by Eduardo Rivadavia

It's easy to belittle power metal bands because they often marry portentous musical ambitions with hackneyed Manowar-like posturing that only a 12-year-old could possibly buy into; Germany's Edguy, however, are clever enough to flip those tables by making it evident that they don't take themselves all that seriously. Eight albums into the quintet's career, Edguy have in many ways succeeded where genre daddies Helloween first bit the dust -- injecting ample doses of fun, on-stage glam-metal gymnastics, Scorpions-like face pulling, and unselfconscious humor into what is normally an outwardly austere musical style, and 2006's Rocket Ride is no exception. Possibly validated even further by the recent emergence of Britain's the Darkness, this album's relaxed vibe begins with its silly-aliens-on-crack cover art and culminates in a clutch of amusing ditties about pulling birds ("Catch of the Century"), portly lovers ("Out of Vogue," "Trinidad"), and superheroes (err, "Superheroes"). On their way there, Edguy deliver a surprisingly catchy set of hard rockers ("Wasted Time," "Matrix") and unexaggerated ballads ("The Asylum," "Save Me,"), while rarely relying on power metal's primary and overly abused melodic thrash template (the title track, "Return to the Tribe"). Even the eight-minute opening "Sacrifice" is nowhere near as somber as it sounds, regardless of the majestic wall of synthesizers backing its metallic riffery. Along with the rest of Rocket Ride, this makes it almost impossible to laugh at Edguy instead of with them, and that feat in itself is quite an accomplishment. [Rocket Ride also features the live bonus track "Land of the Miracle."]