Pick an idea, and stay with it, is my advice
Artiste: Images of Eden
Nationality: American
Album: Rebuilding the ruins
Year: 2011
Label: Nightmare Records
Genre: Progressive metal
Tracks:
Crosses in the sand
Human angels
Tribal scars
Dreams unbroken
Sorrow's end
Rebuilding the ruins
My stigmata
Native to his land
Children of autumn
On elevated ground
Sunlight of the spirit part IV - Images of Eden
Chronological position: Third album
Familiarity: Zero
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: Good start, pretty dramatic and please don't be a death-growler...
Best track(s): Human angels, Dreams unbroken, My stigmata, Children of autumn
Worst track(s): Tribal scars, Sorrow's end, Native to his land
Comments: An oddly atmospheric keyboard opening then the guitars and drums kick in , and you know you're in metal land. My biggest worry when listening to a metal band I've never heard before is, is the singer going to be a "grunter"? You know, those death growls I hate so much and that will turn me off a band even if I like their music? Well luckily, though I have to wait a little while before the vocalist comes in on the first track, the answer is no: if he reminds me of anyone, Gordon Tittsworth sounds like Bruce Dickinson, though not so much as to appear to be a cheap rip-off of the Iron Maiden frontman. Checking, I see that Tittsworth not only sings but plays rhythm guitar, bass and keyboards too! A real all-rounder.
Apparently, he's become disillusioned with not getting enough of a result with progressive metal, so for their next album he'll be taking the band in more of a standard metal direction. Whether that will mean saying goodbye to the keyboards or not I don't know, but if so it'll be a pity, as they really anchor the sound here and give it extra punch. I wasn't totally blown away by the opener, but second track
Human angels is a lot better. Some great guitar work here. Nice powerful ballad in
Dreams unbroken, but the album's becoming a bit hit-and-miss. I didn't think too much of
Tribal scars (though that was released as a single; maybe that was a mistake?) nor
Sorrow's end, but then the title track does grab me.
There's a change in the vocals for
My stigmata, so much so that I'm not even sure that's our Gordon singing: don't like the change. Also not crazy about the song though it has a good effective grindy guitar part in the middle. And a truly beautiful slow piano piece which reminds me of something but I can't remember what. You know something? I've changed my mind: I really like this track! Yeah but then
Native to his land is nothing special. See what I mean about being hit-and-miss? And then
Children of autumn is a beautiful piano ballad, until it gets kicked up the arse and becomes even better! Ah yeah, but then it ends poorly. The closer is twelve minutes long, and really, on a patchy album like this you had better hope it's a stunner. Well, it's not. It's okay but doesn't keep my interest; a twelve-minute epic is asking a lot as a closer, but if you're not going to pour your heart and soul into it, don't expect me to enthuse about it. I'm not enthusing about it.
Overall impression: There's definitely a grain of something here, but it's almost like an idea not properly thought out or a plan not realised correctly; it's kind of all over the place.
Intention: Not really sure to be honest. I might give this another spin. Then again, I might not.