Edguy (Pronounced "Ed-gai") is a German power metal band that was founded in 1992. Their music is heavily influenced by both Iron Maiden and Helloween, although they tend to have a more symphonic sound with greater use of keyboards.
Tobias Sammet also has a Rock Opera side project, Avantasia.
Members:
- Tobias Sammet (vocals, keyboards, bass until 1998)
- Jens Ludwig (guitar)
- Dirk Sauer (guitar)
- Tobias Exxel (bass)
- Felix Bohnke (drums)
Albums:
- 1995 - Savage Poetry
- 1997 - Kingdom of Madness
- 1998 - Vain Glory Opera
- 1999 - Theater of Salvation
- 2000 - The Savage Poetry (re-recording)
- 2001 - Mandrake
- 2004 - Hellfire Club
- 2006 - Rocket Ride
- 2008 - Tinnitus Sanctus
- 2011 - Age of the Joker
- 2014 - Space Police: Defenders of the Crown
- 2017 - Monumentsnote
Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the Freakshow!
- All Drummers Are Animals: In this case, a highspeed alien drum bunny.
- Audience Participation Song: "This is the boring part of the show, the part where you have to sing along to whatever comes to my mind, allright?" makes for midtros or intros for many of their songs during live performances.
- Bound and Gagged: Tobi gets taped to a chair in the "All The Clowns" music video.
- Break-Up Song:
- Played for Laughs with "Trinidad", which opens with Tobi bluntly describing it as, "a story about an ugly woman I know".
- Played straight with "Scarlet Rose".
- "Wasted Time" is an odd variation. It's not necessarily about the breakup per se, but more about the fear and anxiety that comes out of trying to come back from a breakup and find a new relationship.
- Child Rockstar: They were 14-year-old students when they formed the band and released their first demos two years later.
- Cluster F-Bomb:
- "New Age Messiah": "Pardon fucking me, who the fucking fuck is Jesus/Motherfucking new messiah/For the fucking world."
- "Life and Times of a Bonus Track": "I don't give a fucking shit, no, I don't give a shit/Don't give a fucking shit, no, no.../Not a single little fucking shit."
- "Fucking With Fire", in the chorus hook, naturally.
- Cover Version: "Hymn," which was originally an Ultravox song.
- Drugs Are Bad: "Dragonfly" depicts a man dying of a drug overdose, wrapped around a play on words with the phrase "Drag on dragonflies".
- Ear Ache: The Jesus icon on the cover of Tinnitus Sanctus with a trickle of blood coming out of one ear.
- Epic Rocking: The band have their fair share of tracks that exceed the six-minute mark, but their longest by far is "The Kingdom", which is over eighteen minutes long.
- Erotic Eating: In the "Superheroes" music video, a group of Playboy Bunnies eat carrots suggestively. As does Tobias.
- Evil Laugh: The guitar solo in "The Return To The Tribe" achieves this effect.
- Funny Background Event: When Tobi removes his outer coat in the music video for "Lavatory Love Machine", he unwittingly smacks one of the passengers behind him.
- Greatest Hits Album: Monuments is a 2 CD set which also includes some new songs, rarer tracks from their EPs, a previously unreleased track, and a DVD featuring a show in Brazil from their Hellfire Club tour.
- Intercourse with You:
- "Lavatory Love Machine" plays out a sexual encounter on a plane to Brazil, at least until the singer goes off on an aside about his hypothetical death in a plane crash.
- "Fucking With Fire" fits a more general theme of sex, with Tobias even referring to his manhood in the chorus as "Hair Force One".
- Large Ham: In a genre practically defined by bombast, Tobias Sammet is unquestionably one of the largest hams in the business, arguably topped only by Fabio Lione.
- Last Note Hilarity: The fade-out to "Catch of the Century" is dominated by Tobias going on an angry rant towards all the other record labels that rejected him about how much more successful he will be, culminating in materialistic screaming until someone eventually manages to bring him back down to earth.
- Lonely Piano Piece: "Standing In The Rain"
- Long Runner Lineup: Their last line-up change was in 1998, and that was to add a full-time bassist (Tobias Exxel) so that Tobias Sammet could focus on singing.
- Loudness War: Tinnitus Sanctus, although this shows many signs of being intentional given the title, the cover, and the fact that the band describes the album as "a penetrating wall of sound".
