feels somewhat reminiscent of Magenta, due perhaps to Hannah Pryor’s clear yet robust vocal delivery; and Standing At The Gate’s slightly discordant main riff has a whiff of Spock’s Beard about it, although the verse vocals take some unexpected clever turns. Elsewhere, dreamy instrumental North Of North has light washes of synth playing against a spacey sequenced keyboard with a spritely one-two sucker punch interlude of Hammond.

Approaching the denouement, In The Shadows stays with the bare bones of piano and voice — Pryor providing poignant conflicting statements of hope and despair. Slowly building from its initially decidedly Beatles-esque beginnings, B’s Love ends the album with a feel not unlike a super-charged Fleetwood Mac, before fading to silence.

Taken as a trio of albums, overall enjoyment and appreciation of this mountain of music will be much enhanced by a total immersion in the grand sweep of the story, the lyrics, the sounds and essence of Skallagrim’s saga. It has been an epic undertaking, simply by dint of its proportions, and Glass Hammer are to be applauded for their ambition and vision, but such ambition can create the pressure of expectation. At The Cate is a big album with big themes. It’s terrifically performed, very well produced and packaged marvellously. A monumental opus certainly; yet, in the end, there’s a nagging feeling that our farewell to Skallagrim isn’t quite as climactic, as exciting, as surprising and as much of a progression from its two preceding instalments as he might deserve.