Customer Reviews

Hellfire Club

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the best release Edguy has ever put their name on IMO. "Hellfire Club" is a masterpice, and I'm very impressed with it. The whole CD is full of power fom start to finish....

There are no fillers here. None. Edguy has really moved forward here, and this is a huge step towards greatness IMO. If you're not familiar with Edguy, I highly recommend "Hellfire Club" and "Theater Of Salvation" as the wonderful place to start....

This has been playing practically nonstop ever since I got it. It's one of the most fun and most polished metal albums I've heard in ages, and it's very refreshing.

Edguy wear their influences on their sleeves -- anybody who enjoyed Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, or Helloween at their peak will find a lot to like on this album. Hey, for my money, the outright Priest-worship of the opening track sounds way better than Priest ever did. But even if there's a lot of borrowing and a lot of tribute paid to the masters, Edguy have got their own sound and a whole lot of charisma that no other active band can match.

This album is stripped-down (the symphonic overkill of earlier albums is mostly gone), song-centered and a WHOLE lot less pretentious than other competitors in the current slew of prog/power-metal. It's definitely rock, not opera, and every song stands out, as was the case with Maiden at their peak. You get one epic (but not over-orchestrated) track, "The Piper Never Dies", which is good all the way through its 10 minutes and builds up to a crushing finish. Other standouts -- Mysteria, Under the Moon, King of Fools, and The Navigator, but really there's not a weak track on it.

Last thing: the album has a great sense of humor that very much reminds of Helloween (Dr. Stein, or Rise and Fall, for instance) and completely deflates any pretentiousness about the album. It's pretty nice -- too many bands in this genre are way over-inflated on self importance. Edguy cuts right through all the BS and delivers nothing more or less than a flat-out crank-it-up, sing-along-as-you-floor-it-down-the-highway good time.

Edit: OK, after many months of listening, I'm still in love with this album. And "The Piper Never Dies" has entered my pantheon of all-time great metal songs. It's that good.

Edguy's sixth record, Hellfire Club (2004) is their best record yet. Why? Because it shows that Tobi knows when a band has to evolve. Being a pretty big power metal fan, I do know of power metal bands who seem to run out of original ideas. On this record, Tobi, Dirk, Jens, "Eggi," and Felix have emerged with a sound that is fresh compared to the stuff portrayed on, say, Mandrake (2001), but not a RADICALLY altered sound, which is what ruins many great bands like Queensryche, Metallica, and Dio (though he quickly returned to his roots.) But anyway, the album is among my favorite albums from this year so far, maybe not quite as good as, say, Exodus's Tempo Of The Damned, but still very good.

And now, the key part of all my music reviews: the three highlights of the album. Track 2, "The Piper Never Dies," is an excellent haunting epic (10 minutes, 5 seconds.) Overall, opening track "Mysteria" just doesn't have the razor-edged finesse of "Piper Never Dies." Track 5, "King Of Fools," was the song that introduced me to Edguy after streaming it on the Nuclear Blast website, though not a frantic speed metal tune, it's still a great song, I even learned to play it on bass! And track 8, "Lavatory Love Machine," almost has a glam metal feel to it, it's also a hilarious video, I saw it on the Nuclear Blast Europe website. Overall, highly recommended for fans of Edguys's past releases, Kingdom Of Madness, Vain Glory Opera, Theater Of Salvation, Savage Poetry, and Mandrake. Also recommended for fans of Tobi's Avantasia project (god knows I love 'em!) as well as other German power metal bands, like Helloween, Gamma Ray, and Blind Guardian. Later fellow headbangers!

This album is excellent. If you like power metal in the veins of Gamma Ray, Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, etc. then these guys are for you. I stumbled across them while surfing around the 'net and I'm thinking to myself what did I miss all these years! This is true metal. Great lyrics, screaming guitars & rifs and enough double bass drum to tear down the walls. Do yourself a favor and pick up this CD.

this album is great for every metal person who lives in pennsylvania that who has to listen to classic rock ,rap,or alternative. why can't USA produce bands like this.this band is awsome. I can't find one wrong thing with this band there awsome.There here to bring metal back to the USA.

A few weeks ago I bought both Edguy's 'Hellfire Club' and Avantasia's 'The Metal Opera' at the same time.

The Metal Opera came first and I was quite disappointed. Power Metal has never been my favorite genre (I've always been a man of Thrash Metal), but I heard good things so I decided, what the heck? When I got the Metal Opera, I wasn't much looking forward to the Hellfire Club.

Well, needless to say I was very surprised when it came. This album is CATCHY AS HELL. I was shouting the chorus to the album opener the first time I heard it. This cd has a very epic and complete feel to it , althogh most songs are only 4-5 minutes long, they are very well composed, unique, and all have a 'Here to stay' kind of feel.

