Edguy Biography

1992
Tobias Sammet (keyboards, vocals), Jens Ludwig (lead guitar), Dirk Sauer (rhythm guitar) and Dominik Storch (drums) start the band Edguy and play their first gigs.

1993
Tobias quits playing keyboards and starts to play bass as it's better to have a bass guitarist in your band than a keyboard player.

1994
Edguy release their first demo tapes "Evil Minded" and "Children Of Steel".

1995
Edguy release their self-produced Demo-CD "Savage Poetry".

1996
Edguy sign their record deal with a small German label called AFM Records.

1997
In January the official debut album "Kingdom Of Madness" gets released. Edguy play a few live shows only and get first press reviews. Horst Odermatt ("who will pay a lot of money one day, to have the band headlining his Bang Your Head Festival", annotation of the band) predicts that Edguy will have no future.

Dominik Storch leaves the band and is replaced by Frank Lindenthal for just one studio record before skinsman Felix Bohnke joins in permanently. Tobias quits playing bass to focus on vocals only and Tobias "Eggi" Exxel joins the band on bass guitar.

1998
In January Edguy's Vain Glory Opera album gets released. Mixed by Timo Tolkki of Stratovarius, featuring guest vocalist Hansi Kuersch of Blind Guardian and followed up by a five week Europan support tour the album receives great press reactions all over the world, especially in Japan. For the first time Edguy plays the prestigious Wacken Open Air, being the opening act on the smallest stage.

1999
Theater Of Salvation gets released in January and for the first time Edguy show up in Germany's official album charts. The band tours for almost three months all over Europe, supporting Hammerfall, then Gamma Ray and then Angra in France. Edguy plays Wacken again, being the opening act on the main stage.

2000
In summer Edguy release a re-recorded version of their unofficial debut called "The Savage Poetry". The album hits the charts again. This summer Edguy just focus on making festival appearances instead of a tour, a.o. sharing the bill with Iron Maiden for some of their "Metal 2000" stadium shows.

2001
In January Tobias Sammet releases his first solo project "Avantasia The Metal Opera part 1" which unexpectedly becomes a big hit and even gets Edguy the recognition amongst press and fans alike, the band had deserved for years. In September the new Edguy album "Mandrake" goes straight to number 19 in the German album charts upon its release and the band embarks on the first ever world tour of their own, leading the band to 23 countries in North-, Central- and Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

2002
The second leg of the Mandrake tour climaxes in a prime time show at Wacken Open Air's main stage in front of more than 40.000 fans. In late summer Tobias Sammet's second Avantasia album "The Metal Opera 2" gets released and climbs up to #17 of the official album charts in Germany.

2003
With the double live album "Burning Down The Opera" Edguy part ways with their long time record label AFM records and sign with giant label Nuclear Blast Records.

2004
Edguy's newest album "Hellfire Club" gets released on NB-records. It's their biggest and heaviest album to that point, featuring the German Film-orchestra Babelsberg and containing two single hits "King Of Fools" and "Lavatory Love Machine". "Hellfire Club" rockets to the charts world wide and makes the band embark to another very successful headlining tour featuring more than 80 shows around the globe, climaxing in festival appearances at "Rock am Ring" and "Rock im Park".

2005
The band plays the second leg of the "Worldwide Hellfire Tour", that gets them over to the USA for the third time to play their first extended coast-to-coast US tour. In autumn Edguy release their EP / DVD "Superheroes" which goes Top10 in Sweden's single charts.

2006
In January the album "Rocket Ride" is being released and hits the charts all over the world again, peaking at #8 in Germany and Sweden. Edguy set off for their third consecutive world tour, their biggst to date; both: in terms of  attendance figures and show elements.

2007
Edguy are still touring in support of their recent album "Rocket Ride".