625. Edguy / Age of the Joker. 2011. 1/5

With Tobias Sammet bouncing between engagements with Edguy, and with the success of the expansionistic episodes of Avantasia's The Wicked Symphony and  Angel of Babylon as well as the live tour and album that followed, it was always going to be interesting to see what he had left in the tank inspiration-wise for his number one act. Not only whether it could live up to what Edguy had done in the past, but whether it could pull itself out of the massive shadow that the multi-starred Avantasia was casting.

What they were thinking when they put "Robin Hood" as the lead-off song here though, I have no idea. This was also the single lifted from the album (albeit a radio friendly 4 minute version), but at over eight minutes in length it is about five minutes too long. It could have had the chaff sifted out and shortened significantly to make it a more appealing song. This song also enhances the opinion that the band has left behind the power metal of wonderful albums like Mandrake and Hellfire Club and progressed closer towards a rock direction.
"Nobody's Hero" is like a throwaway song, something written as a B-side of a single, not the second song of a major album. "Rock of Cashel" sounds like it is trying to be a Blind Guardian song, without the pace and power of a Blind Guardian song. It is quite bland and uninteresting while bringing in the mandolins to try and create an old medievil fair sound. Not good. 
More is to come. The steel guitars come out in "Pandora's Box", which, seriously, should never appear in a song by a power metal band. It just isn't right at all, and while experimentation is fine, surely not in this way. A power metal ballad featuring steel and slide guitars makes this a dreadfully awful track with no redeeming features.
"Breathe" tries to come back to something close to Edguy's classic speed and power metal roots, before the almost gagworthy soft rock ballad "Two Out of Seven" drags the album back into the sickly mire of mediocrity. Is this all Tobi has left? It is repulsive.
"Faces in the Darkness" tries hard to restore some semblance of order but is still too close to the previous song to really enjoy. Finally, "The Arcane Guild" comes, bringing a pacey guitar riff and vocals that more closely resemble the Edguy of old. This is the pick of the album by a country mile.
Of course, it was too good to last, and "Fire on the Downline", despite great vocals from Tobi, is just another power rock ballad with little substance or heart, as if the guitar section of the band had been completely forgotten about.
"Behind the Gates to Midnight World" isn't a completely lost cause, and it does have its moments, though it isn't able to hold onto its momentum all the way through. However, all this is offset by the lacklustre and weak effort of "Every Night Without You". The closing song on the album is a close fought tussle of worst ever Edguy song. This is pretty much like a really awful Bryan Adams ballad, except that the Bryan Adams ballad would be better than this piece of shite. Truly, truly awful uninspiring crap.

I was so looking forward to this album when it was released, and have rarely been as let down by an album as I was by Age of the Joker. As a power metal band from the continent, Edguy has been one of the leaders in the first half of the previous decade. In recent times they have slipped a little, and whether that can be attributed to the amount of time their leader has spent with his 'side project', and that his creative juices have been used more thoroughly on Avantasia than Edguy is perhaps up in the air. Whatever the reason, this isn't what I was looking for nor hoping for from a band who I have a lot of time and respect for.