Edguy

Tobias Sammet, singer, keyboardist and main composer of the band, has been within the band since its founding, alternating his work in Edguy with his parallel project, Avantasia, a metal opera in which he surrounds himself with important musicians from the Power metal band scene like Jørn Lande, Timo Tolkki, (Stratovarius), Kai Hansen, (Helloween, Gamma Ray) Michael Kiske (Helloween, Unisonic), André Matos (Angra, Shaman), Doro (Warlock, Doro), among others

In 1992, in the small town of Fulda, Hessen, Germany, four fourteen-year-old high school students, who mocked their uptight math teacher Edgar Zimmerer, formed their own heavy metal band. The name "Edguy" emerged as an epithet for Professor Zimmerer.

Initially the band was composed of Tobias Sammet (vocals and keyboards), Jens Ludwig (lead guitar), Dirk Sauer (rhythm guitar) and Dominik Storch (drums). With touches of irreverence that were not particular for its genre, the band clearly headed towards a European power metal sound, with Tobias Sammet as its main creative.

After releasing the demos "Evil Minded" and "Children Of Steel", both in 1994, the band independently released their first full-length, Savage Poetry, in 1995. That same year they obtained a recording contract with the AFM Records label.

In 1997, their second album and first proper studio album, Kingdom of Madness, was published. Drummer Dominik Storch left the group shortly after. In 1998, their second studio album, Vain Glory Opera, was released, which represented both a leap in technical and sound quality and the possibility of making theirself known to the general public. For the recording sessions, the drums ran to by Frank Lindenthal. After finishing recording the album, the band recruited drummer Felix Bohnke.

They also had the help of Timo Tolkki, from the band Stratovarius, in charge of production, which gave the album a much higher sound quality than what had been heard in previous works. Timo Tolkki also collaborated on the guitars in the song "Out of Control." Hansi Kürsch, from the band Blind Guardian, was included as a guest vocalist on "Out Of Control" and "Vain Glory Opera", the album's title track.

To this day, this album continues to be among the band's most popular among fans and critics.

Tobias Sammet was in charge of providing the bass melody through the keyboard until that moment, but in 1998, a musician named Tobias Exxel joined the band as bassist. In 1999 the band released their third studio album, Theater of Salvation, the first with Tobias Exxel on bass and Felix Bohnke on drums, the complete definitive line-up that lasts to this day.

This new album represented, once again, a qualitative leap in terms of maturity, quality and originality. It is considered by critics and their fans to be Edguy's best work to date.​ Praised by the media and followers throughout Europe, they also reached Japan where they achieved an impressive sales record.

Later, in 2000, and thanks to pressure from fans who asked the band to re-release their first album, The Savage Poetry was published, a new version of the album of the same name published independently in 1995.

At the end of 2000, Tobias Sammet released the first album of a parallel macro project that he had been working on during the Theater of Salvation album presentation tour. This project, called Avantasia (a name composed of the union of the terms "Avalon" and "Fantasia"), became Tobias Sammet's parallel band. The album was titled The Metal Opera and featured a wide variety of guest musicians and some of the most respected voices within the metal world. The project was completed in 2002 with The Metal Opera - Part II, being a critical and sales success.

In the first quarter of 2001 the band returned to the studio, and with the help of Miko Karmila, album producer for Stratovarius and other groups, produced their fifth studio album, titled Mandrake. On this album the band continues the positive evolution that began from their first album, both vocally and instrumentally.

During the presentation of this work, the group went on a world tour for the first time within the framework of the "Mandrake World Tour 2001", which was a complete success.​ That same year, two very limited production singles were released, titled Painting On The Wall and The Marche Des Gendarmes; The latter was an exclusive production for the French market.

In 2003, Edguy produced their first live double album, titled Burning Down the Opera, recorded entirely in Paris, France. The group's contract with AFM had expired at that time, giving them the opportunity to sign with Nuclear Blast Records at the end of 2003.

On February 2, 2004 the band released the ep King of Fools.

In April 2004, the band's sixth studio album, HellFire Club, was released, which demonstrated the interest of its musicians in experimenting by integrating orchestral arrangements into compositions. Very contrary to their previous albums, in which a great influence of Helloween's power metal can be seen, in HellFire Club there are much darker and more distorted riffs than in their previous publications.

