Edguy
Hellfire Club

THE REVIEW

One looks at the cover of this CD and thinks: just another damn metal CD. The title is "Hellfire Club" with a cover featuring the stylized face of a screaming demon on a gate. Obviously, anyone unfamiliar with the band won't knock, won't enter, and probably, while walking away from the store, would shake their head in clear disapproval. Nothing could be more wrong. If they turned the booklet, in fact, they would see a stylized jester...

Edguy seem tough, but if you listen to them and read their lyrics, you realize they couldn't give a damn about Odin, honor, glorious death, the sanctity of metal, the beauty of battle, the Devil, or much less a club in his honor. What Tobias Sammet is interested in is something else.

Is my hair okay, am I cool enough for tonight???

He's a true philosopher, a modern-day Socrates, who before going to sleep questions himself about matters of great importance. And so it was that on the seat of a first-class plane heading to Brazil, our master Tobias began to think: if the plane should crash, could I at least get with the hottie hostess to die with a big smile on my face (Lavatory Love Machine). And what about the poetic "Rise Of the Morning Glory". A tribute to the morning flag-raising, highlighted by excessively pompous backing vocals. Chapeau!!! In Lucifer In Love, our hero indulges in letting us hear Satan having sex. Instead of praising the King of some Manowar-esque army, Edguy tell us of the deeds of the king of fools (King Of Fools). The paradox is that the guys from Fulda in this chapter pretend to bare their teeth with tight riffs while the "very evil" verses follow one another. A heavy use of keyboards alternates with guitars: strawberries and cream pasta. Conversely, in a song with the ominous title "Down to the Devil", we find ourselves in the presence of a thrilling and incredibly cheerful ride.  

The CD is a little gem not only because it is played and produced excellently; not only. It's enjoyable how Edguy don't take themselves seriously and have fun alternating moments of pure power heavy metal (like Mysteria and Under The Moon) with successful melodic insertions that stick in your head. Young metalheads grow up renouncing the dark path the sacred ancestors showed them. What heresy!!! Musically speaking, there's everything in this album, and the compositional level remains high until the end as it happened in the previous Mandrake. Melodic hits alternate with Avantasia-like suites (like the wonderful Piper Never Dies) with vocal arrangements and tempo changes galore, the ballads (Forever), and the more intense and fun tracks. The common thread is the positive energy, the solo technique, Sammet's strong voice, and the dynamic rhythm section (We Don't Need A Hero). An enjoyable, successful, and energetic album like few others, played by likable professionals who, if you see them live, will show you the positive side of metal.