As a hard rock fan you can't get past Europe since their eighth studio album "Last Look At Eden" (2009) at the latest. That sounds strange at first, because the band led the charts worldwide in their first life in the eighties with "The Final Countdown" and filled the concert halls. But it was only after the reunion in 2003 that Europe became what singer Joey Tempest and guitarist John Norum had hoped for when founding Force, as they were called until 1982: to be called in the same breath as the hard rock greats of the seventies.
After a stuttering comeback start with too modernistic hard rock, they tore themselves off "Last Look At Eden". And they increased: With "Bag Of Bones" (2012) and "War Of Kings" (2015) the form curve went steeply upwards. The hymns of praise on Tempest, Norum and Co. were polyphonic, and a less self-confident band would certainly be tense in view of the expectations after such great deeds during the recordings of "Walk The Earth".
STEVE HACKETT - Die Stunde des Wolfs
Lange Steve Hackett has held up the flag of progressive rock of the seventies with his releases, to finally celebrate this high phase in his own cause once again with "Genesis Revisited" and at the same time reap the deserved harvest of his steadfastness. For this and above all to the new album, the concept album "Wolflight", the smart Brit is our question and answer.
TOTO - contract is contract
eclipsed: A few months ago an album called "War Of Kings" was released, which was met with excellent to euphoric reviews and enthusiastic fans. Isn't that every musician's dream?
John Norum: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't typically have to explain why and why "War Of Kings" is our best album. The press and our fans are already doing that for us. With so much praise, sometimes you have to pinch yourself.
eclipsed: Is it really your best album, as not only eclipsed magazine wrote? How do you watch War Of Kings a few months apart?
That's what every band secretly dreams of: to add quality to every new album. The Swedish Europeans - apart from a small drop-out shortly after the reunion - have taken exactly this direction: further upwards. Europes frontman Joey Tempest takes our congratulations to the tenth album "War Of Kings" calmly and sees still air upwards.
When Joey Tempest - still when Rolf Magnus Joakim Larsson - and guitarist John Terry Norum founded Force in 1979, from which Europe emerged, they dreamed of producing music at some point that could compete with their role models UFO, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy. They had to travel a great distance to reach this goal. On the way there, after the monster hit "The Final Countdown" from the third album released in 1986, a rift broke out.
STEVE HACKETT - The Wheel's Turning (7:23)
Album: Wolflight (2015)
Label/Distribution: InsideOut/Universal
www.hackettsongs.com
Once again the master guitarist and composer takes us on an eventful journey through different countries and epochs, which will not be forgotten so quickly. It is almost a miracle that the former Genesis string acrobat never copies himself and yet always remains himself.
I'll be damned! What has become of Europe? Started in the eighties with half-baked Rainbow/UFO-influenced hard rock, they suddenly had this mega hit, lost their co-pilot with guitarist John Norum and finally broke up. Because "The Final Countdown" - undogmatically considered a great song - robbed the group of their laboriously acquired credibility.
