1308. Edguy / The Savage Poetry. 2000. 3.5/5

There have been many stories over the course of this podcast of friends who come together at school and form a band, and that band either sprouts offshoots that go on to become one of the biggest bands of their age, or the actual band stays together and does that of its own accord. All of these individuals in the band would have had dreams of fame and success. One of those was Tobias Sammet, who at the age of just 14 got together with fellow school friends Jens Ludwig, Dominik Storch, and Dirk Sauer in 1992 and formed a band called Edguy, named after their Maths teacher. Jens and Dirk played guitar and Dominik played drums, while Tobi took on the singing role. Initially the band played without a bass player, until Tobi took it upon himself to take up the instrument along with retaining lead vocalist duties. By his own admission, the band was not very good to start with, covering songs from their favourite artists. In 1994 the band wrote and recorded two demos, which they sent out to various record companies, all of which rejected them. So far, this story heads in the same direction as most when it comes to school friend band groups.
In 1995, the band went a step further, recording a full-length demo album, containing nine tracks, and even self-released it to garner some publicity. It was this release, which they called “Savage Poetry” that finally got the ball rolling for the band. Shortly thereafter, they signed with AFM Records who wanted to re-release “Savage Poetry” with more widespread distribution. Edguy however decided against this. It has been reported that they were unhappy with the way the album sounded by this stage, and they didn’t want it to be the first thing released by them on a major label. Instead, they headed into the studio to record their official debut album titled “Kingdom of Madness”, which was released in 1997.
Flash forward to 2000, and on the back of three studio albums Edguy has found its niche in the power metal world. At this time though, Tobi Sammet is deep into writing and preparing for a supergroup project that has been his passion, of writing an opera based around power metal music. That project would eventually come to be called Avantasia and the album would be “The Metal Opera”. With Sammet’s creative flow being consumed by this project, Edguy decided that for their next album, they would completely re-record their demo album from 1995 and release it as their fourth studio album. This they could do as it kept the band busy without requiring the time necessary to creatively compose a new album while their main songwriter was otherwise engaged. And thus came about the album with the slightly adjusted title and slightly adjusted track list called “The Savage Poetry”.

