Europe
War of Kings
UDR Music
2015
I tend to think of the post reunion Europe, as a somewhat different animal than the original, glammy rockers, who were pretty awesome. Darker and heavier, mainly because of Joey Tempest, somewhat diminished range, they still remain world class and he a world class vocalist, with great emotion and ability. Their post reunion albums however are a little more inconsistent than their pre-reunion. There are a couple of really rocking ones, then a couple of somewhat bluesier efforts with some great songs too and now the band tries to rock harder again, while sounding contemporary but not incompatible with their former identity. As such all songs are melodic as they can, but that’s achieved in slightly different ways.
The opener is the eponymous song “The War of Kings”, which is great epic, dark and considerably heavy, a down tuned version of a song that the band could have easily written at their prime and would have been a hit.
“Hole in My Pocket” is a modern rocker, with really heavy guitars, that’s not exactly the best song you’ve ever heard, but is pleasant enough to not skip over with the bridge being possibly it’s best aspect.
“Second Day” is a sad and melodic song, quite bittersweet, which works rather well…
“Praise You” is a bizarre sort of number, slow, with an erotic theme, but more mature and a good performance by Tempest, who sings against minimalist arrangements. It’s got a bit of a 70s vibe, but it’s done with a completely contemporary sound and a nice noodly sort of “let’s call it solo”.
“Nothing to Ya” is a moody rocker, with a nice chorus, which is probably its biggest charm.
“California 405” is kinda quirky and doesn’t really reveal it’s true identity until the chorus having you guessing at its style, as it has some bluesier moments, some that gravitate towards rock but ends up, being quite impressive and positive. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected.
“Days of Rock n Roll” opens in a bit of predictable way, and proceeds with a nice melody and tries to take apart the detractors that don’t accept the band, in its current incarnation. Good enough track.
“Children of the Mind” is rather simple and uneventful during the verses, but when the chorus comes around it comes around to becoming a full rock on track. It’s a good chorus and it has a nice solo as well.
“Rainbow Bridge” is slow and heavy with a lingering eastern melodic motif that repeats quite often and turns out to be a quite interesting song.
“Angels (With Broken Hearts)” is expectedly a ballad. Tempest, is a great singer and does a pretty solid job here, only with a couple of moments sounding strained/fixed. It’s slow and emotional and quite good.
Last but not least “Light Me Up” is a playful, quirky rocker, with nice melodies that seems like an ideal closer to the album.
On the special edition an additional track, the bluesy instrumental “Vasastan” can also be found, which works nicely as an outro.
While somewhat uneven, with its latter part, being a lot better than the former with the exception of the opening song, “War of Kings” feels rather solid and certainly better than the last couple of efforts by the band and you have to give it to them for trying quite hard to reestablish themselves as a band that doesn’t have to rely too heavily on its past (even if their live sets still feature a lot of early material) to survive.
The opener is the eponymous song “The War of Kings”, which is great epic, dark and considerably heavy, a down tuned version of a song that the band could have easily written at their prime and would have been a hit.
“Hole in My Pocket” is a modern rocker, with really heavy guitars, that’s not exactly the best song you’ve ever heard, but is pleasant enough to not skip over with the bridge being possibly it’s best aspect.
“Second Day” is a sad and melodic song, quite bittersweet, which works rather well…
“Praise You” is a bizarre sort of number, slow, with an erotic theme, but more mature and a good performance by Tempest, who sings against minimalist arrangements. It’s got a bit of a 70s vibe, but it’s done with a completely contemporary sound and a nice noodly sort of “let’s call it solo”.
“Nothing to Ya” is a moody rocker, with a nice chorus, which is probably its biggest charm.
“California 405” is kinda quirky and doesn’t really reveal it’s true identity until the chorus having you guessing at its style, as it has some bluesier moments, some that gravitate towards rock but ends up, being quite impressive and positive. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected.
“Days of Rock n Roll” opens in a bit of predictable way, and proceeds with a nice melody and tries to take apart the detractors that don’t accept the band, in its current incarnation. Good enough track.
“Children of the Mind” is rather simple and uneventful during the verses, but when the chorus comes around it comes around to becoming a full rock on track. It’s a good chorus and it has a nice solo as well.
“Rainbow Bridge” is slow and heavy with a lingering eastern melodic motif that repeats quite often and turns out to be a quite interesting song.
“Angels (With Broken Hearts)” is expectedly a ballad. Tempest, is a great singer and does a pretty solid job here, only with a couple of moments sounding strained/fixed. It’s slow and emotional and quite good.
Last but not least “Light Me Up” is a playful, quirky rocker, with nice melodies that seems like an ideal closer to the album.
On the special edition an additional track, the bluesy instrumental “Vasastan” can also be found, which works nicely as an outro.
While somewhat uneven, with its latter part, being a lot better than the former with the exception of the opening song, “War of Kings” feels rather solid and certainly better than the last couple of efforts by the band and you have to give it to them for trying quite hard to reestablish themselves as a band that doesn’t have to rely too heavily on its past (even if their live sets still feature a lot of early material) to survive.