| War of Kings | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 2 March 2015 | |||
| Recorded | October–November 2014 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock, heavy metal | |||
| Length | 48:59 | |||
| Label | UDR JVC (Japan) | |||
| Producer | Dave Cobb | |||
| Europe chronology | ||||
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| Singles from War of Kings | ||||
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War of Kings is the tenth studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe. It was released on 2 March 2015 by UDR Records. [1]
In late 2014, the band signed a deal with record label UDR. Tempest explained: "We're really excited to be working with the people at UDR. A very credible label and I am impressed with their work building a future and a solid foundation for their Artists". UDR president and owner Ulrike Rudolph expressed her delight in capturing the band for the label. She said: "We are always looking to expand the label's stable of bands with quality, not quantity, and Europe represent the finest in supremely written hard rock music. They are a group who refuse to rest on their past and continue to grow as artists and musicians, so we are absolutely delighted they have come to us." [2]
Europe band members contacted Dave Cobb in 2014. They met up in Stockholm and rented vintage recording gear from the band The Soundtrack of Our Lives. Joey Tempest recorded demos on his phone, which were of a poor audio quality. At first Cobb did not want to hear any of Tempest's demos, but in the end he agreed to. The next day, Cobb got in touch with the band and said he was impressed by the songs and had a few ideas on how to fix them. He joined the band in the studio and they all worked together on the songs. They changed the arrangements on 5 tracks and also wrote bits and segments for others. Cobb was involved in the writing of "War of Kings" and "Praise You", as well as providing a keyboard intro on "Second Day". [3] The band ended up recording 12 songs. [4]
The song "War of Kings" originates from a riff composed by John Levén. Tempest started to build a song from that riff and Cobb was involved to write lyrics to it. While creating the song, Tempest had no lyrics and just sang a wordless vocal melody; later on, however, he started thinking about the adventure novel The Long Ships (1941–1945) by Frans G. Bengtsson, which he had read as a kid. He thought it would be a great idea to write lyrics about the early days of his homeland, involving Vikings and battles between Norwegians, Danes and Swedes. Tempest explained: "There were important battles early on, where self-proclaimed kings were fighting elected kings. It was chaos in Scandinavia. I thought it was a fascinating background for a lyric, and the melodies and the riffs lend themselves to it. So that's how it started." [5]
"Hole In My Pocket" also originates from a riff by Levén, while "The Second Day" and "California 405" were developed from riffs by keyboardist Mic Michaeli. "California 405" is a song about hoping and dreaming. It was inspired by time the band had spent in California during the late Eighties and the early Nineties while driving on the Interstate 405 highway. Tempest explained: "When I go to California now, everything has changed. The late 80s and beginning of the 90s, it was a completely different place as far as music and MTV, airplay and rock music on radio were concerned. But I still get a great feeling driving south. Things have changed but there is still hope. You can still feel free. Get in the rental car, put some great music on and drive south in California and feel that sense of freedom, it's still there!" [3] "Days of Rock 'N' Roll" originates from an idea which Tempest came up with in 1988 as a keyboard riff. It was called "Out of This World" and the riff had a fanfare pattern; Tempest originally had in mind to make a fanfare kind of song out of it. The riff was never turned into a song at the time, but the band named their album Out of This World (1988) after Tempest's title idea. In 2014, the band picked up the old riff and tried it on guitar, with a different tempo; Tempest also wrote new lyrics about the rise, fall and resurrection of rock'n'roll. [3] [6]
