Review by Daniel for Europe - Europe (1983)
Up until 1983, Swedish heavy metal fans had really only had the melodic & anthemic Heavy Load flying the metal flag to any reasonable level in their home country. But things were about to change with the arrival of a new player, & one that should be fairly familiar to most of you, although possibly not for reasons you’ll feel comfortable with. That’s right ladies & gentlemen, the four leather-clad young lads I’m referring to are of course Europe, whose 1986 smash hit “The Final Countdown” absolutely ruled the airways for a year or so & made them into global megastars overnight. Fortunately for us though, Europe didn’t always follow the decidedly adult-oriented rock direction they became known for. In fact, Europe first formed back in 1979 under the name of Force before changing their name in 1982 due to the similarities with Swedish neo-classical guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen’s band Rising Force. The bands seem to have another link actually, as they traded bass players at one stage too.
Anyway.. Europe’s big break came shortly afterwards when they were lucky enough to win the Rock-SM rock band competition against 4000 other bands & the prize was a recording contract with Hot Records. This self-titled album was the result & it’s probably the only release in Europe’s back-catalogue that can be regarded as legitimate metal with very little to be found on subsequent releases. But make no bones about it, the band’s debut is unquestionably a metal release. You can certainly hear the band’s tendency towards a more melodic sound with smatterings of synthesizers & cheesy pop hooks here & there but the bulk of this material is fully-fledged heavy metal with some songs even having a proto-power metal feel.
20 year-old pretty boy front man Joey Tempest has a very good voice for a hook-driven metal band & he does a an excellent job here. As does the more than capable rhythm section. But the real star is 18 year-old lead guitarist John Norum who can shred like a bastard for such a young fella. In fact, I get the distinct feeling that he’s spent a fair bit of time with Yngwie because he showcases some of Yngwie’s signature moves here & makes a great fist of it too. It’s a pity his lead guitar sound isn’t a bit fuller. Overall the production isn’t too bad for a self-produced debut though.
The quality of the song-writing is pretty inconsistent & ranges from terrible to excellent but thankfully this is an example of an album where the three or four highlight tracks are strong enough to carry the weaker moments & I find it to be a pretty reasonable listen overall. From an influence point of view I’d suggest that Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Rainbow, UFO & Def Leppard have all played a part but there’s also some progressive elements here & there & a distinctly neo-classical feel at times. The album ended up reaching number 8 on the pop charts in Sweden & it was largely off the back of the main single “Seven Doors Hotel” which is an absolute belter & got into the top ten in Japan. It’s amongst the best heavy metal songs of 1983 in my opinion. Fans of European heavy metal should find "Europe" to be an entertaining listen.