Edguy – Space Police

I will be honest and admit that I had heard of EDGUY but had only heard a few songs (“Robin Hood“, “Lavatory Love Machine” and one or two others). If you haven’t heard of EDGUY then they hail from Germany and play a heavy/power metal style of music (this is Germany after all so you normally get either heavy/power or thrash metal). Anyway ‘Space Police‘ is the 10th album release by EDGUY and all I can say is whoa…plain and simple as that.

The album opens up with ‘Sabre & Torch‘ which is a crushing power metal song that will get the blood pumping, head banging and fist pumping, all while you sing along! While ‘Space Police‘ is like early JUDAS PRIEST (‘Rocka Rolla‘ and ‘Sin After Sin‘ era) mixed with a heavier QUEEN (think ‘Don’t Stop Me Know‘, ‘Hammer to Fall‘, ‘Princes of the Universe‘ etc) all topped off with some traditional German Power Metal. ‘Defenders of the Crown‘ goes back to a more traditional German heavy/power metal formula and pumps everything up a notch or two. EDGUY also mix it up on ‘Love Tyger‘ as it is more JUDAS PRIEST style with a big influence of VAN HALEN and will have you singing along to the catchy chorus. EDGUY then go and switch it all up as ‘The Realms of Baba Yaga’ is more influenced by IRON MAIDEN ‘Powerslave’ and Tobi Sammet sounds very like Bruce Dickinson. Although the song has the title “Do Me Like A Caveman” and will have some people sniggering this is a melodic groove laden slab of pure metal with a catchy chorus to boot and will reign supreme in your subconscious and have you randomly humming and singing along when your least expecting it. ‘Shadow Eaters’ injects more power and heaviness to the sound and will get you banging your head furiously, before EDGUY hit you with the ballad ‘Alone In Myself’ (hey, it wouldn’t be a power/heavy metal album without a ballad) and it comes off as a cross between MAGNUM and BON JOVI esque song and actually surprised me as I didn’t think I would like it. EDGUY then do what every metal band does and finish off with a lengthy epic track which just shows that they are still the “Defenders of Metal”…

EDGUY have released a classic metal album it’s as pure and simple as that, it has humorous parts, instantly memorable riffs and catchy lyrics that you will be humming and singing along to after your first listen and the album grows on you even more with each extra listen. In 2 days I have listened to this album 5 times already which is very impressive as seen as I have a few other albums to review! Tobias Sammet is a musical genius as he has proven that you don’t have to be serious all the time but can write humorous songs that still are heavy, power and amazingly catchy but stick to the metal roots (like JUDAS PRIEST have done in the past etc) and Tobias is in league with musical genius Devin Townsend.

EDGUY also prove how good they are as the album clocks in at 54 minutes, however the songs never feel like they are being dragged out and the whole album plays along perfectly and ends before you even know it. Especially album closer ‘The Eternal Wayfarer’ which is 9 minutes long yet it seems to effortlessly pass the time and leave you wanting more! This showcases just how brilliant EDGUY are and after my first proper taste of EDGUY I can confirm that I will be purchasing a few more EDGUY albums to add to my collection.

“Defenders of Metal” they are! Easy choice for me now is that I will definitely be seeing them in Manchester (UK) in September 2014…