Europe consider blues vibe for album no.11

Europe are planning on hitting the studio next year to begin work on the follow-up to this year’s War Of Kings album.

And frontman Joey Tempest says their future material could have a blues vibe as they don’t want to repeat themselves.

He tells Mitch Lafon: “The idea is to record the next album in September or October next year for an early 2017 release – that’s the plan.

“We want to challenge ourselves with every record and that’s going to happen again.

“It’s moving organically and we’re excited about it. What we want to do is find a deeper expression and maybe mix in blues and soul a little bit. If we can explore that, it would be amazing.”

Tempest also reveals the band are planning on celebrating the 30th anniversary of their 1986 breakthrough album The Final Countdown with a run of live shows.

The singer adds: “We haven’t booked anything but we want to do something. Towards the end of next year, November, probably, we’ll do five to 10 shows.

“We’re throwing ideas around but we’ll do something in this short period of time, capture it and move on.”

Europe will tour the US next month in support of War Of Kings, which has recently been re-released with bonus tracks and their live performance from Wacken 2015.

Europe 2016 US tour dates

Jan 19: San Jose Rockbar Theater, CA
Jan 20: Anaheim The Grove, CA
Jan 22: Los Angeles Saban Theater, CA
Jan 23: Las Vegas Hard Rock Live, NV
Jan 24: San Diego Music Box Theater, CA
Jan 25: Chandler Wild Horse Pass Casino, AZ
Jan 27: Lawrence The Granada Theater, KS
Jan 28: Sioux Falls Badlands Pawn, SD
Jan 29: Shawnee The Grand Events, OK
Jan 30: Dallas House Of Blues, TX
Jan 31: Houston House Of Blues, TX
Feb 02: Fort Lauderdale Revolution, FL
Feb 03: St Petersburg The Concert Courtyard, FL
Feb 04: Lake Buena Vista House Of Blues, FL
Feb 05: Biloxi Hard Rock Casino, MS
Feb 06: Atlanta The Masquerade, GA

Scott Munro
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Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.