- Lyrical Dissonance:
- "Do Me Like A Caveman" is a bombastic, fast-paced power metal song...about a man trying to get some sleep while the couple in the room next to him are having very loud sex.
- "Space Police" portrays a combination of bombast and rebellion against the backdrop of the cosmos...before getting interrupted less than halfway through the chorus by a stern warning from the titular Space Police.
- Mile-High Club: "Lavatory Love Machine". Played for Laughs when the song takes an aside near the end to imagine what will happen if the plane was to crash.
- Monster Clown: A wicked-looking jester seems to be their mascot. One features prominently on the cover of Age of the Joker as the title would indicate, and he shows up on the covers of Mandrake, and Monuments.
- Rocket Ride has one riding a Retro Rocket — with classical toothy Nose Art, a Green-Skinned Space Babe in a Latex Spacesuit (and the same hat) on the back "seat" and a crossbones flag in the image of a jester's skull.
- Mood Whiplash: Played for Laughs in "Space Police", where the lyrics heavily describe tons of intergalactic imagery and rebellious thoughts...until about halfway through the chorus, when the titular Space Police catches the protagonist and issues a stern warning.
- Obligatory Bondage Song: "Sex, Fire, Religion" most explicitly, but also "Lavatory Love Machine".
- Playboy Bunnies: In the "Superheroes" music video.
- Power Ballad: "Scarlet Rose," "Holy Water," "Forever," "When A Hero Cries," "Save Me," and the incredibly awesome "The Spirit Will Remain."
- Religion Rant Song: They did a few of these on their early albums, most notably "The Kingdom" from Kingdom of Madness, the title track of Theater of Salvation (and arguably the entire album could count), and "Down to the Devil" from Hellfire Club. All of these are type 3. The first two Avantasia albums are Religion Rant Albums. It should also be noted that, based on one post on Avantasia's Facebook Page
, that Tobias would appear to be an Occult Magician, and would naturally object to rules and power structures when it comes to spirituality. - Right Through the Wall: "Do Me Like a Caveman", from the perspective of someone being kept awake by a couple having sex in the next room over.
- Rule of Cool: This is Tobias' reason for the Word Salad Title of Space Police: Defenders of the Crown, saying that, "...we couldn't decide which title was better, we just went with both. Does it make sense? No! Does it sound exciting? Hell, yes! Mission accomplished!"
- Shout-Out:
- Given that the structures of both songs are almost identical, "Vain Glory Opera" commonly gets its first verse replaced by the first verse from The Final Countdown when performed live. The band also often introduces the song by jokingly claiming that Europe stole it.
- Felix Bohnke creates drum solos to the soundtracks of Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars. During the latter, he sports an iconic mask, complete with sounds.
- Sexy Stewardess: In "Lavatory Love Machine", Tobias ends up joining the Mile-High Club with one on a flight to Brazil.
- Slasher Smile: The jester mascot does this on the cover of Mandrake and Monuments.
- Space Police: The aptly-named "Space Police". The lyrics are about some guys who go to outer space to run wild, only to be stopped by the space police. According to Tobi, the term "space police" is used as an analogy to refer to people who try to tell bands what to do and not to do.
- Take That!:
- "Judas At The Opera", while first appearing like a barrage of random lyrics, is actually an attack against the critics who accuse them of being too happy and upbeat with their music. Unsurprisingly, critics then attacked the song for being too cheerful and uptempo.]]
- "Catch Of The Century" is a Take That! to the record labels that refused to sign the band in their infancy and predicted that they would have no future.
- Sympathetic P.O.V.: Inverted in "Robin Hood"; as it shows that by taking away the POV from the eponymous character, you can easily turn the Lovable Rogue into The Dreaded.
- Tuckerization: The name "Edguy" is an affectionate epithet for Mr. Edgar Siedschlag, the band's math teacher from when they were young.
- Villain Song: "Robin Hood", as it portrays the eponymous character as The Dreaded... While still set to an incredibly heroic tune! (and some surprisingly humorous lyrics)
- Word Salad Title: Space Police: Defenders of the Crown - the subtitle may not seem like it has anything to do with the subtitle, but Tobias said that the two titles that make up the phrase were combined because of a combination of Rule of Cool and being unable to decide between the two.
- Written Sound Effect: The "pew pew pew" noises from the outro to "Space Police" are written as such in the liner notes.
- Ye Olde Butchered English: In "Robin Hood," Tobi tells the audience to "bewareth."
