Edguy

Edguy were formed in Fulda in 1992 by four 14-year-old schoolmates: Tobias Sammet, Jens Ludwig, Dirk Sauer and drummer Dominik Storch. The name came from a nickname for one of their teachers. In 1995 the band self-released Savage Poetry, an unofficial debut that got little attention at the time. Sammet sang, played keyboards and wrote most of the songs from the start, a role he has kept ever since.

The proper debut, Kingdom of Madness, came out on AFM Records in 1997, and Vain Glory Opera (1998) put them on the European power metal map. Bassist Tobias “Eggi” Exxel and drummer Felix Bohnke joined in 1998, and that line-up has stayed the same ever since. Theater of Salvation (1999), the re-recorded The Savage Poetry (2000) and Mandrake (2001) completed the AFM years. Around the same time, Sammet launched Avantasia as a side project.

Edguy signed with Nuclear Blast in late 2003 and opened that chapter in 2004 with the King of Fools EP, whose title track became their first top-40 single in Germany. Hellfire Club (2004) was a commercial breakthrough, and Rocket Ride (2006) kept the momentum going. The band leaned more towards hard rock on Tinnitus Sanctus (2008) and Age of the Joker (2011), before Space Police: Defenders of the Crown (2014), their tenth studio album.

The 25th-anniversary package Monuments came out on 14 July 2017, mixing older songs with new material and rarities. Edguy played their last shows that year, and in March 2020 Sammet said the band was on hiatus while he worked on Avantasia. On 17 June 2026 the classic line-up announced a concert at the Domplatz in Fulda on 25 June 2027, their first in a decade. The statement read: “Some stories deserve a final chapter. Let’s write ours together.”

Current line-up: Tobias Sammet (vocals, keyboards), Jens Ludwig (guitar), Dirk Sauer (guitar), Tobias Exxel (bass), Felix Bohnke (drums)