Band:	Edguy
Album:	Hellfire Club
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	March 15, 2004
A review by:	Malcolm

01. Mysteria
02. The Piper Never Dies
03. We Don't Need A Hero
04. Down To The Devil
05. King Of Fools
06. Forever
07. Under The Moon
08. Lavatory Love Machine
09. Rise Of The Morning Glory
10. Lucifer In Love
11. Navigator
12. The Spirit Will Remain
13. Children Of Steel [bonus]
14. Mysteria [feat. Mille Petrozza] [bonus]

Coming Out: 15 March 2004.

They are back!!!!!!
The Midges of Metal, the Savage ones, the pride of Germany. It's Edguy I'm talking about, so you don't misunderstand me.
"Hellfire Club" is the name of the game, the first with their new label Nuclear Blast, and what an album, ladies and gentlemen, what an album!
I didn't think the album would rock as it did, I knew that they would work with an orchestra, German film-orchestra Babelsberg, and it would be majestic, but not even in my wildest imagination did I believe what I just heard.
But let us take the album song by song.
Let us dive into the songs, dive into the FREAK SHOW!!!!!

Mysteria - This is a very hard tune, I think the hardest Edguy ever done. It was also the working-title of the album, but was change to "Hellfire Club" later.
It's a great start of the album, that's really show us that Edguy is back and harder than ever.
It's my favourite of the album, after the next one.

The Piper Never Dies - This is like THE song of the album, it makes other Epic Edguy songs like "The Kingdom" and "Theatre of Salvation" look like b-sides, or not as B-sides, but this is so much better.
It's a song that sometimes gets that Edguy feeling, but most of the time, it's something I never heard of Edguy before, it's new and fresh and so godlike.
It contains very many changes all the time and all keyboard parts is done by a real orchestral, witch gives the song another dimension of power than in usual songs, you have to hear this to believe it.
It's a Masterpiece, a freaky Masterpiece, done by the Masters.

We Don't Need a Hero - This is Edguy, the Edguy we always known, no doubt, it's like a Edguy tune that could have been on any other Edguy release, but with a touch of the newer, heavier Edguy.
And without a song like this, it wouldn't be an Edguy album.

Down to the Devil - Is also a classic Edguy song, maybe the most typical one of the album, a real pearl if you're into Edguy, a typical Edguy-sing-along tune.
This together with "We Don't Need a Hero" is those songs that the album couldn't be without, and still carry the band-logo.

King of Fools - The title track to the E.P. that's going to be released 2 February.
It's a quite strange tune, at least the part before the chorus, with a nice doze of Heaviness.
It's the mid-tempo song; the chorus part is so much Edguy. It's a good choice for the E.P. even if it's not one of the most usual Edguy tunes.

Forever - As I think you can guess, this is the ballad, the typical ballad for an album.
"Forever is the pussy ballad of the album" - Tobi.
Yes, that right, it's the ballad, alike "Wash Away the Poison" from Mandrake, but with a real Orchestra.

Under the Moon - One more very hard and fast song, not as hard as "Mysteria" but it's surely faster. But it's Edguy; the special Edguy feeling is there. The song that's most Heavy Metal on the album.

Lavatory Love Machine - Haha, well, I don't know what I shall say, but if you can remember "Save us Now" from Mandrake I think you know what I'm about to say.
This is the comedy side of Edguy, it's so much not a "Hellfire Club" (Fast and Heavy) song, but still a cool song, the part of the album you know that Tobi is going to do. As you know, every Edguy album has a comedy side and here it is.

Rise of the Morning Glory - It's a weird song, the song that I have very big problems to talk about, I don't mean it's bad, it's just that it's a quite usual Edguy song, but not one of those songs that you really remember or going around and singing on all days long.
But it smelts down together with the other songs, into a masterful album.

Navigator - I don't know, this is a hard one. It's good but not one of the best of the album.
It have a really good chorus, and the back vocals did Tobi describe like "kind of gospel", and yeah, maybe. Quite usual Edguy-tempo song.

The Spirit Will Remain - "It's so pathetic it's so majestic" that's how Tobi is saying about this song. It's a kind of ballad, or kind of outro if you want so. It's just the orchestra and Tobi in this song, and very nice ending of the album. You almost can see the Hero, stands on the battlefield after the big, final battle, and cry and sing for his love or fallen friends.
It brings my memory back to the movie, Braveheart, at least the intro of the song, the Celtic part.

To sum it all, it's a hell of an album, the best ever with Edguy and I guess that it will strike very big, because Edguy isn't in the Cheesy Power Metal genre anymore, it's pure Power Heavy Metal now, and it's where Edguy belongs.
And many that's think that their latest releases have been to soft, please give them one more chance, they deserve it, "Hellfire Club" deserve it.

I don't know if Edguy used Finnvox of Rhoen-Studios (as with Mandrake) for the recordings, but the mixing and mastering is done by two very well-known guys, Mikko Karmila and Mika Jussila, in the famous Finnvox Studio in Helsinki, so I guess you know what you have to expect from that part of the sound, pure gold.
The production is out of complains, as usual.

If we had the possibility to give albums titles like, "Album of the Month" or Album of the Year", this would get the "Album of the Year" stamp from me.
I know that it will be the best album of 2004, there isn't any other possibility, this is a masterpiece, and it's here, already in March, 15 March to be exactly.
It's a BUY-or-DIE album, so get it, or you will miss one of the best albums of this millennium, for sure!

Favourite Tracks: ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They aren't from earth, they are from Edguy!