Hall of Flames

Edguy deliver their first greatest hits album here and it is as interesting for a newbie or more recent fan of the bands as it is for the regular fan.

The first kind of people get delivered thirteen very good Edguy songs on the first CD with classics like a special and unreleased version of the epic title track of the last studio album called "Tears of a Mandrake", the mid tempo power metal hymn "The headless game" or the keyboard driven epic "Vain glory opera". The album focuses a little bit too much on the last three records and could have included or rerecorded some songs from the band's very interesting demos. Some classics like the speed metal hammer "Babylon" or the epic "The kingdom" with guest vocals by Grave Digger's Chris Boltendahl are also not included on the first CD but as an overview and introduction to the band, this first CD does a solid but not outstanding job. Musically, most of the songs are really good and present all the diversified styles and talents of the band from the ballad over the head banger to the epic.

The second CD presents some re-recordings, bonus tracks, live material and video clips and might be interesting for every fan of the band who didn't buy the limited or Japanese editions of the album. As "The devil and the servant", "For a trace of life" and "Here I am" were already included on my album versions, I found the live section especially interesting as well as the French fun song "La marche des gendarmes". The only negative point is that none of the bonus songs is really impressive or outstanding in my opinion. I would rather recommend this second part of the album to those who really want to complete their Edguy collection but I wouldn't pay the full or elevated price for this package. But this double album is still way better than most of the useless best of compilations that only try to make some cash, this one has at least a couple of good reasons to be bought.

The phenomenon of the greatest hits compilation has always had a strong purpose for the marketing of metal bands, but for those whom follow the band’s work vigorously that purpose is non-existent. Therefore it has become commonplace for metal bands to offer something extra in order to keep the core fan base satisfied. The most successful example of this was Gamma Ray’s “Blast from the Past”, which featured new recordings of 70% of the material found on it. Edguy’s “Hall of Flames” is not quite as ambitious in this respect, but it does provide a lot of great extras for folks like me.

For casual fans or those not familiar with Edguy’s music, they play a slightly more speed oriented version of early Helloween Power Metal mixed with some more ambitious keyboard work and a vocalist who sounds even more similar to Geoff Tate than Michael Kiske did. The songs found on the first of this double CD are all great songs, mostly cut from the last 3 studio releases. My only complaint is that the ballads “Land of the Miracle” and “Scarlet Rose” were included rather than “Wash Away the Poison” and “Roses to No One”, both of which were more musically interesting and had less sappy lyrics, not to say these songs are necessarily bad though.

There is a bit of discrepancy musically between the never stuff and the older stuff, but it doesn’t disrupt the flow of the CD too much. Fans of Blind Guardian will obviously like the guest slots Hansi Kursch provides for “Vain Glory Opera” (a slower version of Stratovarius’ “Hands of Time”, but still a great song) and “Out of Control”. “Deadmaker” is our token track from The Kingdom of Madness, which will probably go down in history as one of the most musically intricate yet horribly produced German Power Metal albums ever. It has a good set of riffs and a top notch vocal performance, but the lackluster production sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the other tracks.

CD 2 is a bit more of interest to core fans of the band as it contains all of the rarities and a few live tracks. “The Devil and the Savant” is a left over track from the Mandrake sessions and pretty much is cut from the same grain as the songs on that album. It’s well produced, it has plenty of keyboard work, and the chorus will never leave your head. The 2001 remake of “Wings of a Dream” is my personal favorite of the rarities and showcases how great the music on The Kingdom of Madness sounds when it’s well produced, I think the band should definitely re-record that album the same way they did the Savage Poetry album. The live material on here is solid, although most of the other tracks on here are mostly geared for fans who can tolerate punk rock influences and a lot of Helloween style slapstick.

In short, pretty good greatest hits compilation considering I still don’t subscribe to the general concept of creating one. I picked this from the used shelf at FYE for $7 and it was definitely worth it, if you are hunting down rarities by this band this is probably a good place to go. If you are not familiar with this band’s music, this would be a good introduction to their stuff, and if you morph into a core fan as others have, it will still have listening value.