Images of Eden / Odin's Court / Without Reason
Mac's the Club . Essex, Maryland, USA

Band: Images of Eden
Sunlight of the Spirit CD Release Party
Venue: Mac's the Club
Date: 11.05.05

Unlike a lot of concert goers, when I go to a show I try not to listen to any metal for a couple days before. My basis is that I want to be charged up and hungry for what's coming.

Mac's the Club is a decent sized club in Essex, Maryland, up on the coastal side of Baltimore with half the place set up as your traditional bar with pool tables and the other half a stage area for about a couple hundred people. I love these kinds of places, cause you can usually find band members milling about with the crowd before the show. I had a chance to speak with the guys from Images of Eden beforehand and spent time with lead singer Gordon Tittsworth who you could tell was very anxious to get started. He was visually wound tight and ready to explode with energy, yet very cordial to everybody who approached to chat.

After a brief wait for some tech stuff, the band hit the stage and an erupting volcano tore through Mac's. Doing double duty on keys and vocals, Gordon set the tone as the frontman to watch with a traditional vocal delivery remeniscent of the old gods--Halford, Dickinson and Tate. He covered all areas of the stage and threw out enough wails to make your bones rattle.

The songs from IoE are heavy progressive rock with traditional elements and the best thing about these small shows is the overpowering sound that rams into your core and grinds your insides into dust. I didn't expect such a thick sound to come out of the club PA system, so I also want to give additional credit to whomever did the mixing.

The other members of Images of Eden--bespeckled guitarist, Dennis Mullin, and making his debut at the show, the light-fingered new bass player, Bryan Wierman, stayed mostly to the sides of the stage. Along with their very professional sounding drummer, Matt Kaiser, they kept the songs tight for the 75 minute set. Interspersed with the Images songs were some crowd favorite covers from Queensryche, Dream Theater, Tool and the mighty Maiden. By the time they ripped into "The Trooper" and the crowd fave "Brave Horse" near the end everyone was as sweaty as Gordon himself who gave 110% as the evening's metal maestro; the curator of chaos.

Also in the house was another musician from the up-and-coming traditional metal act Odin's Court, who will be opening for Kamelot soon at Jaxx Club in Springfield.

Another band named Without Reason played that night with a fun upbeat set of modern covers (Korn, Slipknot, etc) that had the crowd jumping, but by the end of their intermission I had to head out of there.

Images of Eden reminded me of why I love club shows and I left the place satiated with metal and good times for the long drive home. And special props to Gordon's wife, Dawn, who is one of the sweetest persons you'll ever meet.

www.imagesofeden.com
theband@imagesofeden.com
www.withoutreasonlive.com

Set List:
--Kaleidoscope
--Beyond the Horizon
--Empire
--Another Rainy Night
--I Remember When
--Spirit III (Through october Skies)
--Wheel in the Sky
--Midsummer Night's Dream
--Aladdin
--Parabola
--Perfect Strangers
--The Trooper

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