Since starting to write reviews for Tuonela Magazine in 2020, I have been extremely lucky, I guess, because I haven’t felt the need to trash any album so far, not even once, even though I have come across albums that I probably would not have bought from the record store myself. Now, in order to challenge myself, I took on the opportunity to review a classic album that has provided us with one of the most annoying songs ever released in the history of hard rock. Okay, I have to admit that I overdosed on this particular hit during the years that I played keyboards in one 1980s-themed cover band back in the day, but still, the famous hook of this very song has a habit of assaulting your ears with the vehemence of a hungry shiver of sharks locked in a swimming pool with a bleeding bloke who cannot swim. The song in question is the title track for the thrice-platinum studio album, “The Final Countdown,” released on May 26th, 1986, on the pedigree record label, EPIC, by the Swedish hair-metal group, EUROPE. Yeah, I bet that just reading that song title engaged your brain in a mental playback of that notorious, brassy type of Roland JX-8P synth riff. Technically, I reckon the sound was layered with some factory preset from Yamaha’s TX-816 rack unit, but let’s not split hairs here – you know that sound by heart, don’t you? Ta-da-taa-daa…ta-da-tat-tat-taa… Yeah, THAT one. It opened the album with glorious, albeit a tad silly synth bombast. It’s a catchy little devil… So catchy, in fact, that even pioneering Finnish speed-metallers STONE played a cover rendition of this iconic riff, sort of, on their debut album in 1988. That version encapsulates the somewhat annoying nature of this riff down to a tee, but that’s a whole other story. This particular synth riff was so all-encompassing and overwhelming at the time that I must admit to not actually remembering much else from this album. To give credit where it’s due, that ear-maggot-of-a-synth-blast helped a lot in pushing the envelope for incorporating synthesizers more prominently in heavy metal in the late 1980s. You see, synths were not exactly the epitome of cool among the old-school metal brethren at the time. Moreover, John Norum‘s fretboard gymnastics in this song remain one of the most iconic guitar solos ever. Sadly, this was the last album to feature his guitar work until the 1999 reunion. So, in retrospect, I guess the song ain’t half as bad as I think; it’s just that I have played it WAY too many times in a totally inappropriate context of drunken bachelor parties and whatnot. Plus, the album actually had a few more bangers on offer. So, now that the album is turning 40, let’s see what it actually had in store for us.
While every other track on the album has been sorely overshadowed by that monstrous title track, songs such as “Rock the Night,” “Carrie,” and “Cherokee” became some sort of hits, too. If you’re old enough, like me, you must have heard them once or twice on the radio over the years. “Rock the Night” has a nice BON JOVI chorus – you know, something you can shout along to while letting your big hair flutter in the breeze as if you were starring in a L’Oréal commercial. While “Carrie” is a somewhat typical hard-rock piece, clichéd almost, the anthemic “Cherokee” is much better than I remembered – it’s actually the best banger of the whole selection! It’s kind of a bummer that the title track became such a career-defining song for the band, because it’s not even the best song on the album. The song sure tarnished EUROPE‘s heavy-metal brand with a silly aura for years to come. For instance, when I first heard their 2012 single “Not Supposed to Sing the Blues,” I had a hard time believing it was from the same band! Had they written themselves into rock history with that song instead of “The Final Countdown,” who knows what might have happened?
As for the rest of the songs, there is a little bit of album fodder and then some decent tracks as well, like the DEEP PURPLE musings on “Heart of Stone.” These four tracks I first dissected above, however, are the ones that left more or less indelible marks on the history of hard rock. As it happens, that cover band of mine called it quits some 10 years ago, so I reckon the time has healed all wounds by now, and maybe I could finally listen to the notorious title track from this album without getting a migraine; for nostalgia’s sake, maybe I should even get the 2019 Rock Candy remaster of this album since the older CD edition that I have sounds a bit lame in comparison. While “The Final Countdown” is not EUROPE‘s most triumphant effort, it remains one of the most iconic heavy-metal albums of that silly decade, which gave us all sorts of glorious nonsense.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- The Final Countdown
- Rock the Night
- Carrie
- Danger on the Track
- Ninja
- Cherokee
- Time Has Come
- Heart of Stone
- On the Loose
- Love Chaser
Lineup
Joey Tempest – lead vocals
John Norum – lead guitars, backing vocals
John Levén – bass
Mic Michaeli – keyboards, backing vocals
Ian Haugland – drums, backing vocals
Kee Marcello – rhythm guitars
Label
Epic
