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Nuclear Blast Records
by Craig Hartranft, 27.03.2014
I will tell you from the start that this review of Edguy's latest and tenth studio album, Space Police Defenders of the Crown, will be more than a little biased and less objective than usual. I'm a fan, and have been for better than 10 years, when they rescued me from Nineties American metal with their Mandrake album.
Much like the previous album, Age of the Joker, this one is straight Edguy, bringing melodic heavy and power metal in their most flamboyant, entertaining, and often humorous way. What would an Edguy album be without those over-the-top lengthy power metal pieces. In the case of Space Police and Defenders of the Crown it comes in two parts, with a single theme. The former has a more rock groove, the latter turning more towards power metal.
Then it also comes with the substantially heavier The Eternal Wayfarer, with it's dense combination of riffage and Tobias Sammet's keyboards. (Keyboards, once more, have an important, but limited, place in an Edguy album.) It comes again in another flurry and flourish of heavy power metal with The Realms of Baba Yaga, with Edguy writing from Norse mythology.
Edguy turns more to the melodic hard rock side with the groove and catchy hooks of Love Tyger, without losing the metal edge. It comes once more with Edguy's typical tongue-in-cheek humor with Do Me Like a Caveman, where groove, melody, and a catchy chorus reign. There is a ballad, Alone In Myself which moves as much with Sammet's vocal arrangement as it does with Felix Bohnke's drumming (whose drumming keeps improving and evolving with each album). Finally, just for the fun of it I guess, Edguy does a cover of the rather famous Falco song Rock Me Amadeus. While I never understood the popularity of the song, Edguy gives it a bit of a metal edge without compromising the vocal line or the underlying pop rock feel. Well, there you have it. As usual, I like most everything about another Edguy album. Space Police Defenders of the Crown is easily recommended.
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Hey, it's another terrific Edguy album, with the band doing melodic heavy metal their way and naysayers be damned. I like it.
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