The out of nowhere news that Tobias Sammet dropped onstage at the recent Avantasia show in his hometown of Fulda, Germany — that Edguy was returning for a single show on June 27th, 2027 at the very same venue (the Domplatz) in Fulda came as a shock to all of us, particularly the crowd at that show whose reaction was captured for an Instagram post to help promote the news. The extra promo effort wasn’t necessary, because the show sold out in less than 24 hours with over 9000 tickets being scooped up. There is hope from fans that its the first in a series of final shows and not just a one-off, and for my part, I hope there’s some miracle of a ProgPower USA performance included in that run to get me to come back to Atlanta next year (I realize this is a slim chance). But beyond wishes and hopes, the news was bittersweet for me. It was a pleasant surprise to see Edguy getting resurrected, but I always hoped it was for the band coming together, older and wiser and more capable of working together in a smoother fashion than previously suggested, for the express purpose of creating new music together. When Tobias recently made comments on social media about coming around to understanding why power metal fans still loved the band’s older albums so fervently, the thought crossed my mind that maybe it would light his fire for Edguy again in order to explore this newfound peace with his musical past. In announcing that the band is seemingly going to have its “final chapter”, it seems he is choosing to lay it to rest permanently in order to close the book on the past entirely.
And I’ll be real, that is a flat out saddening notion, not only for what it means about us as Edguy fans not getting any more new music, and the band’s discography staying static as its been for the past decade now, but for what it kinda means to me and I’m sure many others on a personal level. Yeah we’re getting older, and time is passing, and that sucks for many things and is okay in some other ways, it is what it is. But all of us as metal fans are in unprecedented territory these past few years, saying goodbye to bands we loved, to icons of the genre hanging it up or passing away. It’s one thing to say goodbye to icons who are at an age where they physically need to hang it up, such as Ozzy last year, or the possibility that this is AC/DC’s final tour — and another thing altogether when it’s an artist that has it’s classic lineup intact, still in fighting shape, and they’re willfully choosing to hang it up. It’s a distinct kind of heartbreak that leaves die hard fans longing, feeling like there was music left unfinished in the metaphysical rehearsal room so to speak. With regards to Edguy, not only does it feel like that, but speaking as an American fan who in the late 90s was very aware of the burgeoning rise of European power metal and today remember just how exciting, fresh, and vital the albums being released in those years were, it feels like the signal of the real ending of that era.
I got into Edguy through a Cleveland college radio show called The Metal Meltdown that I somehow found in the late 90s (I think through the old Megadeth.com forums) running out of WRUW Case Western Reserve University. It was hosted by one Dr. Metal who focused his playlists on melodic metal, not only classics such as Savatage, Helloween, Gamma Ray, and Priest, but he was particularly tapped into bands coming over from Europe and had contacts with the bigger labels hosting those bands in order to get them on the show for interviews, even the odd live in-studio interview whenever they’d come over to the States for a rare run of American shows. The Doc’s playlists were bursting with bands I’d never heard of, whose albums I couldn’t easily find in any stores over here. But he introduced me to countless artists, not only Edguy, but Sonata Arctica, Nightwish right before Wishmaster exploded in Europe, Rhapsody, Labyrinth, Masterplan, Falconer, Royal Hunt, I could go on and on and on. It was a treasure trove of a show and the station offered the show as a mp3 download that would be replaced every week off their FTP server, a proto podcast type of thing. I remember hearing a very young Tobias calling into the Metal Meltdown for an interview promoting the Savage Poetry re-recording in 1999, and how amused he was that any American interest was happening for this nascent German power metal band. I listened to the songs the Doc played on that interview episode over and over again, cuts from the re-recording as well as their 1998 opus Vain Glory Opera. When I stumbled onto a import copy of Theater of Salvation in a record store soon thereafter, I remember feeling genuine elation that I got so lucky and wasn’t going to have to pay shipping for it.
It really felt like Edguy was for awhile there, a hidden secret known only to power metal fans in the know in the States, they didn’t have the distribution deal that Blind Guardian scored with Century Media, their albums were hard to find, they didn’t yet have the cachet that Hammerfall did on the heels of their very successful first three albums. I was an avid metal magazine collector then, and it was rare to see the band mentioned in those early days. When Tobias announced the Avantasia project, it helped crack open the window a bit more because names like Henjo Richter and Markus Grosskopf certainly made heads turn in the power metal world, and when that project’s debut album took off, and soon neither Avantasia nor Edguy were well kept secrets anymore. It’s also worth noting that until 1997, the term power metal as we understand it today wasn’t being applied to bands such as Helloween and Gamma Ray. When this new young crop of European bands such as Hammerfall, Rhapsody, Stratovarius, and yes Edguy burst on the scene, the term began being applied retroactively to those aforementioned foundational influences. Edguy was cut from the cloth of both of those bands in terms of the hooks, melodicism, epic majesty, and humor — and so their early albums really did feel like they were weaving together a part of the fabric of what we now think of as the golden era of power metal from 97-04. It would be honest to say that in the early millennium Edguy was one of my favorite bands going, and when we were all bathing in the glow of Iron Maiden storming back with Brave New World, and reveling in this absolute flood of incredible albums being delivered to us from across the ocean from so many awesome new bands, I was still listening to Edguy probably way more than anything else just as a general rule. They are still one of my favorite power metal bands ever, even above Avantasia.
But if you’ve bothered reading this far about my feelings about a band called Edguy, you likely already knew that, and I don’t need to go into why their records were titanic, epic, soaring affairs filled with unforgettable songwriting (maybe I’ll do this in some way in another piece down the line next year). To be honest, I feel like I’m writing this whole thing more for myself, maybe in a vain hope of coming to peace with it. But all those Edguy albums, the classics and the uneven ones later on, were the soundtrack to my life during fun and happy times, but also kept me going as comfort listens during the dirge and doldrums of the everyday grind of work and school, of commuting and being stuck in traffic. When I needed inspiration to face the day, I could count on “Babylon”, “All the Clowns”, and “Under the Moon”, and fist pump along to them. When I needed to plaster a grin on my face, I could count on “Love Tyger”, “Save Us Now”, or the absurd silliness of “Lavatory Love Machine”. Their music could complement a range of emotions, and my effusive feelings on Tobias as a ballad writer should be well known by now, and when I was feeling down and depressed, tunes such as “Painting on the Wall”, “Scarlet Rose”, “Forever” and “Holy Water” genuinely did lift me out of that dour state and leave me feeling better. I mean, I could say this about a good number of bands as well… in due time I suppose. For now, I’ll come to terms with saying goodbye to these particular five German dudes from Fulda.
