Edguy

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Edguy
Country	Fulda, Germany
Years active	1992–present
Genres	Power Metal
Labels	AFM Records The End Records Nuclear Blast
Members	Felix Bohnke Tobias Exxel Jens Ludwig Tobias Sammet Dirk Sauer

Edguy is a power metal band from Fulda, Germany.

1 History
2 Style
3 Additional Information
4 Line-up
5 Former members
6 Discography
7 External links

[edit] History

Edguy was founded in 1992 by 14-year-old students Tobias Sammet, Jens Ludwig, Dirk Sauer, and Dominik Storch. The name "Edguy" was an affectionate epithet for Mr. Edgar, their math teacher at the time [1]. Until 1998, when Tobias Exxel joined the band, they had no bassist; Sammet having played the bass tunes on a keyboard.

After two demos they got a contract with AFM Records in 1995. Their first two albums were not very successful, but with Vain Glory Opera in 1998 they achieved a breakthrough. After another two albums they received a contract with the German label Nuclear Blast, in 2004.

In 2001/2002 Tobias Sammet's released the first album of his side project Avantasia, a wide-scope metal opera including the participation of many famous musicians and achieving a fair amount of success.

[edit] Style

With their uncomplicated easygoing melodies and Sammet's high voice, Edguy is representative of typical European power metal. Their lyrics are often metaphorical, alluding to metaphysical or social themes: conformity (The Headless Game, Mysteria, King of Fools), dictation by the church (The Kingdom, Theater of Salvation), and dangers of modern civilization (Navigator, The Devil and the Savant). To express such themes, Edguy sometimes use esoteric and hermetic expressions. Yet some of their songs are light-hearted or comedic (Das Reh, Save Us Now, Lavatory Love Machine, Life And Times Of A Bonus Track). Edguy does not claim to represent any ideology; Tobias Sammet claimed "We are not political and we are not religious; at least there is no key message in our songs telling you what to think in terms of anything". Edguy also employs lengthy and epic sections in almost every album.

Hellfire Club revealed Edguy's interest in experimenting within music by integrating an orchestra into the production. The album featured a variation on Edguy's style, with a less grandiose, more traditional Heavy Metal approach being embraced. Their latest album, Rocket Ride, features even less symphonic and speed metal elements, and is arguably more oriented towards hard rock.

[edit] Additional Information

Edguy toured with the well known power metal band Dragonforce in early 2006 after the release of the Inhuman Rampage album.

In July 2006, Edguy played at the Metalcamp festival in Slovenia, where they played a joke on fellow Germans Kreator, who played next. Tobias asked the audience to do him a favour: Once Kreator came on stage and played one song, the crowd was to start singing "Oh lay, oh lay". Not only did the crowd do this, but they continued to sing this following almost every song played by Kreator, prompting Mille Petrozza to stop and ask, "Is this STILL about the Edguy thing?"