The new interview with Tobias Sammet on Edguy.net wrote:
On August 26th Edguy will release their new album AGE OF THE JOKER. As with every release from Edguy and Avantasia, the new album seemingly divides critics of the bands into two groups. Friends of brave, anthemic and well produced Heavy Metal that's difficult to categorize are celebrating the album as the strongest Edguy release of the past ten years. Of course on the other hand ever-complaining Edguy haters will remain unsatisfied with the new material on AGE OF THE JOKER. The fact that the limited edition has been number one in the Heavy Metal sales charts on Amazon for weeks and the fact that the first run has now sold out completely proves that controversy doesn't do any harm to the ever-growing success of Edguy. In the following conversation with Edguy.net Tobias Sammet suggests every Edguy fan should check out the album themselves so they can form their very own opinion on the new album. Furthermore he says in a pretty honest way what he thinks about his critics...
Quote:
Tobias: “The jester has always been our trademark, not because he wants to be funny, but because he has the ultimate freedom to say anything he wants and he gets away with it. We have said anything you must not say, we have worn anything you must not wear, we have done anything you must not do according to the great book of rules in Heavy Metal. Yet we have ploughed our way to well over 2 million discs sold and played to thousands of fans in 40 countries around the globe. That's not a bad start for a band that's never been taken seriously by the majority of the press? We have always been true to ourselves, even if record label people may have freaked out over certain decisions we've made. If you take yourself too seriously you may end up with a heart attack in this crazy Metal business. That's why we have always kept a tongue-in-cheek attitude. We are allowed to go where no other band goes, and our fans know pretty well what and why we‘re doing this."
Quote:
The fact that certain magazines bash whatever we do is no big news, we know what they'll write even before we enter the studio. As a matter of fact, we don‘t fit in their scheme, but down the line it really doesn't matter what some desk- or internet-hero writes. AGE OF THE JOKER seemingly has all our trademarks and is considered a back-to-the-roots album by some press guys, which theoretically could be a proof that we have our own signature sound which makes us proud, but nothing was forced. I also love TINNITUS SANCTUS, it is a great album, my favorite Edguy album to date. It's sad some people didn't understand it and I respect that. But this is not proof for inferior quality. What counts is that AGE OF THE JOKER is a great album, you know that, the EDGUYs know that, our producer Sascha Paeth knows that, and our fans will find out shortly. The rest of the world can kiss my ass!"
Uuuh, whatever you say, Tobi. Seriously, I lose more and more respect for this guy every time he opens his mouth (or writes something that isn't music, for that matter.)
