Perelandra

BEAUTIFUL MUSIC FROM GLASS HAMMER EARLIER RELEASED MATERIAL STILL TRYING TO FIND THEIR MUSICAL DIRECTION.

I felt it only decent to come back and give my honest opinion of Perelandra. I ordered this CD because of the reviews I read here and was quite disappointed. Now, this review deals only with Perelandra, I have heard no other works by Glass Hammer and I cannot comment, though from what I hear from friends, the things that I thought were lacking have been improved.First, one of the big problems here is the vocals. Frankly, whoever these guys are, they can't sing. There is a female voice in the background who has a few prominent lines who obviously sings MUCH better than the fellow doing most of the leads. She should be the only one singing any leads. The guy sounds like a dull version of David Paich (from Toto) who strains to hit some rather low notes and sounds off key in a few instances.The music is brighter subject matter. The soundscape is lush and very well orchestrated, though a little under produced. The melodies could use a little work, they tend to be bland and unimaginative in spots. I hate to be so down on a band that seems to have alot of promise, but they just didn't quite get a hit with this one. I would give this CD away but I am not sure if I know anyone who would like it. And I am a big prog fan and have lots of friends into the same. Hope this helps. Not sure how they are now, but if you want to try Glass Hammer, I suggest you look at one of their other CDs. Then maybe you could tell me how they are.

With Glass Hammer you can be sure of one thing: that every new album will be different. It's as if each new album is a new band.This one differs quite a bit, and is probably their second best, after Lex Rex.The instrumentals, as always, are superb. Equally good, the singing is great. (The singing is usually GH's weak point.)There's even a very nice classical pastiche: a synthesizer snippet from Mendelssohn's 4th Symphony, called "Felix the Cat."Above all, there is great variety and inventiveness.

This is GH's second album and very different from their later efforts. I don't like the new singer on the last three albums - too much like Jon Anderson of YES. I like Fred and Steve's vocals better. There is alot of variety in these songs and spoken parts are not too long (like on Lex Rex). The frightened girl on "Enda the Lion" is a bit scary, but not disturbing.There is a general positive feeling on all their albums that is encouraging to my spirit!

I'm not sure why there are bad reviews of this one. I think it is great. This is actually very progressive and probably their weirdest. I love the song that has the Adrian Belew type guitar solo and Heaven is a mini masterpiece. I also love the instrumental work. Once again, Glass Hammer amazes me. Why is this band so underrated??

Very good album.