TINNITUS SANCTUS FINDS EDGUY BEING EDGUY
High school Vince Neilstein would’ve loved Edguy if only he’d known about Edguy. Your Motley Crue-monikered editor took a break from metal during his high school years let down by the demise of the hair bands and the invasion of the nu-metal dunder-heads, completely oblivious to all the great music our European friends were creating on the other side of the pond. But when I discovered Iron Maiden my senior year it was all over, and so began my long, but deep descent into the world of metal (egged on by one Axl Rosenberg, to be sure). Tickle your funny bones with this one: summer after Senior year I went all by my lonesome to see Iron Maiden at Madison Square Garden — ’cause no one else I knew gave two shits about metal — with a rolled joint ready to rock in my wallet. Needless to say, it was life-changing.
So anyway, Edguy. If I’d known about this band during high school I would’ve been a sucker for ’em, buying every album and sporting every t-shirt in gym class. Which isn’t to say I can’t enjoy them now, too. Their post-NWOBHM / original-wave Euro power metal and trademark serious/funny split-personality is alive and well on Tinnitus Sanctus, out this week on Nuclear Blast. For all the jocking we do on MetalSucks of newer-wave epic Euro power metallers like Mercenary and Firewind, it’s about time we pay originators like Edguy some respect.
Tinnitus Sanctus finds the band doing what they do best, alternating between the Priest-inspired cock-riffing on “Ministry of Saints” and “Nine Lives” and the ‘they-can’t-really-be-serious,-can-they?’ pomp of “Sex Fire Religion.” Add some delicious choruses and tasty guitar solos, toss in a couple of ballads, repeat this formula for 53 minutes with Tobias Sammet’s fist-to-the-sky vocals on top of it all and you’ve got yourself a pretty decent Edguy album. While Tinnitus Sanctus doesn’t venture far from the path or break the mold, it isn’t really supposed to. It’s supposed to be fun, and this a fun album; well-executed at that.
-VN
(three out of five horns)
