Review Summary: Edguy is still being themselves, but with improvements.
With a title such as Space Police – Defenders of the Crown, sleazy album art, and a band that has that has a reputation of being sleazy (in recent days, that is), one cannot help but forge skepticism within their thoughts. To add fuel to the skepticism, the past three albums had a mixed reaction from Edguy’s fan base. Therefore, it seems appropriate to have skepticism. In fact, Space Police does a good job at guiding that skepticism into optimism from the get-go in the opener Sabre & Torch; a song that shows Edguy’s heavier side, a side of Edguy that was virtually absent on Age of the Joker.
Intuitively, some might say Sabre & Torch sets the mood for the rest of album, but that is not the case. The next two songs – the songs where the album title is derived from – show an interesting side of Edguy. The elements that Edguy incorporates in these songs are quasi-progressive tones that are neither here-nor-there, which leaves the listener a bit baffled to any expectations after Sabre & Torch and contemplating whether the album will progress into a train wreck. The next song after Defenders of the Crown adds more speculation as to where the path of the album is taking the listener. Yet, this song is probably one of the best songs Edguy has ever constructed! Love T-T-T-T-Tyger is a bomb-tastic glam metal song done right! Words cannot describe how fun this song is!
This is a bit off topic, but not necessarily off topic: Edguy creates glam metal songs here and there and power metal songs incorporating hard rock influences. With that said, if you (the listener) refer back to the track listing you will come across a song entitled “Do Me Like A Caveman”. Intuitively, you will think this song will be another Love Tyger, Lavatory Love Machine, or ***ing with Fire (Hair Force One). In fact, the structure of the song is completely counterintuitive of any assumption made before listening to the song. Do Me like A Caveman starts off heavy, but it quickly transitions into a tone that seems “serious”, but when you listen to the lyrics, it is completely opposite to what you are hearing. The best way to describe Do Me Like A Caveman is to compare it to Rocket Ride’s Superheroes, but Do Me Like A Caveman is on another level of sophistication. It is strange; however, other songs such as Realms of Baba Yaga or Shadow Eaters remind the listener that Edguy is still capable of composing power metal songs.
So far, the description of the album should be an indicator that Space Police – Defenders of the Crown has a hard time presenting itself as consistent. For lack of better words, the suffering comes from various identities associated within the album conflicting with one another. In a way, you could declare Space Police’s biggest defeater is an identity crisis amongst the transition of the songs (i.e. glam metal to power metal to hard rock). Surprisingly, the songs transition quite well between one another. The album as a whole - when compared to previous releases after Hellfire Club - shows a vast improvement in delivering qualitative songs to the listener. However, the main problem with this album – and every album in fact – is getting used to the songs and listen to the album one or two more times before coming to a rational conclusion. If you plan to listen to Defenders of the Crown, you have to realize that it takes more than one listen of the album to appreciate all of the songs, because there will be the immediate hits and the classic “I’m not too sure about this song” kind of song.
