IMAGES OF EDEN

REBUILDING THE RUINS

RELEASED 2011

Band

Gordon Tittsworth- Lead & Backing Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Bass Guitar & Additional Keyboards
Dennis Mullin- Lead Guitar
Chris Lucci- Drums & Percussion
L. Dean Harris- Piano & Keyboards

Track listing

1. Crosses In The Sand 2. Human Angels 3. Tribal Scars 4. Dreams unbroken 5. Sorrow's End 6. Rebuilding The Ruins 7. My Stigmata
8. Native To His Land 9. Children Of Autumn 10. On Elevated Ground 11. Sunlight of the Spirit Part IV

Here we have the third offering from Baltimore’s Images Of Eden this is a very unique band in that each CD (album, release) is an ongoing story, portraying the journey through life, told in a very spirited / uplifting way. The beginning of each release picks up exactly where the previous have left off with its melodic progressive /hard rock sound.

Five seems to be a magic number in the Images Of Eden circle. It showcases the number of years between studio releases, ‘Rebuilding the Ruins’ albumfor me is just a little to long in length and has a lot to digest with its meaningful lyrics and with Gordon tackling lead vocals, bass, rhythm guitar, and additional keyboards his talent appears to be in touch with much of the late 80’s/early 90’s (Iron Maiden springs to mind).

‘Crosses In The Sand’ the opening track, starts of with a very mellow keyboard sound then rips into a full on hard rock sound with shredding guitars, you have to dig deep to get the full meaning of the lyrics on this one but still a fine tune.

‘Human Angels’ is one of those thought provoking songs that will always keep you thinking with its mid tempo sound and Gordon sounding more Bruce Dickinson than Bruce himself!

‘Rebuilding The Ruins’ is the best track on here its so angry at the start that you can feel the frustration in his voice, a great song with a fine riff and fine fill drum work, this is what images of Eden are all about, fine song writing at its best.

‘On Elevated Ground’Is one of those spirited uplifting songs but contradicts itself with the previous tracks religious theme’s and has an almost ‘kooky hippy’ feel to it, but then lets fly into a powerful song with a great lead by guitarist Dennis Mullin that runs right to the end of the track.

The final track ‘Sunlight of the Spirit Part IV’ on first listen, this song comes over all Christian metal but that’s not the case, its just the clever way that Gordon’s lyrics come over with the line ‘today god is playing god’ without doubt the lyrics here are by far the best on the entire album and with its moody guitar sound and heavy back beat this a great song to finish with.

Lets just hope that the next album is not five years in the making, but on past records 2016 will be looking very good.

By Paul Hadlington