Edgy have announced the release of a 2CD/DVD set, Monuments, as well as a string of tour dates, all in celebration of the band’s 25th anniversary.

In February 1992, a bunch of German kids set out from the middle of nowhere and founded a band that would conquer the hearts of a whole new generation of fans around the globe!

Today, 25 years later, founding members Tobias Sammet (Avantasia) and the two guitarists Jens Ludwig and Dirk Sauer, as well as Tobias “Eggi” Exxel (bass) and Felix Bohnke (drums), who joined the band 20 years ago, can look back at their hugely successful career to shows in more than 40 countries, countless tours in Asia, Australia and America, ten studio albums and top 10 chart entries from all over the world.

To celebrate such an exceptional career with their fans, Edguy will get back on the road. And while the live program will only contain the best material of their entire career, the new release will not be just a “greatest hits” album one would expect to accompany such a tour: The 2CD/DVD-package, Monuments (out on July 14th) will include brand new material, their best tracks of the last 25 years, and old rarities that have never been published before! In addition, the DVD includes an entire show from their Hellfire Club tour in 2004 as well as the complete collection of their video clips. The limited edition will include an extensive coffee-table book containing material from throughout the entire history of Edguy.

Frontman Tobias Sammet states: “Whilst collecting all of this picture material together we were once again made aware of how proud we are of what we have created. There are probably not many musicians who are lucky enough to be able to look back on a 25-year-old band history at the end of their thirties. And especially without any line-up changes in the last 20 years! This is even more incredible considering that we’re not from Birmingham, New York or a German metropolis but from a small town called Fulda, a place where you normally only know about the insights of the music business by hearsay. I mean, as kids we started to play Edguy shows even before we had visited concerts as fans ourselves! Then we started to play shows outside our home town, then outside Germany and all of a sudden we found ourselves touring in Asia, America and Australia on a regular basis, because apparently there were people who liked our music. And they became more and more. For us, this always felt quite normal, the next step was all that mattered. We didn’t think about what happened while things were happening...

“But if you look back now, you will realize how lucky we were! It’s now time to celebrate our anniversary with our fans. We'll celebrate our quarter century with the release of Monuments and live in some selected cities! We'll perform a best-of set list, a journey throughout our past, with a lot of fuss and at full throttle! The first quarter century is over and we want to honour these years with our fans! To the next 25 years!“

Tour dates:

July
16 - Vizovice, Czech Republic - Masters Of Rock

September
15 - Bremen, Germany - Aladin
16 - Hamburg, Germany - Markthalle
17 - Bochum, Germany - Zeche
19 - Frankfurt, Germany - Batschkapp
20 - Saarbrücken, Germany - Garage
22 - Cologne, Germany - Essigfabrik
23 - Stuttgart, Germany - LKA Longhorn
24 - Munich, Germany - Backstage
26 - Erlangen, Germany - E-Werk
27 - Berlin, Germany - C-Club
29 - Pratteln, Switzerland - Z7
30 - Memmingen, Germany - Kaminwerk

October
3 - Fulda, Germany - Wartenberg-Oval

More shows in other countries to be announced soon.