IMAGES OF EDEN

If you have a few minutes, watch the video on YouTube of 'Shield Me'.

For me, this video/track represents the beating heart of 'Soulrise', new release from veteran progressive metal outfit, Images of Eden:

-The crackling energy of the music

-The pathos

-The carefully phrased lyrics

-The sense of spiritual battle, with real dangers and real resources

The Band

Gordon Tittsworth: All Vocals/ Rhythm Guitar Carlos Urquidi Perez: Lead Guitar L. Dean Harris: Piano/ Keyboards Eric Mulvaine- Bass Guitar Steve Dorssom- Drums/ Percussion

The Crackling Energy of the Music

This is high-octane, high-voltage progressive metal from a veteran outfit that is comprised of members who know their instruments and know how to wield them.

It's notable, and likely not coincidental, that according to vocalist Gordon's bio statement, 2018 marks a twenty-year anniversary, from the time in 1998 when he found himself, 'Staring down a fateful crossroads in life,' found himself headed in an unusual direction and envisioned a band completely unique in scope and sound.'

That vision has changed and evolved into today's iteration of 'Images of Eden'.

On 'Soulrise', we are treated to no-holds-barred progressive metal, with complicated arrangements, down-tuned guitars, absolutely knock-down drumming, nimble leads, a solid rhythm section (to my ears the bass guitar was mixed too low), keyboards that played a secondary role- and here was one of my few quibbles with the album.

I love keyboards in all kinds of progressive rock and metal, and keyboards while present and tasty on 'Soulrise' were sparse and rarely upfront.

And of course, those vocals

Gordon is- pun fully intended- an *unsung* hero of progressive music. That he is not known on a much wider stage, with his agile, expressive, powerful pipes, is a minor travesty- one which I hope and expect 'Soulrise' will begin to correct.

I found the vocal work- certainly the lead vocals, but also the harmonies and octaves, the different tonalities expressing different 'characters' and moods- entrancing.

The Pathos

Within the video track 'Shield Me', the subject of the piece is a young woman facing genuine dangers.

Chief among these is the ready, risky presence of the tinfoil packet of drugs.

Belying her innocent appearance, there are scars and track-marks on her wrist, and she nearly dies from her injection of these drugs.

The pathos comes in the way earthly and supernatural forces work both to destroy, and to protect her. There are both menacing and also comforting entities.

The Carefully Phrased Lyrics

Read nearly any article, posting, book, or blog in which 'God', or 'Salvation', or 'Jesus', or 'Spirit' are mentioned, and if you continue reading comments, it soon becomes obvious there are True Believers, and perhaps more vociferously, True Haters of anything of the genre.

So the challenge for anyone with this kind of spiritual belief and life, is to communicate with sensitivity and integrity what s/he believes and holds dear, yet without heavy-handed sermonizing or proselytizing.

'Soulrise' is lyric-dense

The lyrics thus take a central role in the appreciation of this album. (They are helpfully printed in full on the band's website: 'Soulrise' lyrics)

I read these lyrics as an unabashed, full-fledged recounting of spiritual battle, with no cringing from real-life crises and decisions, with agonizing soul-searching, and also with great optimism that we do not negotiate through these crises and decisions on our own.

It may be that others, as did I, found the length of the album and the density of the lyrics, challenging and sometimes fatiguing. For me they are relevant, poetic rather than rote, sensitive, and sometimes brutally honest.

The Sense of Spiritual Battle

Again, the video track depicts both the menacing, and the comforting presence of danger and of protection. That the main character nearly dies is certainly a present-day reality; that she survives is one of those instances we know happens in the world of drug addiction and recovery- yet also one of the mysteries of why some are spared and some are not.

No easy answers are given.

Struggle and Optimism

In conclusion, the 'beating heart' of 'Soulrise' is the reality of struggle, and the reality of of optimism- that within the struggle there is a deeper purpose, and a wider reality than we can easily see, yet we have hope.

All this- surrounded by fierce, precise, bristling progressive music, with few places to breathe easy.

Growing Edges

For me this album would have received a perfect or nearly perfect rating, had there been some memorable, hummable, catchy choruses. 'Shield me', the phrase, came close to this, yet I wanted some things to 'hang on to' and such phrases to sing or shout along to would have been great.

Related to that, melodies and song-lines for the lyrics were fairly complex and obscure. Timing and phrasing were difficult and technical. That's all fine, but sometimes the listener wants to participate!

My Rating

Easily 4.25 out of 5 crushing riffs.

