Burning Down The Opera - Live

In the genre of power/speed metal, few would argue that Edguy is one of the best that there is right now. Building a sound based on the classic Helloween style with a little Iron Maiden thrown in for good measure, Edguy has consistently delivered album after album of almost flawless metal. I was extremely happy to see them re-record the Savage Poetry album and it's something that I don't think a band has ever done before. Some have re-done songs from the past but not an entire album. Front man Tobias Sammet's Avantasia project has been a rousing success as well and right now, he is certainly one of the more talented song-writers in the metal genre today. After 5 studio albums, sooner or later the inevitable had to arrive......the "Live Album". I'm not as fond of live albums as I once was in the past. With today's ultra-sophisticated recording techniques, it becomes a difficult task to accurately reproduce the songs live and most live versions (although good in their own right) still cannot live up to the original studio versions (I'll stop there as I sense a future editorial topic taking shape!!).

Some of the live versions of songs that this band has released as bonus tracks or B-sides have not sounded that great. Whether it was the production or Tobias' voice, there has been something lacking. Such is not the case here. Edguy presents us with a great sounding live album complete with the obligatory drum solo, crowd sing-along sections and endless banter from Tobias. I really think that he went to the Bruce Dickinson school of "How to be a frontman for a metal band". His stage persona and the way he works the crowd is pure Bruce! The sound is great, the guitars way up front in the mix and Tobias' voice sounds great for the most part (he falters a bit on How Many Miles from the Vain Glory Opera album). The band focuses on their past three albums, Vain Glory Opera, Theater Of Salvation and Mandrake, with more emphasis on songs from Mandrake. I really don't have a problem with the track list on this album and I'm glad that they included Land Of A Miracle, one of the best power ballads to come out in recent metal history as far as I'm concerned. I'm a bit disappointed that there's nothing here from Savage Poetry as I think the fans would've wanted to hear a track or two, but with a new CD out....gotta plug!! The band offers us only 1 track from the Kingdom Of Madness album, Wings Of A Dream. The Avantasia project is touched upon during the encore segment with a nice version of Inside with Tobias accompanied by an acoustic guitar and the track Avantasia which are both met with a frenzy by the appreciative fans. The album ends with a great rousing version of Out Of Control complete with a wild conclusion which sees the band apparently ending the song, only to go off on another riff/drum frenzy. This happens 4 or 5 times until it all comes crashing to an explosive end.

Overall, some songs suffer a bit from the lack of the richness that mutli-layered backing vocals bring to many of their songs as far as the studio versions, but the band does a fine job in trying to fill in all the vocal lines for their songs. The drumming is superb, the lead guitar harmonies executed with perfection and the speed at which these guys play is staggering at times. Edguy has played very little in North America, so for those of us living on that continent, this may be as close as we can get to the live Edguy experience for a while. Enjoy it....it doesn't get much better than this as far as live power/speed metal.