Europe, Walk the Earth, A Review (2017)

Europe, Walk the Earth, A Review (2017)

By: Erreh Svaia

Transcendental Music

When grunge reared its ugly head on the 90s, it was a big debacle for pop and glam metal, many of the rising acts of that scene, like Motley Crue, Poison, Skid Row and Warrant simply lost all their appeal to the masses, major arena bands like Guns n Roses simply became reclusive and disappeared, other that followed the strategy like Bon Jovi and Def Leppard did the same, only to return transformed, Bon Jovi wasn't ever exactly a metal band, more a heavier version of Bruce Springsteen and John Cougar Mellencamp, one of their biggest hits, Livin' On a Prayer, was basically Springsteen's Born to Run, and in Def Leppard's case, they mutated from a street metal band born in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and mutated into an arena sized glam combo that idolized T. Rex, so for them, the strategy was simple, take away the metal tag and simply return as a pop act, another big pop metal act, particularly not coming from the USA or from the UK but from an unusual place for pop metal, Sweden, best associated with great pop acts like Abba, Ace of Base, Roxette or The Cardigans, even the brand of metal later associated with Sweden was a more extreme one (anyone remembers Entombed, Unleashed, Dismember or Grave?), even the name of the band was unusual for a band coming from a mostly isolated part of  Europe, and we'll their name was...Europe, a band with an enormous hit in the peak of the pop metal era called The Final Countdown, it was an unusual hit full of synthesizers (inspired by David Bowie's Space Oddity and later covered by a wide range of musicians from Slovenian avant garde band Laibach to banjo player Béla Fleck, even claimed to be on of Ritchie Blackmore's favorite songs), Europe were an unusual act more easily to be associated with classic hard rock, but they sounded more modern and sophisticated, as they also suffered for the grunge arrival, they retreated to Sweden and instead of going pop, they fortunately looked into their classic rock roots and came up with a winning renewed sound that left them better positioned than most of their pop and glam metal peers.

Walk the Earth, recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London, is the newest record from these reinvigorated hard rock Swedish giants, they sound tougher and wiser, totally away from pop and closer to their original influences like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Rainbow or UFO (does anyone remembers these two outstanding British bands?) entertainingly enough, Europe brings along with them an intriguing lyrical content dealing with conspiracy, history, politics and a well-informed attitude towards today's Europe (the continent) current situation, not an easy one by the way with intolerance, nationalism, populism and separatist movement raging on, the title track is small masterpiece on its own, with Zeppelin´s thunderous drumming (courtesy of the great Ian Haugland) and Deep Purple like keyboards (performed astonishingly by Mic Michaeli), with singer Joey Tempest wailing along in true Plant/Gillan fashion, Tempest is amazing and is clear that the man definitely demands more attention than you average Jon Bon Jovi or Joe Elliot, Tempest sounds here like a true metal warrior along John Norum´s deep riffing and razor blade inspired soloing, in a song that really sounds suited for our troubled times on this planet these days, but not everything is as gloomy here, as The Siege, the next theme could easily came out of a great Rainbow album, remember that glorious British band with Dio on vocals and Ritchie Blackmore on guitars? Well that amazing sound gets a perfect reconstruction by Europe, leaving enough room for a powerful rhythm section and again Norum near perfect solos, and here's plenty of them.

And if you are here not only for a lesson in metal, but also on history and democracy just move on to the impressive Kingdom United, with the band playing tougher and rougher than ever and Tempest lyrics reflecting Europe's (the continent) present fight for democracy and freedom, this while the band grabs enough courage to tackle the enormous Pictures, a song with a progressive atmosphere and obvious nods to King Crimson or Pink Floyd, and a beautiful melody to follow, just before returning to another history lesson on the terrifying Election Day, featuring prodigious Purple like keyboards by Michaeli, a song that wouldn't sound out of place on any classic Purple record.

Wolves is an almost epic tune, a slow burner featuring enormous keyboards fleshing the song to perfection, Tempest applies a different sort of vocal attack to meet the type of proggy exercises people like Steven Wilson or Muse applies these days and he emerges as a total winner thanks in a big way to the electrifying performances of his musical cohorts, and a vibrant contemporary story about whistleblowers, that and a scorching Norum solo, at this point, any listener would be almost done to the time we arrive to GTO, so the band keeps it simple here and delivers an unashamed tribute to Deep Purple with an obvious wink to Highway Star with Tempest daredevil wailing and Haugland outstanding drumming, the great snake charming guitar courtesy of Norum is obviously the cherry on top of it all, as Europe has decided to give all out in order to transcend its more commercial oriented origins, here is a band with enough metal wisdom and the skills to even achieve more.