Edguy

With their last album we observed Edguy’s breed of music shift from symphonic and power metal to a much more standardised hard rock sound. Rocket Ride (2006) seemed to focus a little more on vocal aspects than the previous 6 studio albums released by the band. At the time, people didn’t know exactly how to react and the album gained a mixture of positive reviews and ones that were less so. Can you blame fans for being a little surprised? With their preceding releases Edguy had assembled an enormous fan base, and to completely change your style with album number 7 surely tests the loyalty of this support to the max! Luckily for the band their prestigious reputation carried them and most of their fan base hung on in anticipation, awaiting the next album, and with bated breath prepared to accept their chosen direction. That said, Rocket Ride was not without it’s fans – me included – and without being too scrupulous what I’d like to see is some kind of fusion of older and more recent styles to create the ultimate symphonic hard rock album. Is that too much to ask?

On first appearance it seems so, and although the opening riff is as powerful as they come with the wonderful inclusion of Dimebag Darrel styled guitar squeals on every other repetition of the melody, there appears to be no sign of symphonic influence. Once the vocals enter the equation, however, it becomes hard to care! The pitch perfect Tobias Sammet seems to have a point to prove and damn does he do it in style. I have no idea which member of the band writes these vocal lines but I suspect it is Sammet himself, as no instrumentalist could judge the intervals between notes as perfectly as he does and the harmonies created are simply angelic…I guess it’s true then; voice ripens with the development of the brain! The guitar solo is far from the most complex that I’ve heard but even so, in the same vein as the vocals, every combination of notes seems to have been tested meticulously and the outcome is near perfection. A similar story can be told with the second and third tracks so it’s not until the fourth, ‘Nine Lives’ that elements of Symphony appear. From the start there is a wispy electronic stringed instrument simulation playing along with the main riff, but although at the beginning I was hoping to see a return to symphonic sounds, following on from the insanity of the opening three tracks, this one is somewhat disappointing whilst still enjoyable. Goes to prove the old saying ‘Be careful what you wish for’! The next song is more similar to the first three and while there are symphonic features in the chorus the style is used to good effect, and the styles run in parallel to produce a very promising track. This is where the problems begin; all of the first songs are upbeat and heavy but this pattern appears to end and we have no less than three slow ballads in a row. I’ve nothing against the odd ballad but three in a row is pushing all sorts of boundaries and suggests, possibly for the first time in the record, a lack of care in the placement of the songs on the album. However trivial this may seem it makes the album impossible to listen to from beginning to end because round about the middle of ‘Thorn Without A Rose’ boredom sets in. Songs nine and ten are much more pleasurable with ‘Dead or Rock’ being the best track on the album mixing traditional AC/DC rock and mixing it with power metal. A short joke song at the end rounds things off nicely leaving me distinctly satisfied with my morning’s listening!

Overall...this is an extremely enjoyable album full of powerful vocal melodies and interesting guitar progressions. Edguy have dropped the Symphonic act almost entirely but the compounding fusion between hard rock and power metal remains and this album is without a doubt in contention for best album of the year. Whilst the order of the songs should have been better considered, there is not a dud song on the release and I look forward to yet further developments to this unique sound in the future. I recommend this one to everybody, and I mean everybody.