Cor Cordium
2011
Arion Records
Glass Hammer has been putting out consistently for the entirety of the 2000's and even more frequently this decade. Of this constant flow of new albums Glass Hammer has had very few missteps during the 00's, and, so far, even less during the 2010's. The decade started out with the stellar If, a slight slip-up with One, and a hearty rejuvenation with Cor Cordium. Now I myself have not gotten my hands on a physical Glass Hammer until I spotted Cor Cordium, and my was it a good first.
This album is nothing short of expected of Glass Hammer, a punchy, melodic prog-athon of the highest caliber. A part of the greatness of GH to me is their sense of self-awareness, particularly when it comes to how they define themselves genre-wise. All of the old prog bands weren't necessarily fond of calling themselves 'prog', either because it was an extremely new tag, or the bands simply didn't like themselves to be referred to as such. Glass Hammer however embraces the progressive rock label, letting it define every single musical blip that they make. Of course it must be addressed that Glass Hammer takes extreme influence from Yes, however for me I feel that the former is the superior. This may sound short sighted by Glass Hammer's clean cut modern utilizations of musical technology that Yes didn't have allows them to sound...just...better. Now I suppose you could just chalk this up to me being easily influenced by pretty sounds as opposed to the hard-work of Yes, but my respect for Yes has never waned. However their time has passed, and I believe Glass Hammer is a perfect band to take the mantle. Don't get me wrong, Yes can be more respected for what they were able to accomplish with much less to work with- I certainly do. But Glass Hammer is just, I guess, the "new Yes".
Enough case study, how is Cor Cordium itself? Like I said before, it is very punchy in it's delivery, and harnesses a sort of neo-prog type sound with it's heavy double-kick drums and booming electric. I know this might be heresy, but I actually consider Jon Davidson's vocals to be superior to Jon Anderson's (even in his prime). Davidson's harmonizations are simply better, and is more along the lines of Geddy Lee in quality standards. The opener 'Nothing Box' is simply fantastic, with a great atmosphere and also very lyrically sound. 'To Someone' is for those who like the long stuff, with changing tempos and moods- expected of a prog epic. The album closes out very nicely with 'She, a Lonely Tower', which is the final of the four epics of the album, and carries with it a somber note to the otherwise quite jovial album.
Another quality album from the oxymoron bunch. If you're looking for an example of great modern prog rock, then this album is for you.
2016 - The Frying Pan & Thatcher
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