Album Review: EDGUY - Monuments

CD1

01. Ravenblack
02. Wrestle The Devil
03. Open Sesame
04. Landmarks
05. The Mountaineer
06. 9-2-9
07. Defenders Of The Crown
08. Save Me
09. The Piper Never Dies
10. Lavatory Love Machine
11. King Of Fools
12. Superheroes
13. Love Tyger
14. Ministry Of Saints
15. Tears Of A Mandrake

CD2

01. Mysteria
02. Vain Glory Opera
03. Rock Of Cashel
04. Judas At The Opera
05. Holy Water
06. Spooks In The Attic
07. Babylon
08. The Eternal Wayfarer
09. Out Of Control
10. Land Of The Miracle
11. Key To My Fate
12. Space Police
13. Reborn in The Waste

DVD

01. Mysteria
02. Under The Moon
03. Navigator
04. Wake Up The King
05. Land Of The Miracle
06. Lavatory Love Machine
07. Vain Glory Opera
08. Fallen Angels
09. The Piper Never Dies
10. Babylon
11. King Of Fools
12. Chalice Of Agony
13. Tears Of A Mandrake (feat. André Matos)
14. Out Of Control

Video Clips:

15. Love Tyger
16. Robin Hood
17. Two Out Of Seven
18. Ministry Of Saints
19. Superheroes
20. Lavatory Love Machine
21. King Of Fools
22. All The Clowns

Germany's Edguy are celebrating their 25th anniversary with this awesome collection, which features brand new material in addition to re-mastered classics, live material and music videos.

Musically, imagine a mix between AC/DC, Accept, 90's Saxon and Helloween, and you'll be somewhere close. Edguy have a lot of humour in their music, and are clearly self aware, embracing the ridiculous glories of this kind of Heavy Metal. In this respect, they're a little like The Darkness, but generally with better songs and without the awful falsetto vocals.

This compilation really brings home what a consistent and great band Edguy are, and how it's mind boggling that they aren't considered as being in the same league as the Metal giants. Take for example their epic masterpiece The Piper Never Dies. If Iron Maiden or Judas Priest had written it, it would be considered one of their best songs. It's an absolutely incredible piece of Heavy Metal, and it's not on its own on this record. Far from it.

There are some incredible songs on here, from the Traditional Metal of Mysteria to the more 80's sounding Pop Metal end of their repertoire, such as the amazing Superheroes and the shamelessly ludicrous Lavatory Love Machine. Yes, they can be very cheesy and plain silly at times, but it's all executed so well that they manage to get away with it. Great song writing and musicianship is at the heart of this band, and their sense of fun is refreshing in this world of angry Metal.

The new songs are great too, with my favourite being Ravenblack, which the band deemed good enough to be the opener on this epic double album. It shows that the band still know how to pen a killer tune.

Naturally, when a band that has been around for decades and has a huge back catalogue, releases a compilation, there will always be songs some fans believe should have been or should have not been included. For my tastes, this collection is spot on, as all of my favourites are here, and I feel the choice of songs represents Edguy really well. There's plenty of new material on here to warrant old fans picking up Monuments, and if you quite like Edguy, but have never bought any of their albums before, this is a wonderful starting point.