"Rainbow Bridge" was born out a jam between Tempest and Michaeli, where Tempest played drums and Michaeli played keyboards. Later on, they took out their favourite parts of the jam and wrote a song based on them. Tempest wrote fictional lyrics about a bridge in Tokyo called Rainbow Bridge, which he saw from a skybar. [7] "Angels (With Broken Hearts)" originates from a riff composed by John Norum. The song was finished later in the studio with the full band and Cobb. During the writing process, the band found out that Jack Bruce had died. Moved by his passing, the band and Cobb rewrote the lyrics, whose final version was about people passing away in others' lives. "Light It Up" also originates from a riff by Norum. [3] [7] "Vasastan" is an instrumental written by Norum and Michaeli. It was named after Vasastan, the district in Stockholm where PanGaia Studios is located. [7]
After toying around with album title ideas, the band decided on "War of Kings" because of the opening track on the album, which everyone saw as special. The band then decided to contact London-based artist Paul Tippet, as they had been impressed by Tippet's artwork for the first album by Black Star Riders. The band sent him the song "War of Kings" and the lyrics to it, but they insisted that he not use elements such as swords, fire or Vikings, but only contemporary imagery such as presidents, kings and businessmen; they also requested him to use chess-related symbols. Tippett photographed a man in a suit and enhanced his photo through CGI; the band only made minor tweaks to the design. [8]
The title track "War of Kings" was released as the first single from the album. The song was premiered exclusively on Planet Rock radio station on 30 January 2015. at 8:10 a.m. and it was released as a digital download on 4 February 2015. The music video for the single was directed by Patrick Ullaeus and was premiered on 9 February 2015. [9] Two more songs, "Nothin' to Ya" and "Days of Rock 'N' Roll", were streamed on the official VH1 website until the morning of 27 February 2015. [10] The album was released in United Kingdom on 2 March, in Japan on 4 March through JVC, in Europe on 6 March and in the United States on 10 March 2015. It was released in four different formats: CD digipack, CD jewelcase, vinyl LP and digital download. All versions of the album include 11 songs, except for the digipack CD and Japanese versions, which include the final instrumental track "Vasastan" as a bonus. [11] [12] A limited edition boxset of the album was released on 6 March in Germany and EU countries, on 9 March in the United Kingdom, and on 28 April 2015 in the United States. It includes the Deluxe Edition of the album, an extended 7-inch- sized booklet, a "Making of" DVD ("War of Kings – How we Did it"), a t-shirt, a postcard and a sticker. [9] "Days of Rock 'N' Roll" was released as the second single on 13 March 2016. Its music video was directed by Ullaeus and features footage of the band performing in Manchester and Wolverhampton. The video was premiered on 27 April 2015. On the same day, a limited edition CD-single was released through Europe's own Stereo Boutique Shop. [9] On 4 December in North America and in Australia on 27 November 2015, the band released a Special Edition of the album which includes the original album and a DVD/Blu-ray of the band's performance on Wacken Open Air in 2015. The set was released in three different formats: a 2-disc CD/DVD ecobook, a 2-disc CD/Blu-ray ecobook, and a limited edition deluxe package including the CD, the DVD, the Blu-ray and a photo-book. Also, an audio-only edition of the Wacken Open Air performance was released digitally. Preorders for Special Edition of "War of Kings" album began on 21 October 2015. The live video form "Nothin' to Ya" was also released on the record label's YouTube channel. [12] [13]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "War of Kings" | Joey Tempest, John Levén, Dave Cobb | 4:36 |
| 2. | "Hole in My Pocket" | Tempest, Levén | 3:42 |
| 3. | "The Second Day" | Tempest, Mic Michaeli | 5:23 |
| 4. | "Praise You" | Tempest, Michaeli, Cobb | 4:34 |
| 5. | "Nothin' to Ya" | Tempest, John Norum, Michaeli, Levén, Ian Haugland | 3:54 |
| 6. | "California 405" | Tempest, Michaeli | 4:31 |
| 7. | "Days of Rock 'N' Roll" | Tempest | 3:05 |
| 8. | "Children of the Mind" | Tempest, Michaeli, Cobb | 4:30 |
| 9. | "Rainbow Bridge" | Tempest, Michaeli | 3:16 |
| 10. | "Angels (With Broken Hearts)" | Tempest, Michaeli, Norum, Levén, Haugland, Cobb | 5:19 |
| 11. | "Light It Up" | Tempest, Norum, Levén | 6:10 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Vasastan" (Instrumental) | Michaeli, Norum | 5:11 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "War of Kings" | Tempest, Levén, Cobb | 4:36 |
| 2. | "Hole in My Pocket" | Tempest, Levén | 3:42 |
| 3. | "The Second Day" | Tempest, Michaeli | 5:23 |
| 4. | "Praise You" | Tempest, Michaeli, Cobb | 4:34 |
| 5. | "Nothin' to Ya" | Tempest, Norum, Michaeli, Levén, Haugland | 3:54 |
