Review by Joshua on February 14, 2005.

Power metal, as a genre, would be outstanding if bands would do two things differently. For example, eliminate harmonized choruses and quit relying on clumsily integrated orchestration. As for Edguy, they’re halfway there, and they’ve produced an excellent musical composition. But this is still pretty hard to digest without some reservations.

Hellfire Club shows a great deal of maturity and breadth in the compositions, particularly compared to keyboard-driven lightweights such as Rhapsody. Their songs are remarkably catchy, reminding me of fellow Germans, Grave Digger, though the songs sound closer to Blind Guardian. Tempo changes are seamless and the production is crystal clear – remarkable for power metal. The songs manage to create a fantasy atmosphere without the bombast and pretension of Therion and older Nightwish.

Despite all that, most people probably won’t like this album.

Edguy have all the elements needed to write meaningful, interesting, power metal, but they’re mediocre at combining them. A CD can have all the maturity on earth, but if the songs have a superficial, tremulous sound, the end product will be forgettable. A song can be memorable and catchy, but the moment one introduces harmonized choruses of men who speak English poorly, songs are transformed from anthems to comical cheese. Orchestrated, layered keyboards don’t add to the atmosphere of any album when they’re poorly integrated; worse when they’re produced so far into the foreground that they overshadow guitars. That crystal clear production can work wonders for a band’s sound, but when the sound already runs thin and weak, it’ll worsen everything, the end result mixes guitars and keyboards identically to Genesis.

This is not a bad CD. The musicianship is excellent and some songs are superb, but it lags in atmosphere considerably. If Edguy intend to write guitar-driven songs, with Accept and Judas Priest for influences, they need to produce their albums to obviously sound a lot more guitar driven. The verdict is simple – this would be a great CD if it were totally remixed. As it stands now, lousy mixing and harmonized choruses place this one just above average.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 4
Production: 8
Originality: 5
Overall: 6

Rating: 6.2 out of 10

Review by Felix on September 18, 2024.

“We are all scum”. This statement is emblazoned on the back of the booklet, but let’s face the truth: we, to whom God has given an exquisite taste in music, should not leave Chemicide’s fourth full-length to the scum. Of course, it is a pity that the artwork does not stand in the tradition of their last two albums with their stylish, very awesome covers – but naturally, this is nothing that makes “Common Sense” a bad album. That should be clear to anyone with, well, common sense.

Chemicide’s previous works have already been solid and good. Now they have taken the next step, consequently and impressively. Without leaving their ancestral territory, they just perform better songs than before. The individual pieces are characterized by a mixture of maturity and wildness, in which the two components benefit from each other. Perhaps a look at the center of the album will explain what I mean. On the one hand, “Barred Existence” drones in slow motion. Sharply rasping guitars and a voice that seems to originate from Orwell’s “1984” paint a dystopian picture. The guitar riffs and lines are brilliant, the vibes of the song are cruel as hell and everything works. But what’s worse, a true dictatorship or a “False Democracy”? This is, on the other hand, the neighbor of “Barred Existence” and its mind-boggling high speed, which is only interrupted during the middle section, gives the track additional depth with its bulky, agitating riffs. Both songs cannot be confused, but both profit from the newly gained professionalism and the unbroken will to destroy everything.

Just to avoid any kind of misunderstanding, the aforementioned tracks are not the outstanding highlights of the album. The positive fact is that all tracks hit the mark. They are not perfect, but very good, the pretty monumental, partly heavily stomping “Lunar Eternity” as well as “Color Blind” with its disturbing, ominous guitar tones – and I could mention any other title here as well. Sometimes “Common Sense” sounds like an album from Sepultura, not like a real one but like the one they forgot to record between “Schizophrenia” and “Beneath the Remains” – less f**ked up than the first one, but slightly more vehement than the latter. Finally, as far as I can see, there is no commercial masterplan behind Chemicide and this is something one can only appreciate.

Although the guys do not hail from a real thrash metal hotspot, the production does not suffer from any exotic or ill-defined details. It scores instead with clarity, directness, and a murderous basic guitar tone. Even the bass guitar comes into its own. Furthermore, the origin of the quartet also does not matter concerning their style. They know the idols, pioneers, and legends of the genre very well. The riff in the middle of “Strike As One” was apparently spawned from the quasi-title track of a not entirely unknown record in thrash circles called “Reign in Blood”. Does anyone have a problem with this? I don’t.

Finally, the band pays tribute to Poison Idea with a cover song that is not mentioned in the song list on the back. “It’s an Action” does not have a lot in common with their own pieces, but punk and thrash are connected by their affinity for high-energy outbursts and therefore I have nothing to grumble about; instead I like this spontaneous explosion pretty much. It marks a cool gimmick at the end of a truly strong album, definitely the best of the guys so far; recommended for you, your friends, and even for all the scum out there.

Rating: 8.1 out of 10