Edguy.net’s Harmon Caldwell recently conducted an interview with EDGUY frontman Tobias Sammet. Excerpts from the chat are below:

Harmon Caldwell: Tobias, let's talk about song writing process for the new album Age Of The Joker. How do you manage to jump out of AVANTASIA, a project that is mostly conceptual from start to finish, and directly into writing new Edguy songs?

Tobias Sammet: "After I had finished my last Avantasia studio venture, it was obvious to me that this was as good as it gets in my world of music. After such an undertaking you are burned out, because you feel you have said everything. But after a while there is always an instinctive urge to compose new material. Not because I wanna compete with my past, but simply to be creative and have a good time coming up with great melodies in my little magical world at home. I do not think of the past or a certain goal when composing, and as much as fans would want it, I do not think of them either. I just wanna have a great time creating music, be it with Edguy or Avantasia. The creative process is similar for both projects, only with Avantasia I have to be aware that it fits to a whole concept and the different singers involved. Also, with Avantasia I do not have to care what four other people say, in Edguy there are discussions at times."

Harmon Caldwell: Are there any songs that stand out to you as being the best from the album?

Tobias Sammet: "I love ‘Pandora's Box’, but if you‘d ask me tomorrow I might mention a different song. It's a very balanced album, and I think all the songs have very strong moments. But at this moment I truly love ‘Pandora's Box’. At first listen it may seem to be a softer song, but it‘s got many powerful moments and it‘s so honest, it's fragile, angry, tongue-in-cheek, anthemic, big and epic. It's Edguy and Aerosmith and all different kinds of things melded together as one."

Read the entire interview here.

On August 26th, Germany's Edguy will release their brand new album, Age Of The Joker.

The limited edition of the album will come in a digipak featuring the regular 11-track album, plus a second CD which contains bonus tracks.

As a special gift, you will also receive a Joker-card, hand signed by all of the Edguy members. To check out this truly limited edition click here.

Edguy have released their video for 'Robin Hood', the opening track from Age Of The Joker. Video director Oliver Sommer (Avantasia, NENA, HELLOWEEN) and the band decided to satirize the Errol Flynn version, The Adventures Of Robin Hood. The miniature epic was shot in the forest with a large number of additional actors, starring German TV-comedian Bernhard Hoecker in two different leading roles.

Check out the clip below:

The 'Robin Hood' single is out now, available as a download and on green vinyl. The video version of the song was cut down to five minutes, but the album version has a running time of more than 8 minutes.

Check out the single artwork below:

In the Hellfire Club section at Edguy.net fans can listen to the worldwide exclusive release of excerpts from seven new songs from Age Of The Joker. Three songs have been added to the playlist since the stream became active on July 4th. All you have to do is register with a valid email address or simply login if you're already a member.

The Age Of The Joker tracklist reads as follows:

'Robin Hood'

'Nobody's Hero'

'Rock Of Cashel'

'Pandora's Box'

'Breathe'

'Two Out Of Seven'

'Faces In The Darkness'

'The Arcane Guild'

'Fire On The Downline'

'Behind The Gates To Midnight World'

'Every Night Without You'

Tracklist for the limited edition bonus disc:

'God Fallen Silent'

'Aleister Crowley Memorial Boogie'

'Cum On Feel The Noize' (SLADE cover)

'Standing In The Rain'

'Robin Hood' (single version)

'Two Out Of Seven' (single version)