'Hellfire Club' is the first Edguy album I really dug into. Why? Because in the past, about 2 years ago, I always got a bad rash from high singing, although Bruce Dickinson always was and probably will be my all-time favourite singer. Yeah, a bit of a paradox, that. I think it was generally mainly because of overused vibration in singing.

Let's get back to 'Hellfire Club'. Edguy offer mainly high-octane German heavy metal. I must say I'm fucking impressed! The band have a wide spectrum of styles tucked into the music. 'Mysteria' opens the album with a bang, almost being a thrash metal song (not only because Kreator's Mille guests on bonus track version). Song blasts through the speakers with such ferocity, that noone can say, that the band play pussy power metal. 'The Piper Never Dies' is a 10-minute, true heavy metal song. I get some Dio flashbacks for sure, not least because of Tobias Sammet's Ronnie-impersonation in the end ("never, never, never" stuff). 'We Don't Need a Hero' gets into Helloween-gear with it's anthemic riffing, choir vocals and double bass drum attack. The first joyous song, but still the two first ones are more my kinda stuff and AM scribe Mikki's comment about the whole album fits here nicely: "Edguy is the new Helloween." 'Down to the Devil' starts calmly, but hits the rock gear soon. Another anthemic chorus among mid-paced metal. 'King of Fools' is a modern take on heavy metal with its electronic bleeps, that still do not steal the show; again, anthemic as fuck! No wonder it was the one released as a single. 'Forever' is the obligatory ballad. Not as syrupy as many of these, except the chorus among beautiful yearning acoustic parts.

The second half of the album begins with blasting metal of 'Under the Moon'. It really kicks the things back into action after the tiresome ballad. Massive riffing and tempo changes liven up the song, and yes, it has an anthemic chorus, heh. 'Lavatory Love Machine' begins with a killer riff, but soon gets into a funny stuff as the title suggest. A summer song, this one, and luckily the killer riff makes an encore. 'Rise of the Morning Glory' is another German-sounding metal song, not the best one of these here. 'Lucifer in Love' is a short, senseless instrumental with the melody from 'Down to the Devil' and with sounds of, well, love. 'Navigator' is my favourite song! Slower and more heavy metal and to tell the truth, it is a perfect song in my books. Catchy as a "leaping syphilis", yet metal as fuck! 'The Spirit Will Remain' ends the album peacefully. Sounding like a movie soundtrack with yearning feel and featuring the Babelsberg film-orchestra. Not too far from Aina's style. My version also features two bonus tracks. 'Children of Steel' is an old song from the band's demo days. Good German heavy metal. 'Mysteria (feat. Mille Petrozza)' kick ass, although Kreator-man's vocal lines are few in number (surely waiting for new Kreator album like hell now!).

There's excellent songs, good songs and a couple not that hot ones (the first half of the album is much, much better). Great, energetic performance from the band save a lot on latter ones. The band do not show off, but happen to sound so fucking good and tight as any band can sound. Guitar team Jens Ludwig / Dirk Sauer are on fire and let their guitars scream. Bassist Tobias Exxel (also in Taraxacum) and drummer Felix Bohnke provide the metallic backbone and they still have time to do something else too. Synths are used well, keeping transparent and never stealing the show. I usually don't even notice 'em. Tobias Sammet has a high-pitched voice for sure, but he also has character which is hard to be explained. Maybe his voice is a tad dry, but surely his English is good. He doesn't overuse the vibration like he did in the past (that's what I remember from some drunken nights with power metal maniac Mikki, but I won't quarantee that I'm right!). Tobias is also a good frontman, and even on the album he vents some of that. He's backed by the whole band, giving a definite German feel. Lyrics are, for me, totally secondary thing. German humour is well-presented; 'Rise of the Morning Glory' is about morning hard-on and 'Lavatory Love Machine' is about wonderful world of sex, this time in an aeroplane. More grave lyrical subjects can be found, too, but this is good-time music after all. Like the pictures on stylish booklet show.

For a big part, 'Hellfire Club' is fantastic German metal, even though not too German in the bad meaning of the word. It's catchy, rolling, heavy and makes my head bang instantly. The band have managed to inject surprisingly much of their live energy into digital form. Fuck, it's summer and all!

Rating: 8½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
06/18/2004 21:22