Showing Progressive Rockers Glass Hammer Some Opinion Love

It can be difficult for conservatives to find artists who are aligned with their views, no matter what artistic outlet they use. Even more so when one looks outside of the main stream. When it comes to the outside, progressive rock can be as far as it will go.

Steve Babb is cofounder, and Fred Schendel is coleader of Midwest prog-rockers Glass Hammer. He knows these two facts very well.

As he notes to RedState, “With the exception of the ’70s, the golden days of prog, our genre has always been unpopular with the masses. It was even despised in its golden age by critics. However, the prog rock fanbase is extremely loyal. They’re not prone to follow faddish music, and they stick with the bands they support for decades!”

Glass Hammer’s latest effort, thematically a successor to 2020’s Dreaming CityIs. Skallagram — Into The Breach. What separates it from both the standard image of classic prog rock and the more recently developed prog metal genre is that it manages the neat trick of rocking hard without abandoning prog’s adventuresome, melodic nature.

New vocalist Hannah Pryor’s powerful but not overpowering voice is a perfect foil for Babb, Schendel, and their cohorts’ thundering backdrop of sweeping, crunchy riffs, sitting alongside more contemplative moments, allowing the music to expand and breathe without trying to squeeze everything into minuscule time slots.

It has musical colors and shapes that offer new pleasures with every listen. It’s probably a bit much for your average Dua Lipa fan, but for those who have a taste for fresh melodies mixed with muscle, Skallagram — Into The Breach is a welcome slice of tasty pie that’s as far from a one-trick pony as it gets.

Babb returns to the original question: Why prog?

“Essentially, when Fred and I formed Glass Hammer, we agreed to produce albums of music that we’d both actually listen to. We’d tried getting deals in mainstream bands and nearly pulled it off a couple of times.

We were both prog-lovers at heart and enough musically proficient to switch. Additionally, we both get along great in the studio, enjoy the challenge of creating ‘epic’ music with grandiose themes, and the notoriety that comes with it. As a musician, it’s made for an interesting and rewarding life. No regrets there.”

Babb, a Christian conservative who is also a Christian, doesn’t use any obvious references. However, he does not conceal his opinions on these subjects. While you won’t find a prog-rock version of John Ondrasik/Five For Fighting’s “Blood on My Hands” in Glass Hammer’s catalog, Babb is unafraid to work unmistakable spiritual themes into his work, usually through an allegorical prism of Christianity and fantasy a la J.R.R. Tolkien.

Babb comments, “Tolkien said, and I agree: ‘Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.’ He called this idea ‘subcreation,’ and believed that our own self-made myths, though flawed, reflect a ‘fragment of the true light.’ In that spirit, I write.

“Skallagrim’s story, which is fleshed out not only in our albums but in my novel Skallagrim – In The Vales Of Pagarna due out in March, could be enjoyed merely as an adventure tale set in a fantasy world, and that’s fine. It’s more Tolkien and less Lewis in that regard. God, however, is available to anyone with the ability to see.

“My protagonist is trapped in a cursed world, fighting monsters (and often enough, his own mind) to find his lost love and his memory—both of which were stolen. Skallagrim eventually finds his strength, though not in himself, but outwardly. These themes all have a spiritual connotation to me. A world living under a curse, evil, the loss of joy, the forgetting of who we are and were meant to be, the source of hope — though dealt with in a fantasy setting, are representative of the true state of things.”

Glass Hammer has been around for more than 30 years and there have been many different members. The current lineup, which includes Schendel and Babb as well as Aaron Raulston and Reece Boyd, is composed of the above mentioned Pryor and Schendel. Referencing Pryor, Babb says with a chuckle, “Hannah came to our studio to do vocals for a local church / praise & worship album that we produced, and we snatched her up to be our singer. Amazing voice! In The Breach is her first foray into rock, and she’s loving it.”

What is Babb’s source of his belief? “I was raised with conservative values and attended conservative churches. While my interpretation of Scripture suggests that I have certain positions, my primary factor in my decision to vote is my ability for critical thinking. There is an enduring moral order: human nature is constant and moral truths, permanent.”

He adds, “My faith informs my music / lyrics and my political views. I’m very passionate about the music and strongly opinionated about politics. However, I don’t mix politics and music. I’d alienate well over half our audience if I did. They know we are trustworthy and they trust us not to do so. It’s our job to entertain them, and bring joy and wonder into their lives, not lecture them.”

There you go. Even as Larry Norman once sang, “why should the devil have all the good music,” Glass Hammer brings to the fore the truth that liberals have no exclusive claim on it either.

The album is available on the band’s website.