Hellfire Club (album)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.


Hellfire Club
Hellfire Club cover
Studio album by Edguy
Released April 6, 2004
Recorded 2004
Genre Heavy metal
Length 61:07
Label Nuclear Blast
Edguy chronology
Mandrake
(2001)		 Hellfire Club
(2004)		 Rocket Ride
(2006)

Hellfire Club, released April 6, 2004, is an album by German power metal band Edguy. The music of the band is supported by a German orchestra, the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg.

In contrast to their previous albums, Hellfire Club owes more to the sound of Iron Maiden than their biggest influence Helloween, both in vocals and in music. The first track "Mysteria" opens with the introduction "Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome - to the Freak Show!", followed by a guitar riff that is unusually dark and heavy for Edguy's standards and is very similar to some Judas Priest riffs. The rest of the album generally follows this scheme, with a few exceptions:

  • "We Don't Need A Hero" is a very fast, upbeat song with the anthemic quality typical for the band.
  • The mid-tempo song "King of Fools" was the first single of the album and provided the band with the opportunity to have a TV appearance in the German Pro7 McChart Show, which was heavily criticised by fans who sensed a sellout.
  • "Lavatory Love Machine" is one of the band's several joke songs and is unusual in that it is more accurately described as hard rock than heavy metal. The similarly joke lyrics, featuring much over-the-top innuendo (the song is about Tobias sitting in an aeroplane headed for Brazil that is going to crash and him having sex in the toilet with the stewardess) sparked some controversy, but most fans attribute the lyrical content to Sammet's somewhat surreal sense of humour.
  • "The Spirit Will Remain" is an operatic ballad wherein Tobias sings before a purely orchestral backdrop.

The bonus track "Children of Steel", originally an early demo, was re-recorded for this album. The bonus track version of "Mysteria" features Mille Petrozza of the German thrash metal band Kreator on lead vocals.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Mysteria" – 5:44
  2. "The Piper Never Dies" – 10:05
  3. "We Don't Need a Hero" – 5:30
  4. "Down to the Devil" – 5:27
  5. "King of Fools" – 4:21
  6. "Forever" – 5:40
  7. "Under the Moon" – 5:04
  8. "Lavatory Love Machine" – 4:25
  9. "Rise of the Morning Glory" – 4:39
  10. "Lucifer in Love" – 0:32
  11. "Navigator" – 5:22
  12. "The Spirit Will Remain" – 4:12
  13. "Children of Steel" (Bonus track) – 4:03
  14. "Mysteria" (Bonus track featuring Mille Petrozza) – 5:32
  15. "Heavenward" (Demo of 'Navigator') - 5:17

[edit] Hong Kong bonus disc

A special bonus disc containing 13 additional tracks was also released with the album in Hong Kong. Among its tracks are all the tracks from the King of Fools EP (other than "King of Fools" itself, which is on disc 1), the 2 bonus tracks mentioned above, an alternative version of "Falling Down" and 5 live tracks, including one by Tobias Sammet's side project Avantasia: "Inside".

  1. "New Age Messiah" (as featured on the King of Fools EP) – 6:00
  2. "Children of Steel" (as above) – 4:04
  3. "Mysteria" (featuring Mille Petrozza) (as above) – 5:32
  4. "The Savage Union" (as featured on the King of Fools EP) – 4:15
  5. "Falling Down" (alternative version) – 4:37
  6. "Holy Water" (as featured on the King of Fools EP) – 4:17
  7. "Introduction" (live) – 1:01
  8. "Tears of a Mandrake" (live) – 7:55
  9. "Painting on the Wall" (live) – 4:39
  10. "Inside" (live) – 4:17
  11. "Fairytale" (live) – 6:22
  12. "Life and Times of a Bonus Track" (as featured on the King of Fools EP) – 3:23
  13. "Heavenward" (Navigator Demo Version) - 5:16

[edit] Reception

Edguy fans and metal fans in general received Hellfire Club with mixed reviews. Some Edguy fans and even Edguy critics had cited that the band had finally found a sound of their own and had opened up a new possibility in terms of sound due to the heaviness of the music. Many also liked the lack of keyboards on the album, increasing it to a very raw and heavy sound. The album was also the first time the band got into any charts, getting in their native Germany's charts at #20.

Detractors of the album though pointed out the lack of guitar solos on the album and having it be more riff heavy then lead oriented. Many of them feel that Edguy was simply trying to make a more modern sounding album to make money and gain new fans. They also pointed out that the lyrics frequently seem pointless and have no real clear focus. However, Tobias has stated that every single one of his songs has a moral.

[edit] Personnel


v • d • e
Edguy
Tobias Sammet · Jens Ludwig · Dirk Sauer · Tobias Exxel · Felix Bohnke
Studio albums
Live albums
Extended plays
Compilations
DVDs
Superheroes
Singles
Demos
Related articles
Categories