Review Summary: Welcome to Vain Glory Opera, the home of the most badass five minutes of power metal ever, also known as Out of Control.
Today, Edguy is known as one of the most ridiculous bands on the planet, featuring insanely cheesy lyrics, pot-influenced cover art and the most energetic stage performance ever. It seems that Edguy has shed any vestiges of respect for their own music and instead continues down a suicidal path, riddled with self-mockery and a total lack of regard for their fellow Power Metal bands which they are quite obviously pissing upon. Who can blame them? Ever since 2003 Power Metal has become synonymous with the word Dragonforce, and the word Dragonforce has become known as a shorter way of saying the worst ***ing band the ***ing world has ever ***ing seen, and probably the worst ***ing band the in whole ***ing history of bad music. But Power Metal wasn't always this way. Once upon a time, even Edguy was true to their genre, and Vain Glory Opera was one of the great albums that arose from this time period. Undoubtedly, Vain Glory Opera is Edguy's best releases to date.
As expected from Power Metal, the lyrics of VGO are strongly centered on fantastical concepts such as love, bravery and honor. A lack of strong lyricism is made obvious by generic song titles such as "Scarlet Rose" and "Fairytale," however the actual delivery of the lyrics is outstanding. Tobias Sammett unleashes an all out vocal assault, occasionally backed by Hansi Kursch of the legendary Blind Guardian. Tobias's vocal chords lay waste to verse and verse, frequently changing between his high pitched wails and his lower more guttural voice and then dives headfirst into strong chanting choruses. Combined with the angry lead guitar of "No More Foolin," Tobias's rapid fire attack is a force to be reckoned with.
The guitar of Vain Glory Opera is like nothing I have ever heard from the genre. In VGO Dirk Sauer and Jens Ludwig rely heavily on the classic Edguy tone to carry them through the majority of the album. VGO is littered with stunning dual guitar solos and frenzied lead sections. "Out of Control" is easily the standout guitar track of this album, and when you hit 3:12 you'll know why. The acoustic guitars are also much stronger in this album then in later releases. I found both "Scarlet Rose" and "Tomorrow" to be enjoyable tracks whereas "Thorn without a Rose," a much later ballad, to be an absolutely hideous piece of music.
The Drum performance of VGO is nothing to gawk at, but nothing much was expected of the temporary drummer Frank Lindenthal other than his ability to provide support for the obviously competent guitarists. His drum fills are nothing special or inspiring and they aren't really anything more than background noise.
If you are looking some decent Power Metal untainted by the gimmicks and posturing of the modern music word, give VGO a spin. You'd be surprised as to how different Edguy was ten years ago, 4.5/5.
Recommended Tracks
Scarlet Rose
Out of Control
Vain Glory Opera
No More Foolin
