”Metalcamp, are you ready for some German pussy metal?!”
- Tobias Sammet (vocals)

Edguy, who have been frequenting the beautiful surroundings of the Slovenian alps several times through the years, were once again back to let pansy power metal and gay jokes rain down from the heavens (as opposed to the blood more aggressive bands would opt for...).

After the mandatory wacky intro had passed, the members of the band had entered stage and kicked off with Nobody’s Hero from the Age Of The Joker album which had been released the previous year.
If you’ve ever seen an Edguy show before, you know pretty much what to expect from these guys – there was a lot of running around, even more being overly dramatic and oftentimes far crossing the line of silliness that other, more serious bands dare not get near. Posing was the name of the game, and the Edguy guys have perfected this game to a level of near insanity!
Some may have felt that Sammet was a bit lazy compared to his usual, energetic self, at least he felt so himself and excused it with an old injury which was causing him some trouble; but honestly, hadn’t he mentioned it I sincerely doubt that I at least would have noticed anything wrong. I mean, the vocalist wasn’t exactly tied to a wheelchair if you catch my drift!
The rest of the band members were up to their usual tricks, what with synchronised line-headbanging, a general need for changing sides (mostly Tobias ‘Eggi’ Exxel on this one) of the stage, and some extra comedic input when Sammet was taking a breather – as I mentioned, business as usual.

“It doesn’t matter how you look, you’re all pussy metal fans!”
- Sammet (vocals)

Something that wasn’t business as usual was the fact that the ground before the stage wasn’t filled with people when it was time for Edguy’s show – normally I would have expected the place to be packed, but this evening there was only a slowly growing mid-sized audience to take part in the festivities.
Maybe the fact that Edguy didn’t have a headliner slot this year made a difference (that honour had gone to Amon Amarth instead), or maybe they didn’t have a headliner position because the festival management didn’t believe they could pull a full crowd; either way, I was surprised at the outcome.
As a consequence of this (the slot time, not me being surprised about it), Edguy played a shorter set than we are used to see them do, only eight songs in total. Why I mention this is the positive note that both band and crowd were set to get full value out of the time they had – the sing-along fest began a bit tentative in Nobody’s Hero, but broke out with full force already with the second song of the evening, Tears Of A Mandrake and just kept on going from there on out. Sammet and the crowd also got to live out their Iron Maiden dreams when in Robin Hood there was a break where Sammet called out “Scream for me Tolmin!” and the band played a passage of Rime Of The Ancient Mariner.
Someone in the crowd was even prepared for the gay section of the humour and had brought along a very large, inflated penis which they let fly over the crowd, and when he noticed it, Sammet contemplated that it was about the same size as the one their drummer, Felix Bohnke, was packing, but to wipe the smile of his band mates face, he quickly added that at least this one seemed to work properly...

The gig rang out with King Of Fools, and the band could take a well-deserved bow upon the stage before leaving Metalcamp for this year.
Now, I may have mentioned above that this show was business as usual in the Edguy camp, but you know that when in the Edguy camp, business, even the usual kind, is always good. Nothing revolutionary, but damn entertaining.

Setlist:

Nobody’s Hero
Tears Of A Mandrake
Lavatory Love Machine
Ministry Of Saints
Robin Hood
Superheroes
Save Me
King Of Fools