Scribed by Sandre the Giant
When we last talked about Edguy, not that long ago (AS edition 038), they had just begun to take the first steps towards a bigger hard rock influenced heavy metal sound and the tongue had started to appear lodged firmly in cheek. Well, fast forward a decade on and we get what is, to this day, the final Edguy album. Which for me and my beloved wife, along with millions of power metal fans, is very sad. But to be honest, they left us with ‘Space Police – Defenders of the Crown’, which as a final(!) record, is a pretty fair result for us.
The dirty little secret about ‘Space Police’ is that, despite its ludicrous title and artwork, it is one of the strongest Edguy records and probably the best overall record they’d done since ‘Mandrake’. Sure, the ones in between had their moments, and were all a lot of fun, but ‘Space Police’ was full of the best bits of Edguy. You had rampaging power metal singalong belters like ‘Sabre & Torch’ and ‘The Realms of Baba Yaga’, which is the most Iron Maiden they’ve ever sounded. You had the tongue in cheek stuff like ‘Love Tyger’ (what a banger though) and the somehow brilliant cover of Falco’s ‘Rock Me Amadeus’, and you had the big power ballads like ‘Alone in Myself’. And if you had the bonus edition like me, you had Tobi’s ode to ‘England’ and all the things that have clearly been a big influence on him. It makes everything make sense if you think of latter day Edguy as Monty Python and Mr Bean seen through the lens of Maiden, Priest and Saxon though, doesn’t it? Not every song hits though; I’m still not sure what they were going for on ‘Do Me Like a Caveman’, but they can’t all be winners can they?
Classic hard rock and heavy metal have always been the lifeblood of Edguy’s work, and ‘Space Police’ was the record that took them as close as they could be to becoming that. If they had continued on instead of going on hiatus, we could be talking about them headlining massive stadium shows like Sabaton, but we can’t. Hopefully they will come back again one day, just to cheer up my wife at least. If not, they leave behind a singularly unique and recognisable discography in European power metal, and in heavy metal circles as a whole. Seriously guys, I mean Avantasia is great and all, but I need to hear ‘Love Tyger’ live once more in my life.
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The Killchain 