It has been about seventeen years now since the first electric breeze of
"Stormwind" blew through my cassette player and became responsible for igniting a passion that has lasted just as long as I've owned the record itself. "Wings of Tomorrow" was my formal introduction to the world of hard rock and heavy metal and looking back over the years and the hundreds - perhaps thousands of times this music has dominated my personal airwaves, it stands as one hell of a recording. Along with Def Leppard's "Hysteria", this has proven that truly excellent music never sounds dated or loses its initial charms.
Many people dismiss the band
Europe and this particular release, which came before their commercial material, seems to have fallen in the cracks with those discs that are long forgotten.
Europe did rocket to superstardom with "The Final Countdown" a couple of years after this, but the second album, "Wings" was truly their magnum opus. Heavier and much more metal than anything they did after it, yet more polished, precise and expertly executed than their fledgling debut, a mere year earlier, it was a blend of near perfection.
Vocalist Joey Tempest turns in a performance of a lifetime, bubbling with passion of the tender or blistering kind, in a solid as steel rock voice that never wavers or bends. He's dead on throughout and bristles with fury along with the best of them. I bet those only familiar with the commercialized lovey dove pop pap of "Carrie" would be shocked to hear some of the biting lines that fly furiously here.
Guitarist
John Norum was also extraordinary. Still in his teens at the moment of recording, but already blessed with the kind of technique that many of his elders have still never managed to obtain, he surges out riff and solo alike alit with the kind of fire that blazes bright in every crystal note. His sound was unique, all his own, and it was quite the tragedy to hear him pushed to the side in favor of multi-layered keyboards for "The Final Countdown", causing him to abandon the successful ship of
Europe since his tastes were more along the lines of "Wings" and the rest of the Swedish outfit was searching to be the Scandanavian equivalent of
Journey or Foreigner. Instead of being chained and let loose only for the token solo as on "Countdown", here he carries the songs on metallic rhythm riffs, imbued with the sense of all things metal, nothing restrained or held back.
Once
"Stormwind" kicks off with its growling riffs, stomping bass, soaring vocals, and chorus that retains its catchiness through a steel laced veil, there's no turning back.
"Scream of Anger" whirls in next with such quaint lyrics as
"I've been waiting here for ages, for the hangman to appear, soon the priest will read some pages, from the Bible for my fear." The urgency is pounded through the skull at each turn, the vocals twisting from a rushed fright to tormented anguish, Norum's guitar sizzling a path to that evil place all the way.
"Open Your Heart" was bastardized into a pop metal ditty on "Out of This World", why the original was not good enough for them is beyond me, for in my mind it ranks as one of the best ballads ever laid down. Its opening is light and simplistic, relying on a sparse landscape of mostly acoustic and Tempest's rich vocals to create a tearful atmosphere, right before kicking into rocking overdrive for the chorus, all instruments blazing for this fire and ice contrast and a mesmerizing solo that still has the power to blow one away.
"Treated Bad Again" is another notch in the metal belt, the axe again, something to listen for as it blends and weaves throughout the heavy confines of the song, sometimes melding with the raw ripped vocals and electrifying melody right before finding its own path.
"Aphasia" is an instrumental that happily sits alongside Yngwie's "Black Star" and a few of Ritchie Blackmore's brief but heartfelt pieces as one of the best of its genre ever. Concise, precise, and showing more concern for being an actual song than just an excuse for over the top showboating,
"Aphasia" is very tasteful with an unexpected and surprise explosive ending.
And the rest of the album continues the metal magic, from the hauntingly melodic
"Wings of Tomorrow" with its powerful message, pompous and elegantly futuristic, to the aggressive strains of
"Wasted Time", to the gentle, delicate as a dove's wing ballad
"Dreamer", which shapes a story that pulls at the heart strings, to the fun rockin' closer of
"Dance the Night Away", that roars with 80s excess in a loose, jamming form - every track is wonderful in its own right.
Rarely do I mention CD artwork, but few sport anything close to being as imaginative and wonderful as this. The steel winged bird of prey set against the red planet as a backdrop and the
Europe logo outlined in white and painted with a metallic sheen is gorgeous. The predatory eyes of a hawk glowing with claws outstretched, in preparation for the kill. It suits the music, for judging by the songs contained within, the band was poised in much the same position, ready to strike. The back cover has white birds, glowing wings flared into the reaches of the galaxy, carrying people away to a blue planet, with only one blonde human daring to looking behind.perhaps watching for the celestial sharp clawed avian from the front cover?
At the time of this writing, it has been about twenty years since the album was unleashed, and still it stands, a lost exceptional piece from the past that was ignored or ridiculed in ignorance by those that thought
Europe was just a girly band from top ten hits that blared on pop radio. The albums after this were good in their own right as
AOR but lacked that indescribable special something that drove this disc to sit on its high pedestal. It was this album that should have put them on the map and this sound that should have been mined for later releases. Tempest himself knows this for even he ranks "Wings" as his favorite
Europe album. There's a reason for that, for they had found perfection, only the rest of the world had failed to realize it.
Written by
Alanna Tuesday, August 3, 2004
Show all reviews by AlannaRatingsAlanna: 9/10Members: 10/10 - Average of 1 ratings.
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 | jonasxx
Rating: 10/10
Great review for a timeless album that every metal/rock fan should have in their shelf. ... · Read more · |
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