Joey Tempest has described to Metal Hammer how
EUROPE's new album is going to be far more in line with what the band have
always wanted - an uncompromising, heavy sound. They have been heavily criticized
in the past for not capturing on record the power of the band live. Speaking
from Los Angeles shortly after completing recording, he was enthusiastic about
the results.
"It's very, very powerful! I was blown away the first time I heard the
rough mixes, but now it's unbelievable. It's reached the point now where I just
hope we can go out and sound as heavy as this record! It's going to blow you
away."
EUROPE have been working with producer Beau Hill, who has worked with Ratt and
Winger in the past. Despite a relatively high number of songs recorded, fourteen
in total, the time involved has been minimal.
"The whole recording has taken a total of two months from start to finish.
The only real problem has been in selecting how many and which songs to put on
the album. We actually want all fourteen, but because of the total amount of
playing time, we might just have a job fitting it all on. I think that we'll end
up with twelve songs and a couple of B-sides. We started out with twenty-four
songs which we cut down to fourteen. This is a very important album for us,
we've been writing for one and a half years to make sure that we've got the best
possible product at the end. Beau Hill said he'd never seen a band so prepared!
Beau has been a great guy to work with, he even put in some good ideas on a
couple of songs which we might give him a co-writing credit for."
Working titles for the album include "Mind in the Gutter" and
"Break Free", both of which are songs featured with a track called
"Talk to Me" as the possible opener. Although Joey didn't want to let
cat out of the bag too early, he did say new songs already showcased live will
be included, "Yesterday's News", "Bad Blood", "Seventh
Sign", "Give a Little Bit of Lovin'". The album is scheduled to
be released in late February/early March next year with a tour to follow.
"We're thinking of starting out in England this time then doing the rest of
Europe. Canada is also being considered for a starting point. Nothing's been
confirmed yet."
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