Lavatory Love Machine

"King of fools" was a very well done EP, but this single or EP hasn't the same quality. A part of the very solid and funny hard rock driven title track, you can find a couple of acoustic songs on this very calm EP that has nothing to do with power metal but rather with soft rock or acoustic rock.

The acoustic version of "Lavatory love machine" doesn't work very well and the song looses a lot of its initial energy.

The Europe cover "I'll cry for you" is a nice song but somehow boring.

"Reach out" is the most interesting song on this album and an unreleased Edguy song that didn't find its way on the last album. It is an old fashioned acoustic and piano ballad but Sammet's amazing voice saves this song.

I don't really say any reason to purchase this single because the title track is already included on the amazing last studio album and the other songs are not strong enough to be worth the buy. I would only recommend this to the hard core of the Edguy fans and the average fan should consider to look for a legal download of "Reach out". The EP shows the band from a calmer and introspective side and is at least original, but I prefer the band's usual style.

Power metal saw fit to cease being about epic melodies and grand tales and became a playground for those seeking to take a shot for the title of biggest clown in metal, at least as far as bands like Edguy saw it. Underscoring this transition on their checkered transitional album “Hellfire Club” is the title track of this single, which along with the large collection of sappy ballads now occupying the band’s recent string of releases, succeeds in being more grating than great. Tobias has, in spite of all the goofiness in his lyrics, maintained a fairly solid vocal presence, which has up until now kept the band’s albums from being an absolute crapshoot.

One thing that immediately becomes apparent when measuring this goofy yet harmless AOR joke of a song against its acoustic twin on here is that the latter sounds better as it lacks that really annoying alternative rock sounding note drone that’s digging into the arrangement like a mile high club hard on straight into the ear drums during the intro and chorus of the song. Tobias’ vocal performance is over the top on both versions, but on the acoustic version the novelty nature of the song makes it a little more fitting, while the electric version just screams recycled riffs from “The Savage Poetry” with about half the punch and lyrical buffoonery to try and compensate. The music video sort of walks a fine line between a knockoff of Foo Fighers’ “Learning To Fly” and a slightly subdued version of Warrant’s “Cherry Pie”. It’s funny the first few times, but it kind of loses its punch after repeated viewings.

The other two songs remaining on here take things a bit more seriously, as anymore slapstick out of Sammet would cross that threshold of good taste that Helloween established the boundaries for on “Rise And Fall”, but then proceeded to violate on “Pink Bubbles Go Ape”. “Reach Out” is a solid and catchy piano ballad from Tobias’ endless of well of Meatloaf meets Savatage emulations. It’s very poignant lyrically and has the best vocal performance heard since “Wash Away The Poison”, including everything done since this. Why “The Spirit Will Remain” and “Forever” beat this out for ballad slots on “Hellfire Club” is beyond me, but regardless, the album was much poorer for it. The Europe cover is essentially a stripped down rehash of the acoustic version of the song that the original band did for their best of album “1982-1992” and 2 other such compilations, having a guitar playing the main melody rather than a mandolin and Tobias doing about half as many lyrical ad lib slots at the end. Although not a very original remake, I do have to complement Tobias for putting a better backing vocal section than Europe did.

Although I wouldn’t qualify this as an essential purchase, it’s something that I could see a fan of 80s rock/metal parting with $4 to pick up, particularly since “Reach Out” can’t be found on any other releases put out by the band. Personally I’d recommend downloading everything via I-tunes except the title song, which is annoying at best and a total suck fest at worst, depending on how attached you are to Edguy before 2004. Maybe one day these guys will start playing Metal again, but given the trend in the band’s releases up until now, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on March 26, 2009.

Oh man am I gonna get roasted for this one. Edguy have created what is possibly the cheesiest power metal EP ever with this. This is indeed the same band that recorded such power metal opuses as "Land of the Miracle" and "Babylon" and "Nailed to the Wheel." Now they're doing acoustic covers of 80s pop songs and singing about "lavatory lovemachines." Sammet's voice is still as enchanting as it ever was, but now he's imitating 80s hard rock type vocalists, and his voice has taken on a decidedly smarmy and sneering edge. The musicians are as competent as they were on past releases, although the style of music being played is no longer strictly melodic power metal, but more of a rock-ish sound. If you're strictly a fan of old Edguy with their epic themes, then prepared to be disappointed. But I'm sure some people could find amusement in listening to this, for it's really not bad at all...

The title track is off the Hellfire Club album, and it's a familiar one to most Edguy fans. The song some love and some loathe, and the song that sports a charming little tale of airplane sex. I don't think it's a particularly bad song, although it's certainly not the best on Hellfire Club. It's a fun rocker, pretty catchy, and the video is absolutely hilarious. The chorus is catchy and the guitar lines are jumpy and energetic, and it's a good song for driving along a highway at full speed, or something along such lines. The acoustic version of it is alright, not as good as the real thing. A bit lame, you don't get a sense of the manic energy of the real song at all (hard with an acoustic guitar, yeah, but still).

"I'll Cry for You" is the best song on this EP, which was by far the biggest shock I've had in ages, since it's both a cover song from the band Europe, and an acoustic song. Tobias Sammet's rendition of Europe's brand of 80s pop/rock vox is almost irritating in it's catchiness, and the melodies are pretty infectious as well, for an acoustic diddy. This one just works---Edguy has obvious talent for doing stuff like this. They don't end up like Twilightning with redundant melodies and dry vocals, and the song just has a certain charisma about it that I like. Go ahead and laugh.

The song and this entire EP is obviously a monument to Mr. Sammet's ego, because it's all centered on his omniprescent and overbearing voice. The music is almost a second class citizen here, seriously. It's not a bad thing, though, because I've never found his vocals bad at all. It's irritating how I can criticize the man for his ego and rather idiotic comments so much, yet his vocal melodies are constantly lodged in my brain! Positively devious. "Reach Out" is more in this vein, although it's a limp ballad that wears thin after a few listens. Not terrible, just...dull.

This isn't something for everyone, and it's certainly not metal at all. More along the lines of melodic hard rock, there's not much heavy metal to be found on this release at all. I can see some people absolutely tearing this release apart, because the vocal melodies are often typical of pop/rock or 80s glam metal, and the music tends to follow suit at some points. But damn that Sammet---he just can't make music that I hate. It's too catchy, fun, and enjoyable for me to hate it. I won't listen to it constantly, but it's not bad. Recommended to die hard Edguy fans only.