Forgotten Gems:Europe-Europe

Hot Records 1983

When I think of great Swedish heavy metal bands from the early 80s groups like Gotham City, Heavy Load, 22o Volt and Glory Bells come to mind. What doesn't come to mind is the band Europe. Europe brings up memories of high school and hair metal. Having the album The Final Countdown played over and over again on local radio left a bad taste in my mouth. Europe was scraping the bottom of the hair metal barrel. I had no idea that the group traced it's roots back to 1979 when they were known as Force. In 1982 Force won a talent contest called Rock-SM with two songs that would appear on the debut album the following year (by which time they had changed their name to Europe). Upon it's release Europe sold well in Sweden and Japan. Thanks in no small part to the excellent track "Seven Doors Hotel" (which charted in Japan) Europe's debut album helped open door's for the band. It's a shame those doors would eventually lead to a dressing room full of hairspray and spandex because Europe is simply a shocking record. The first time a friend played it for me I thought the album was another long lost Euro metal classic. I was floored to find out that the same band who made me nauseous with "Carrie" could write excellent hard rock numbers like "In The Future To Come" and "Children Of This Time". I hate to admit that my hatred of Joey Tempest was unfounded. And guitarist John Norum is seriously underrated. He shows his skills on the above mentioned tracks as well as in "Words Of Wisdom" and "Paradise Bay". For 1983 this is solid hard rock that showed so much promise. It's surprisingly heavy and catchy. I have yet to listen to the follow up Wings Of Tomorrow to see if it is as good but if someone had told me this band would end up being famous and on MTV I would have believed it. Only thing is I would have thought they would be more than fluff pop metal. With fame and fortune comes great responsibility as they say. I just wish it would have come with integrity for these guys. Europe could have been mentioned in the same breath as other great Swedish bands but instead they are almost a joke. Too bad as this album is a hidden piece of 80's heavy metal gold.