| 6. | "California 405" | Tempest, Michaeli | 4:31 |
| 7. | "Days of Rock 'n' Roll" | Tempest | 3:05 |
| 8. | "Children of the Mind" | Tempest, Michaeli, Cobb | 4:30 |
| 9. | "Rainbow Bridge" | Tempest, Michaeli | 3:16 |
| 10. | "Angels (With Broken Hearts)" | Tempest, Michaeli, Norum, Levén, Haugland, Cobb | 5:19 |
| 11. | "Light It Up" | Tempest, Norum, Levén | 6:10 |
| 12. | "Vasastan" (Instrumental) | Michaeli, Norum | 5:11 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "War of Kings" | Tempest, Levén, Cobb | 4:49 |
| 2. | "Hole in My Pocket" | Tempest, Levén | 3:50 |
| 3. | "Superstitious" | Tempest | 5:47 |
| 4. | "Scream of Anger" | Tempest, Marcel Jacob | 4:35 |
| 5. | "Last Look at Eden" | Tempest, Andreas Carlsson | 4:46 |
| 6. | "The Second Day" | Tempest, Michaeli | 4:51 |
| 7. | "Firebox" | Tempest, Michaeli | 4:24 |
| 8. | "Sign of the Times" | Tempest | 5:22 |
| 9. | "Praise You" | Tempest, Michaeli, Cobb | 4:43 |
| 10. | "The Beast" | Tempest, Levén | 4:49 |
| 11. | "Ready or Not" | Tempest | 4:44 |
| 12. | "Girl from Lebanon" | Tempest | 4:53 |
| 13. | "Nothin' to Ya" | Tempest, Norum, Michaeli, Levén, Haugland | 3:49 |
| 14. | "Let the Good Times Rock" | Tempest | 4:49 |
| 15. | "Rock the Night" | Tempest | 6:49 |
| 16. | "Days of Rock'N'Roll" | Tempest | 3:48 |
| 17. | "The Final Countdown" | Tempest | 6:07 |
| Chart (2015) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [15] | 27 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [16] | 58 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [17] | 83 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [18] | 35 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) [19] | 38 |
| French Albums (SNEP) [20] | 69 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [21] | 23 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI) [22] | 41 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [23] | 38 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC) [24] | 42 |
| Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) [25] | 41 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [26] | 2 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [27] | 6 |
| UK Albums (OCC) [28] | 50 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC) [29] | 8 |
| UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC) [30] | 5 |
| US Independent Albums (Billboard) [31] | 44 |
| US Top Rock Albums (Billboard) [32] | 18 |
| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | 4 March 2015 | Victor | CD | VICP-65293 [33] |
| Europe | 6 March 2015 | UDR Records | Digipak CD, DVD, T-Shirt, Photoalbum, Postcard, Sticker | UDR 0492 [34] |
| 10 March 2015 | UDR Records | LP | UDR 0483 [35] | |
| Taiwan | 4 September 2015 | Magnum Records | CD | MVP-65293 [36] |
Europe is a Swedish rock band formed in Upplands Väsby in 1979, by lead vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson, and drummer Tony Reno. They obtained a major breakthrough in Sweden in 1982 by winning the televised competition "Rock-SM" ; it was the first time this competition was held, and Europe became a larger success than the competition itself.
Rolf Magnus Joakim Larsson, known professionally as Joey Tempest, is a Swedish singer based in England. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Europe. He has written the band's great hits such as "The Final Countdown", "Rock the Night", "Cherokee" and "Carrie". He started performing in 1979.
Gunnar Mathias "Mic" Michaeli is a Swedish musician best known as the keyboardist for the rock band Europe. Like many of the other Europe members he grew up in Stockholm suburb Upplands Väsby. He joined the band for their Wings of Tomorrow tour in 1984, taking vocalist Joey Tempest's place behind the keyboards.
The Final Countdown is the third studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe. Released on 30 May 1986 through Epic Records, the album was a commercial success, peaking at number 8 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and reaching high positions in charts worldwide. It was recorded at Powerplay Studios in Zürich, Soundtrade Studios in Stockholm, Mastersound Studios in Atlanta and Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The Final Countdown is the first album to feature keyboardist Mic Michaeli and drummer Ian Haugland and the last to feature guitarist John Norum until 2004's Start from the Dark.
Wings of Tomorrow is the second studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe. It was released on 24 February 1984, by Hot Records in Sweden, and by Epic Records in the United States. Wings of Tomorrow is the last album to feature drummer Tony Reno.
