Europe: Secret Society

After the solid 2004 comeback effort Start From the Dark, Europe are back with the follow-up Secret Society. Mixed and mastered by Stefan Glaumann (Rammstein, Within Temptation) and George Martino (Velvet Revolver, U2), and featuring cover art from legendary artist Storm Thorgerson, who as a member of Hipgnosis worked on classic albums from Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Peter Gabriel, as well as recent releases from Muse and The Mars Volta, Secret Society is a great sounding and great looking CD. Sounds promising so far right? Well, yes and no. For the most part, this is respectable hard rock, but considering how Europe really slammed it home on their last one, and looking back at their vast amount of catchy rockers in their back catalog, there's just not a lot to get excited about here, as much of Secret Society is just flat out generic sounding riff rockers. Where's the muscular and tasty guitar work of Start From the Dark, or the symphonic keyboards and irresistible hooks of their 80's material? It's not here.

While there are a few decent tunes on the CD, like the clever "The Getaway Plan", which features some nimble fretwork from John Norum and a strong vocal from Joey Tempest, the crunchy groove of "Let the Children Play", the heavy rock of "Love Is Not the Enemy", and the mysterious and majestic "Devil Sings the Blues"(featuring a killer Schenker inspired solo from Norum), for the most part these are just standard rock tunes that quite frankly could have been recorded by just about any band. Norum, who generally delivers virtuoso performance after another, is stuck in downtuned hell here, laying down one beefy and "been there done that" riff after another, occasionally ripping into one of his trademark acrobatic guitar solos, but they are all too fleeting. His intricate and inspired riffs are few and far between, which is a big surprise as they were so abundant on the band's 2004 release. Tempest sounds tired and uninspired, as his normally vibrant and uptempo delivery is reduced to a flat , semi-husky attack that sounds so out of place here. Remember when Queensryche tried desperately to sound modern and fit in with the 90's rock scene? Well, I'm getting a similar vibe here. It's not that the music on Secret Society is bad. Like I mentioned earlier, this is serviceable hard rock, but most of the magic that you could always expect from Europe seems to be missing. The hooks are gone, the guitars are held back, and the keyboards are used sparingly. My guess is longtime fans will give a few listens to Secret Society and think that overall it's not bad, but might not warrant going back for repeated spins.

Track Listing

1. Secret Society
2. Always the Pretenders
3. The Getaway Plan
4. Wish I Could Believe
5. Let the Children Play
6. Human After All
7. A Mother's Son
8. Forever Travelling
9. Brave and Beautiful Soul
10. Devil Sings the Blues

Added: January 25th 2007
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score:
Related Link: Europe Website
Hits: 3541
Language: english

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