The song "Lavatory Love Machine" was published as simple. The band's productivity continued in 2005 with the release of the EP Superheroes, followed by the studio album Rocket Ride in January 2006. This album contains fewer symphonic and speed metal elements. A year later the DVD Superheroes Heroic DVD Edition was released.

After touring with Avantasia, Tobias Sammet returned to Edguy for the release of The Singles compilation and the studio album Tinnitus Sanctus, released on November 14, 2008. Sammet stated that this album is the culmination of his skills as a composer, and which is the album I had always wanted to record. However, an important part of his audience considered that the album completely distances itself from Edguy's original sound. However, this production led them to establish themselves as the most representative band of German power metal in the last three years, selling 30 million copies.

After renewing their contract with Nuclear Blast at the end of 2008, the band released the live DVD Fucking with F*** – Live in 2009 with live material during the promotional tour for the Rocket Ride album in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The group then went on tour as the opening act for the band Scorpions on their dates in Germany for their farewell tour in 2010.

Edguy released their ninth studio album, Age of the Joker, in August 2011. The group toured Europe and South America, including some dates with Slash and Deep Purple, followed by an appearance at the annual 70000 Tons of Metal festival, taken on a cruise ship.

On January 28, 2014, Edguy released the name of their new studio album, Space Police: Defenders of the Crown, which was finally published on April 18 of the same year.

A version of the famous song "Rock Me Amadeus" by Austrian pop singer Falco.

On July 14, 2017, a double album titled Monuments was released. It is a compilation album that, in addition to containing classics from the band such as "Lavatory Love Machine", "Superheroes", "Tears of a Mandrake" and "Ministry of Saints", presents five new songs.

Since that moment, the band's activity has been stopped, without them having communicated their separation. Tobias Sammet has been intensely and virtually exclusively dedicated to his Avantasia project since 2015.

At the moment the band is "on hold"

The lyrics, generally metaphorical, allude to both social and metaphysical themes, the guidelines of the church and the dangers of modern civilization. To express these themes, Edguy uses esoteric and hermetic expressions. On the other hand, many of his themes are light and even comical. Edguy does not represent any particular ideology, as Tobias Sammet himself states: "We are not political or religious. At least, there are no key messages in our themes that lead you to think anything about anything."

HellFire Club revealed Edguy's interest in experimenting within music by integrating an orchestra into the production. The album included a variation on the band's style, with a more progressive approach. The Rocket Ride album features even fewer power metal elements, and is arguably more hard rock oriented. Their next album, Tinnitus Sanctus, contains even more hard rock songs; A great reduction in the use of the double bass drum pedal is evident, in contrast to Edguy's older albums, such as Vain Glory Opera, where a very fast double bass drum is seen, which is common in power metal.

When asked if the term "happy heavy metal" is applicable to Edguy's style, Tobias rejected this idea and added: "We are a heavy metal band. We play strong, powerful, sometimes ironic metal. We're quirky and we don't take ourselves too seriously, but that goes for Van Halen too, right? Are they happy rock? No, they have a sense of humor and they are great, just like us."

Evil Minded (1993) demo

Children of Steel (1994) demo

Savage Poetry (1995) demo

Kingdom of Madness (1997)

Vain Glory Opera (1998)

Theater of Salvation (1999)

The Savage Poetry (2000)

Mandrake (2001)

Burning Down the Opera (2003) live

Hellfire Club (2004)

King of Fools (2004) ep

Hall of Flames (2004) compilation

Superheroes (2005) ep

Rocket Ride (2006)

Tinnitus Sanctus (2008)

The Singles (2008) compilation

Fucking With F*** - Live (2009) live

Age of the Joker (2011)

Space Police: Defenders of the Crown (2014)

Monuments (2017) compilation

Tobias Sammet – vocals, keyboard (1992–present), bass guitar (1992–1998)

Jens Ludwig – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1992–present)

Dirk Sauer – rhythm and lead guitar, backing vocals (1992–present)

Tobias Exxel – bass guitar, backing vocals (1998–present)

Felix Bohnke – drums (1998–present)

Dominik Storch - drums (1992–1998)

Frank Lindenthal - drums (1998) (studio only)