Edguy was founded in 1992 by 14-year-old students Tobias Sammet, Jens Ludwig, Dominik Storch and Dirk Sauer.
The name
Edguy was an affectionate for their math teacher at that time.
In 1994
the band released two demos, Evil Minded and Children Of Steel.
These tapes were sent to many record labels, but all of them rejected the band, believing they would be unsuccessful in the music business.
Undeterred, they self released their unofficial debut album Savage Poetry in 1995.
They signed with AFM Records shortly after, who offered them to re-release Savage Poetry under the name The Savage Poetry with more widespread distribution.
The band rejected this proposal in
favor of recording a new album, Kingdom Of Madness, which was released in 1997, but drummer Dominik Storch left the band shortly after.
In 1998 the release of their second album, Vain Glory Opera, with friend Frank
Lindenthal filling in on drums.
This album helped expose
Edguy to a wider audience, thanks to guest appearances from Timo Kolkki from Stratovarius and Hansi Kürsch from Blind Guardian.
The band was joined by new drummer Felix
Bohnke and bassist Tobias Eggi Exxel later that year, allowing Tobias Sammet to solely focus on vocals, he had previously played bass as well handling the vocal duties.
In 1999 Theater Of Salvation was released.
That same
year, frontman Tobias Sammet conceived the idea for the Avantasia project, a metal opera featuring well known vocalists and musicians from the rock and metal scene. While Tobias focused on Avantasia, the band took the opportunity to re-record Savage Poetry, to make it widely available to newer fans, as the original had become a much sought after rarity.
Following The Savage Poetry re-recording was the band’s fifth album,
Mandrake, in 2001.
The album was accompanied by their first promo video, for the track All The Clowns, as well as the Painting On The Wall single.
The Mandrake album also led to the band’s first headlining tour.
Three shows were recorded in Europe and were the basis for
Edguy’s first live album, Burning Down The Opera Live.
The band’s contract with AFM had expired by this point, which led to them signing with Nuclear Blast in late 2003.
Edguy’s first release under Nuclear Blast Records was the King Of Fools EP in 2004.
This preceded the Hellfire Club
album, which was released shortly after the Hellfire Club album.
The song
Lavatory Love Machine was also released as a single.
The band’s productivity continued into 2005 with the Superheroes EP and DVD, the latter featuring footage of the band live and in the studio, as well as a making of documentary for the video of the title track.
This was followed by the full album Rocket Ride in January 2006.
Tobias
Sammet spent much of 2007 relaunching the Avantasia project. Edguy returned to the studio in 2008 and recorded Tinnitus Sanctus with a video being shot for the track Ministry Of Saints in Belgrade, Serbia.
After a contract renewal with Nuclear Blast Records in late 2008, the band released their first live DVD,
Fucking With Fire Live, in 2009.
This featured live footage of the band shot in São Paulo, Brazil, on their Rocket Ride world tour in 2006.
The band supported Scorpions on the German dates of their farewell tour in 2010.
Edguy released their ninth studio album, Age Of The Joker in August 2011.
The band toured Europe and South America in support of the record, including dates with Slash and Deep Purple as well as an appearance on the 70000 Tons Of Metal cruise.
On 28 January 2014,
Edguy revealed that the album would be titled Space Police Defenders Of The Crown and released it on 18 April.
On March 13, 2017, 2 CD and 1 DVD package Monuments, consisting of both old and new material, was announced for release on July 14. In 2018,
Edguy released a remastered version of their first album, Kingdom Of Madness as an Anniversary Edition.