Originally posted on my Progressive Rock Fanatics website: progressiverockfanatics.wordpress.com/

Images of Eden is a progressive metal band from USA with 3 albums issued to date, formed in 1998 by vocalist Gordon Tittsworth who is also the bassist and done some keybords arrangements aswell. This is their second album from 2006 released at Nightmare records named Sunlight of the spirit. Well, what we have here is solid prog metal, with some great vocal parts, the instrumental passages are more then ok, that means this album was a pleasent surprise for me. They remind me in places with Fates Warning,Trascending Mortality and with Mindwarp Chamber almost same sound and manner of compossing. I like the voice of Gordon Tittsworth , fiting ok in this kind of music, also he has a very clear tone of voice, I like a lot this kind of vocal arrangements. Some pieces stands as very strong: like title track divided in 3 parts, very well are the guitar parts also compose by the vocalist Gordon Tittsworth, and the last piece of the album, the longest Midnight's Tide , 11 min of great prog metal. To me is a good album, towards great in places, deserve 3 rounded to 3.5 for sure, would be much higher if they would use more keybords in the overall sound, the keybords are only sporadicalyy and are not at full intensity, anyway the short parts where the keybords are melted with guitars are good . Good album , good band, kind unnoticed to larger public.

Rebuilding the Ruins is progressive metal played in the old-school U.S. style. Obvious points of reference are bands like Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Queensrÿche, or Psychotic Waltz. As such, this isn't the most revolutionary formula out there, but the delivery and compositional prowess of Images of Eden is enough to make up for their somewhat derivative approach. The compositions are generally very memorable, the musicianship is professional, and the sheer emotion they inject into their music is impressive in itself. Just listen to songs like "Children of Autumn" or "Sunlight Of The Spirit Part IV- Images Of Eden" and you'll understand how this band puts their heart and soul into every note they play. My biggest issue here is ultimately the playing time, which almost reaches the 74 minute mark. Although there's plenty of variation to keep me entertained, I could see Rebuilding the Ruins benefiting greatly from a shorter length (somewhere in the 45-50 minute range maybe). The production is also, while not crippling, slightly under par. It sounds professional, but almost "low-budget" in a sense. That's not a huge complaint from me, though - production like this doesn't hurt my listening experience in any way.

Rebuilding the Ruins is a great album by Images of Eden that I would strongly advise fans of American-sounding progressive metal to take a listen to. There are enough memorable hooks, breathtaking instrumental runs, and interesting compositions to keep me coming back for more and more. If you're a fan of Fates Warning and Dream Theater, checking out this album will be a mandatory benchmark for 2011. I'll go with 3.5 stars here - Images of Eden has created some standout material that's surely worth looking into.

Before I even listened to this album I had very high expectations. For one, it was a concept album, so I assumed that "Rebuilding the Ruins" would have very nice flow to it. Also, from what I had heard, the musicianship on this album was very good. I was not let down on either point. Images of Eden have produced a very solid album that is very enjoyable.

Everything that they play sounds good. Usually, a band has at least one part on an album were they don't sound as good as the beginning, but Images of Eden sounds good all throughout. It starts in the first song "Crosses in the Sand" where very cool sound effects transfer into a pretty good guitar lick which is very tight with the drums. Something unique about this song is that the drums are kind of muddled in the beginning, which makes it have a funkier sound to it. Since the drums are more out of the picture, it leaves room for great solos by Dennis Mullin. The guitar solos on this album are very drawn out and make it much more progressive than metal, unlike many new progressive metal bands which, in my opinion, focus much more on metal. This puts them apart from the other new progressive metal bands out there. Since it is a concept album, "Rebuilding the Ruins" has many repeating themes that the band employs very well throughout. The themes seem to be mostly in the drums, guitars, and sometimes the bass guitar. The flow of the album is very nice, especially when it goes from the first half of the album, to the second half. What's cool in this case is that, it gets heavier, and faster, adding new interest in the album.

The second half of the album starts with the title track, "Rebuilding the Ruins", which features a very "Black Clouds and Silver Linings"-era Dream Theater sound. After the heavier parts it transfers to a lighter, airier part in which the vocal harmonies become more evident. It moves between the harmonies and deep, dark vocals. Gordon Tittsworth really has great vocal skills and he shows it throughout the album. He uses at least three different styles of singing that he employs throughout the album. One of them, which is my favorite, is an almost Fish-era Marillion sounding style that he uses a lot, and is definitely the one that matches best with Images of Eden's playing style. My least favorite is very nasally, but he doesn't sing with it that much, so it doesn't detract that much from my overall enjoyment of the album that much. Another cool one that he uses when the songs get heavier and darker is a deep, almost growl style that is really interesting.

The production is almost perfect. Eric Zimmermann (Fates Warning, Limp Bizkit, Deftones, Buckcherry, and Suicidal Tendencies) does a very good job of integrating all the music together, but there are some slight discrepancies. The only noticeable one is during some of the guitar solos the sound is a bit chintzy, though that might be the sound they are looking for.

All this being said, "Rebuilding the Ruins" is still a very good release from Images of Eden. I would recommend this to any fan of progressive metal in general, and also to fans of lighter metal, too. So for their great new chapter in their story Images of Eden gets 4 stars.