Europe – Last Look At Eden EP

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This stop-gap EP, which oddly carries the same name as the forthcoming new full-length album, gives fans of the Swedish hard rock institution, who have heavied up considerably over the course of their last two albums, a small hint of what’s to come on the new disc. The first two songs are both taken from the album, and present two sides of their sound. The second, U Devil U is perhaps the Europe people are most familiar with. Catchy rock which in this case doesn’t sound too dissimilar to the Brother Cane/Queensrÿche off-shoot Slave To The System with a slightly-fuzzy groove to the main rhythms, measured chorus and a gentle bridge. The title track is the other song included here, and this is more like what fans have been hearing on recent albums Start From The Dark and Secret Society. A heavy main riff, slower pace (a bit Dio-ish here) but retaining their trademark catchy chorus. Both tracks are very good, so the album should be promising. The EP is rounded out with three live tracks. Two are songs listed as “first time on CD”, which translates to “lifted from the DVD” or “released as a download”. The last track is an excellent live cover of Led Zeppelin‘s Since I’ve Been Loving You, which comes from the 2008 live album Almost Unplugged. So none of the tracks are really exclusive to this release, and there are no non-album studio tracks, so apart from the preview of the new album (which fans can get from MySpace), it’s hard to see much point in this EP.

Written by Andy Lye
More: EPs, Hard Rock, Quick.Play Reviews, Europe