When you listen to this album having already heard the original demo of this album, you immediately notice the light years of difference between the two, in just a five year period. The first improvement noticeable is how far Tobi’s vocals have come in that time period. It is chalk and cheese between his vocals on the demo, and where they are on this release. Even when this was recorded, the band’s fourth album, these guys were only 22 years old, so the natural improvement not only in Tobi’s vocals but in the playing overall is stark as they grew into manhood. The music is tighter, and Tobi sings with more attitude and vigour, while they have also included keyboard arrangement that fill out the songs in a much better way, without trying to compete with Edguy’s proven assets of the twin guitars. New drummer Felix Bohnke, who joined the band for their previous album “Theatre of Salvation”, also adds a more powerful and fast double kick style to the songs that didn’t exist on the originals.
The opening track “Hallowed” is a great way to get into the album, an anthemic-like beginning both musically and with the combined choiring vocals through most of the song. The middle of the track with the traded guitar solos and melodic combining of the two is definitely the best part of the song, with the over-repeating of the same lyrics in the back half of the song a little over the top. This is followed by “Misguiding Your Life” which has a great thrashier start to the track along with requisite scream from Tobi get the song off to its solid beginning. There is a terrific mix of thrash tones and power metal highs through the course of the song, and the speed of the song balances everything nicely. The melodic guitar solos through their assigned slot also accent the best parts of the band's methodology, and the bass line beneath fills everything out to perfection. From here the album segues perfectly into “Key to My Fate”, a song that frames this era of Edguy as well as showcasing the influences that started the band and then got them to this point. The great opening heavy riff starts this off terrifically as an entry to Tobi’s vocals. Then the guitar solos, which act as a perfect homage to Helloween, who were an obvious heavy influence on the band from a young age, and that is brought to bear here. This section is the highlight of the song, wonderfully supported by Felix’s drumming and Eggi’s bass line. This was the song on the demo that showcased the talent the band had at that time, but here in its re-recorded and reformed version it is one of the band’s best ever instalments.
Power metal bands by decree must have power ballads on their albums. And the time has come for that to occur here, with the song “Sands of Time”. Over the course of their history, Edguy have actually written and performed some quite excellent power ballads – and this is not one of them. I understand the mentality to have to provide a section of the fan base with these types of tracks, but they just do nothing for me. Here Tobi offers us his keyboard laden version of this, which is more ballad than power ballad. It’s a skip song. And what is more the pity is that it is sandwiched between two great songs, as it is followed by “Sacred Hell”, which charges out of the blocks in the best Edguy fashion, double kick and guitars keeping up, while Tobi’s chorused vocals take up the baton and cry from the hilt. It is a typically structured Edguy song, indeed it also has similarities to the songs that appeared on Avantasia’s “The Metal Opera” and is another of those great solid tracks good albums need to back up the most popular and well-known songs.
The other thing that power metal is known for is the epic tracks, and Edguy’s first (only chronologically from the demo) is “Eyes of the Tyrant”, that rifles through the gears and covers every extravagance that the genre demands of such songs. It opens and closes with the moody keyboard and Tobi’s quietly building vocal, before bursting to life with the true opening riff of the song. Led by the double kick rolling drum beat and bass line, this ten minute extravaganza has everything you would expect, including a wonderful sweeping guitar break into the solo spots and then the melodic harmony transition back into the verse and chorus. It showcases every peak of the band in the one song and is one of the main attractions of the album. This is followed by “Frozen Candle”, the second longest track on the album which doesn’t scream epic as much as it does heavy standard. The start and end of the track comes across like material on the band’s true heavy metal album “Hellfire Club” down the track a few years, but it has an almost acoustic break within the middle of the song that negates that. It is still a good song, though perhaps the changes do end up making it a tad long.
Moving from the two long form songs of the album back into the second power ballad “Roses to No One” is, again, a pained one. This is a guitar-based power ballad rather than the keyboard-based ballad earlier on the album, which fits more closely with what you might expect from a power metal standard ballad. If you are a fan of these songs there is certainly something here for you with the choir backing vocals and upraising spirit singing, and the power ballad guitar solo. For me, I reach for the skip button extremely quickly. The album closes out in much better style with “Power and Majesty”. Lyrically, it is a bit like it was written by a 17 year old, which by perchance it was! But musically it takes off from the start and barely pauses to catch breath. There's a great galloping beat about the song that it reminiscent of Iron Maiden in its execution, and the solo from Jens is excellent. This powers along to the end of the song and is an effective and enjoyable way to complete the album.

Though I had been a fan from early on in my heavy metal upbringing of bands that would dominate the genre that became power metal, Helloween and Gamma Ray, it wasn’t until the turn of the century that I began to truly investigate and wrap myself in the bands of the genre that I now truly adore, such as Blind Guardian and HammerFall, Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica, and in particular Edguy. So these initial albums had already been released before I began to come on board the band. It was 2001’s “Mandrake” that first caught my attention and made me think that I needed to not only drown in what this album offered, but also to go back and find their first four albums and check them out as well. And that journey actually had me coming across a copy of the original demo version of “Savage Poetry” before I came across this 2000 version of “The Savage Poetry”. And in many ways that was a good thing, because I got to hear what the band sounded like at that very early stage of their career, and then got to hear this version of the album, re-recorded and improved immensely by five years of solid recording and touring and maturing, both musically and in the ages from 17 to 22.
In the quest for totally laying all my cards on the table, it is the albums after this by the band that are my favourites, ones that are conceivably heavier and with greater attitude and better songwriting musically and lyrically that I enjoy most. But what I like about this album is the unbridled joy you can hear in the music as you listen to the album. “Misguiding Your Life” and “Key to My Fate” especially showcase all of this, the speed of the former and the heaviness of the latter being guides to the way the band was heading at that time. And yes, it is true that listening to this album now does give you an insight into just how Tobi was progressing with his Avantasia project at the time because musically there are similarities along the way.
I’ve had this out again for the past few days and listened to it half a dozen times, and I have enjoyed it just as much as I have in the past. In the long run it was a savvy move to re-record their original demo to give it the polish it needed, and it filled a hole while Tobi was otherwise engaged. And if you like power metal in any way, you will find something at least here to enjoy. If you don’t, then you won’t.