Out of This World is the fourth studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe. Released on 5 August 1988 through Epic Records, the album was a commercial success selling over 3 million units worldwide, peaking at number 19 on the US Billboard 200 chart and reaching high positions in charts worldwide. It was recorded at Olympic Studios and Townhouse Studios, London, England. Out of This World is the first Europe album to feature former Easy Action and Noice guitarist Kee Marcello.
Prisoners in Paradise is the fifth studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe. It was released on 23 September 1991 by Epic Records and spawned hits such as the title track, "Prisoners in Paradise" and "I'll Cry for You". The album did not chart in the US, which is unusual for a major label follow-up to two recent (multi)platinum albums. Prisoners in Paradise is the last album to feature guitarist Kee Marcello.
Start from the Dark is the sixth studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe. It was released on 22 September 2004 by Sanctuary Records. It was the band's first release since reforming in 2003, the first original album of all-new material since 1991's Prisoners in Paradise, and the first album to feature the band's original guitarist John Norum since 1986's The Final Countdown.
1982–1992 is a compilation album by the Swedish rock band Europe, released in 1993 by Epic Records. Vocalist Joey Tempest chose the songs for this album. The album reached the top 10 in France compilation charts in April 1993.
"The Final Countdown" is a song by Swedish rock band Europe, released in 1986. Written by lead singer Joey Tempest, it was based on a keyboard riff he made in the early 1980s, with lyrics inspired by David Bowie's "Space Oddity". Originally made to just be a concert opener, it is the first single and title track from the band's third studio album. The music video by Nick Morris, made to promote the single, has received 1 billion views on YouTube. The video features footage from the band's two concerts at Solnahallen in Solna, as well as extra footage of the sound checks and footage from Stockholm. The song "Pictures", from the 2017 album Walk the Earth, is a sequel to "The Final Countdown".
"Carrie" is a power ballad by the Swedish rock band Europe released in 1987. It was the third single released internationally from the album The Final Countdown, and it is their highest-charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart—peaking at #3 during the fall of 1987. It also reached #36 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The track on the B-side of the 7" single was "Love Chaser".
"Rock the Night" is a song by Swedish rock band Europe, released as a single in 1986. The song was written by vocalist Joey Tempest in 1984 and premiered on the band's Wings of Tomorrow tour the same year.
Secret Society is the seventh studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe. It was released on 25 October 2006 by Sanctuary Records. "We think it's one of the strongest albums that Europe has ever done," vocalist Joey Tempest said, "There is definitely some more melodic stuff on this one. Start from the Dark was very raw and made a statement, which is cool but for us it felt like a debut album in a way, so we wanted to branch out a bit on this one and take it to new levels."
"Got to Have Faith" is a 2004 single released by the Swedish heavy metal band Europe. It was released on September 15, 2004, and was the first single from the album Start from the Dark.
Almost Unplugged is a live album by the Swedish hard rock band Europe. It was released on CD on 17 September 2008 and on DVD on 19 August 2009.
Last Look at Eden is the eighth studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe. It was released on 9 September 2009 in Sweden by Universal and on 14 September 2009 in the UK by Edel Music's international rock music label earMUSIC.
The Final Countdown: The Best of Europe is a compilation album by Swedish rock band Europe, released in 2009 by Sony Music and Camden Deluxe. It contains some songs from the band's debut album and albums through 1999. It contains 36 songs with 18 on each CD.
Bag of Bones is the ninth studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe. It was released on 18 April 2012 in Japan by Victor Entertainment and on April 25 in Sweden by Gain Music Entertainment. Bag of Bones is the first Europe album to chart in UK Top 100 Albums since Prisoners in Paradise in 1991 and also entered in UK Top 40 Rock Albums at number 3.
Clean Your Clock is the thirteenth live album by the band Motörhead, released on 10 June 2016, approximately six months after the death of vocalist and bassist Lemmy. Lemmy dedicated the song "Doctor Rock" to Phil Taylor, Motörhead's drummer from 1976-1983 and from 1987-1992, who died a week before the live album was recorded.
Walk the Earth is the eleventh studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe. It was released on 20 October 2017. The album was produced by Dave Cobb and recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London.
