Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

There is always a power behind the throne, literature understands that, politics revels in its darkness and music hints at it, perhaps more so in veiled comments and sideways glances in the artistically rounded lyric, but none the less it exists and on paper for Europe’s latest album War Of Kings it is a sound premise to delve into.

Paper ideals and true reflections are normally poles apart though and whilst some of the albums since Europe have reformed after their blistering 1980s heyday have captured the point with the aim of a well placed javelin being aimed at a 50 pence piece 100 yards away, this latest release has pretty much and with great disappointment, failed to hit the proverbial barn door standing from six inches and armed with a wrecking ball.  A bit of dust may have been dislodged in the rafters, a spider woken up from a mid afternoon nap with the sound of a muttered expletive but the barn door remains resolutely intact.

There are some bands that you just want to wish so much good fortune upon, especially as for many who became Rock fans in the 1980s Europe were a pivotal band to march into battle alongside and sweat blood with. However, even with good grace and a melancholic indulgence knocking at the barn door, the power behind the throne has become muted, stilled and lenient; no longer it seems can the throne be held vice like from those who once upon a time deserved it.

War Of Kings, perhaps more a war on the self is an album crying out to be taken seriously, to be seen as the continued come back from the days when record sales came easy and there was less choice to be had in the world, when living for the moment in a world on the verge of annihilation was enough; instead it is almost a pastiche upon which a mighty ship was floated and it is enough to break the heart.

Whilst there are a couple of interesting moments, such as in Angels With Broken Hearts and The Second Day, it is too little comfort to the wrecking ball as it continually catches the beams of the barn door with the gentle breeze of a mouse’s breath after gently jogging away from an overweight and bloated housecat.

War Of Kings is arguably one sided, lacks conviction and if compared to a game of chess, loses interest quicker than a five year old being beaten in Fool’s Mate.

Ian D. Hall