In Tobias Sammet’s new interview with MSN Entertainment, EDGUY’s dynamic frontman shares how he juggles two bands, relives AVANTASIA’s headlining performance at Wacken Open Air to an audience of over 100,000 people, discusses the writing process for the new album, The Age Of The Joker, and reveals why the band chose to write a song about Robin Hood.

States Sammet in the following excerpt from the interview: “If you look at the topics that are used in heavy metal songs, you come to those historical figures, like Attila the Hun or Alexander the Great, or Odin, or Thor, Humpty Dumpty, Cinderella. [laughs] Elves and dwarves and dragons, whatever is ridiculous, heavy metal bands surely have sung about it. But Robin Hood is so ridiculous, that heavy metal bands have never sung about him as far as I know. So I thought we should dedicate a song to the real true master of all swashbucklers in tights. We had a serious song, and it didn’t have a title or a topic, it was just a great song. And I thought, I’m going to make this Robin Hood. As soon as there was this shadow of Robin Hood over the song, there were so many more ideas. All of a sudden, we didn’t have to take that song so seriously anymore. It’s seriously a great song with a lot of musicianship and a great melody, but all of a sudden we were allowed to play with clichés that are used in heavy metal, that make rock ‘n’ roll and heavy metal what it is. That song is a tribute to IRON MAIDEN, to RAINBOW, to URIAH HEEP, and probably a tribute to SPINAL TAP. It doesn’t really make sense, but a lot of things in heavy metal don’t make sense. That’s what’s cool. [laughs] It embraces everything that is tongue in cheek about heavy metal.”

Read the entire interview here.

On August 26th, Edguy will release their brand new album, Age Of The Joker. On Saturday, August 27th, 11 PM and Sunday the 28th at 11 PM, the German TV channel iMusic1 will broadcast an Edguy special on the show iMusic1 ROCKS. You can also watch the show 48 hours later at here.

The limited edition of Age Of The Joker 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 5 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)