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Space Police – Defenders of the Crown is the tenth full-length from German Power Metal heroes Edguy. Lest you think the slightly goofy title or album artwork is an indication of the band backsliding to what I consider their career low point, Rocket Ride, I'm here to say this album rocks. One-time darlings of the Melodic/Power Metal crowd, with albums like Vain Glory Opera, Theater of Salvation and Mandrake, Edguy have been climbing back to the top of the heap of late. The last album, Age of the Joker was excellent but Space Police is even better. No one writes a catchy chorus as well or as often as Edguy's Tobias Sammet and he pulls out all the stops this time around. If you aren't singing along with the chorus of the speedy opener "Sabre & Torch" by the second time it comes around, you might want to check your pulse. This song is one of the best Sammet has composed (for Edguy, anyway) in a long time. The hooks keep coming in the form of "Space Police," "Defenders of the Crown" and the barn-burner, "Shadow Eaters." All are fist-in-the-air, crunchy Power Metal that should be instant live favorites. There's also the usual silliness from Sammet and the boys in the Y&T-esque "Love Tyger" and the rocking-despite-the-title, "Do Me Like a Caveman." They aren't all gems, though. The cover of Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" might actually be worse than the original and the ballad, "Alone in Myself," sounds more like U2 than Edguy. In the end, the good songs, and there are a lot of them, far outshine the bad ones.

Without ripping off their own past, the band gives a nod to what came before, builds upon it, and comes up with their best album in 10 years. If you call yourself an Edguy fan, or even just a Power Metal fan, Space Police – Defenders of the Crown needs to be in your collection.