Start From Dark

I got this more out of curiosity than anything else.Being a child of the 80's a lot of those bands aren't even around anymore. Some are and are putting out pretty good music. I was not a fan of Europe back in the day. But I listened to Start From The Dark with an open mind and was pleased at what I heard. This isn't a retro album. The sound is completely different. and this album is full of great hard rock songs. I have 4 albums that've followed SFTD and each is filled with quality music. I am a fan of Europe now and am happy to say so. I have recommended this album to people looking for good hard rock music and will continue to.

Europe was always one of the favorite bands of my childhood. Great rocking tunes, amazing voice of Joey Tempest, excellent, inspiring rock.Anyway, everybody only seems to remember "Final countdown" as their major hit and "Wings of tomorrow" as their best album. Well, that may be true, but it couldn't be more unfair to one of 80's best hard rock bands to have that as Europe's only achievements . Were not "Out of this world" and "Prisoners in paradise" any good? Those two albums are TRULY UNDERESTIMATED and are gems of hard rock music. If you're an Europe fan or are just curious about their music, go and listen to "Sign of the times", "Lights and shadows" and "Tomorrow" and tell me you're not inspired by them.Anyway, it is true that in most cases it is very difficult for an almost forgotten hair metal band to come back in the XXI century with something "brand new and exciting". The product, mostly ends up being "what they can offer to try to fit in the actual music market", not a unique piece of inspiration. If you don't believe me, refer to Heart's horrible "Jupiter's darling" (lyrics that would probably fit a Lindsay Lohan album, totally ridiculous for a band of ladies over 50, not talking about the boring 16-track long set of uninspired music) or Lizzy Borden's poorly crafted "Deal with the devil".Europe certainly didn't have it easy if they wanted to come back. Sure it is always a romantic dream for the fans of a long gone band to see their heroes back on stage. But then, dissapointment comes when they discover that much of the magic is gone. "Start from the dark", as its ominous title states, refers to an attempt to rebuild the glory of a band that lost the way in the early 90's. Well, it does not just fail to achieve that, but that positions them exactly "in the dark" without getting our of it. No doubt, Joey's vocals are excellent as always, and some of the tunes offer us a *different* side of Europe, but this album is surely Europe's weakest... the problem is that we have the "Europe" label on it... there would probably not be any problem if the label was "Joey Tempest - Start from the dark".And I'm not one of those fans that live in the past and would like the band to sound always like Final Countdown, actually I'm very open minded, but I would like to hear them back with something true and unique and not with something to prove they are "still alive" trying to impress an everytime more unimpressionable music world.

Yes I like the project and give it 4 stars. The album is dominated by guitar and vocals. I thought Joey (why doesn't he finally use his real name?) could have given more on this project. He sounds repressed and latent which fits the mood for many of the songs, but for crying out loud let it rip once in a while. The vocals take on a feeling of the Chile peppers dude ... californication and angles at times. Good album though. I have all the Europe albums and appreciate this one. It just wasn't what I expected, or hoped for.

Great return of the band in 2003.

Some of the other reviews here made me hesitate to buy this album, but I am quite happy I ignored them. This album rocks!If you're expecting "The Final Countdown Part II", I can see how you would be disappointed. This album definitely goes into different territory, but not in a bad way. Let me explain.In the mid 90s, a lot of "hair" bands were trying to update their sounds to fit with the times. This yielded some mediocre albums such as Queensryche's Hear in the Now Frontier, Warrant's Belly to Belly, and Dokken's Shadowlife (just to name a few). All these albums included the distorted vocals so popular in the grunge scene at the time, and they lacked any standout guitar work. What really separated the "hair" bands from the grunge bands in the first place was the fact that they had guys who could sing and guys who could shred. Why you would want to downplay that, I never did quite figure out.Start From the Dark succeeds where these attempts failed. Joey Tempest's amazing voice and John Norum's great guitar work are prominent. Their sound has been "updated", but they succeed in doing this without betraying their roots. This album is certainly heavier than most (if not all) of their previous efforts, so if you're looking for Europe to go the way of Bon Jovi, then think again. Just the first three tracks alone ("Got to Have Faith", "Start From The Dark" and "Flames") are worth the price of the album.All in all, I was extremely pleased with this album. Now I definitely have to pick up their more recent Secret Society!

I was never a HUGE europe fan. This CD is changing my mind every time I listen to it.Start from the Dark encompasses the best in Late 80's Early 90's metal when it was about to find it's groove. This is the CD we would have received if the 80's bands kept making music.Norum is fantastic, cutting edge even on some songs. Tempest belts out great vocals and overall such a pleasant, I am home feel to this album. Norum has some Dokken type sound on some of these killer tunes (he was in Dokken for awhile).Overall nothing that you have ever heard from these guys. It is by far their strongest Rock CD. Give it a listen. One of the best Hard Rock Cd's in 5 years!

Thank you

Excellent, driving rock! Great vocals-Fantastic band!