MYSTERY BLUE from France plays metal as true as it can get. They released a new album called “Hell & Fury” and impressed me again. The CD opens with a short tune, called “The Night Before”, which sounds like it was taken from a movie. It’s a warning, before the actual album kicks off with title track “Hell & Fury”. The drums hold some thrashy beats, but besides that it’s heavy metal all the way. Fists rise up in the air, while shouting the words ‘hell and fury’ - a killer opener on this new eleven tracker. “Endangering Species” sounds fast and it has some furious guitar riffs. Nathalie Geyer’s vocals show some resemblance to PJ of TWILIGHT ODYSEY, which she can take as a huge compliment. What a volume and especially in the long pull outs, she is trying to give it another boost to sound even more powerful than she already does. “Welcome To Chaos” is a fast headbanger with some fast guitar work by FrenzyPhilipon. Besides Nathalie and Frenzy, the band consists of Rikki Mannhard on bass and Vince Koehler on drums. The riffs in this song are definitely less thrashy and the solo is simply breathtaking! This is pure heavy metal without any trendy input of doom, gothic, black or death metal. Prove is also given in “Metal Attack”, where the title explains it all. ‘Break Your Neck’, but please wait until you’ve listened to every song at least once, otherwise you’ll end up missing some of these metal beauties here. “No Way Out” also blasts off at full speed with Vince setting the pace here. In your imagination, you can see the long hair waving up and down in the slower parts. Bottom line is, that you’ll just have to bang your head and there simply is ‘no way out’. And don’t forget to enjoy the marvelous axe work on this one! “Fate” brings out the best in Nathalie and it shreds with full power. After all this metal madness, it’s time for a break in “Piece Of Eternity”, which develops into a good, solid power ballad. Every good metal album needs one. “Nuclear Skies” opens dark and mysterious, but this is only for a few seconds, before the band pulls off at full speed. By the time “The Deadly Nightshade” starts, it is entirely clear to me. This is by far the best MYSTERY BLUE album ever. This song even comes close to the mighty JUDAS PRIEST. Just listen to the beginning of this song... It could very well have been from the metal gods themselves. And again I hear the great resemblance to PJ in the high pull outs of Nathalie. What killer sound!! With “When Time Is Pain”, that shows the more melodic side of the band, the end of the CD has come near. For material like this, I can only give the full score. MYSTERY BLUE belongs to the better true heavy metal bands in this scene and “Hell & Fury” proves, that they’re still able to create killer songs with a killer sound. A must for every devoted heavy metal fan out there. Website: http://www.mysteryblue.com. [10 points; FULL SCORE] (Toine van Poorten)