I give it 4.5 since some of the lyrics are lame, and the ballad's 'Forever' and 'the Spirit Will Remain' are kind of week. The best tracks are 'Mysteria', 'King of Fools', 'Navigator', the epic 'the Piper Never Dies', 'Down with the Devil', and 'Under the Moon' has an excellent instrumental section as well.

I really haven't been listening to anything else for over a week now. Quite a suprise coming from a guy whose favorite metal band is Slayer.. !
So if you are a Thrash fan, give it a try. If you are a Power Metal fan then I guess you already should own this.

While not perfect, this CD gets a high recommendation from this Thrash fan. Check it out..

I thought after hearing Mandrake that (while being a very good album), Edguy was in a dangerous point of becoming stale and repetitive whithin the format and structure of their songs (Rhapsody and Stratovarius).But i am glad to say i was wrong: they evolved.Sure, i was surprised with the new found heavy aproach to the riffs, but latter i was PLEASENTLY surprised.
All the song are simple and powerful (don't ask Edguy to become progressive) but with enough variation to be very different from previous works.The song The Piper Never Dies, for instance, is similar to The Pharaoh (found on Mandrake), in that it uses many powerful chorus spread allong the way, but the melodies and riffs are unique to this song and do not copy those found in the latter.
The chorus in all of the songs simply soars and strikes a deeply emotional melodic chord.
Bottom line: if you like Edguy, this is a sure and very solid buy.If you are yet to discover them, start with Theater of Salvation and then buy this Hellfire Club and then become part of the Savage Union!

These guys are almost still kids. They've been together over 10 years now, and are only in their mid-twenties. Their sound has improved over the years, and this album is another leap forward. Previous albums "Mandrake" and "The Savage Poetry" are fantastic, but "Hellfire Club" kicks it up another notch.

If you're a fan of European Power Metal, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. If you're a fan of 80's metal, you'll find a lot to like on this album. There's even a few tracks that pay homage to vintage metal, the best of the bunch being "The Piper Never Dies" which has a very Deep Purple feel to it.

There's lots of variety here, and lots to fall in love with. Tobi Sammet's voice sounds as great as ever, capturing a Bruce Dickenson (Iron Maiden) tone, yet possessing a quality that's exclusively Tobi's. The performances are flawless. The album's destined to be a new era metal classic.

What are you waiting for? Buy this disc now!

It has been quite a time since I have heard such a great, perfect & distinctive album, one of those you listen after a 100 times and still say WOW!!!! Now the wait is over. Hellfire Club is perfect, poised. Edguy is metal's new Big Band, and Hellfire Club is Edguy's "The Number Of The Beast".

Hellfire is very diverse (aggressive, melodic, ballads, long and short songs, etc.), still there is unity there, mostly in the lyrics. You shift from one state of mind to another as the album goes. Very soon you start humming the melodies and singing the lyrics. There are tons of feeling, the usual catchy choruses, efficient solos (no Malmsteenian masturbation, with all due respect). But the guys added aggressiveness, some rawness. There is a sense of grandeur in every single element of this album (riffs, chorus, solos, cover, pictures, production, etc.). I can even say that this album is Machiavelic manipulation, because the songs lead you to where they want you to be, mentally speaking, and then they blast you. This band is on FIRE, definitely!!!!

Talking a little about the songs since no other reviews did it so far. Mysteria is a great opener (very aggressive, trashy and typical Edguy chorus). The Piper Never Dies is the song Dio and Blackmore should have done in the 70s (my favourite). We Don't Need a Hero is the least strong, but a very good melodic metal. Down To The Devil is the best melodic metal since the Keeper albums (from Helloween), but the chorus has some Van Halen in it (which is great). One of my faves. King Of Fools is slightly different and better than the single version. Forever is the best Edguy typical ballad ever. Lavatory Love Machine is the perfect blend of Twisted Sister and Edguy (something like Twisted Guys), silly lyrics and perfect execution. I hope they play it live. Morning Glory is the happier one and a great Cheer Up melodic metal. Navigator is already a metal classic, with a great riff and one of Edguy's best ever choruses (that says a lot). Monumental. Finally, Spirit Will Remain is the symphonic ballad, the one to make you sad as you realize the tracklist is ending (but, if you are a true metal fan, I bet you will put this album back on track 1).

This disc hellfire club is edguy's first album for nuclear blast and i feel while not their best easily in my top favortie 10 metal albums of all time! While the 10 min epic the piper never dies is not so good the album is on the whole great so i would recommed to any power metal fan or any real metal person !