Ian Haugland shares more about Europe’s upcoming album

Ruben Mosqueda of We Go To 11 recently spoke with drummer Ian Haugland of Swedish hard rock group Europe about the band’s eagerly anticipated new album, “Come This Madness,” which will be released on September 25, as per Blabbermouth. Ian discussed the nearly ten-year gap since 2017’s “Walk The Earth,” the years of songwriting that went into the album, and Europe’s resolve to avoid becoming a novelty act based solely on its ’80s catalogue upon their reunion. Ian also talked about the new singles “One On One” and “Cult Of Ignorance,” called Europe bassist John Levén one of the best bassists in rock, and described how the band’s harder contemporary sound is nevertheless influenced by its roots in Deep Purple, Rainbow, Thin Lizzy, and Black Sabbath.

He also considers the possibility of bringing Europe back to the United States and the cancellation of their North American tour with Foreigner and Kansas during the pandemic. Ian’s early influences Cosy Powell and John Bonham, his experience recording with former Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson, and a delightfully chaotic onstage incident involving Joey Tempest and Mic Michaeli after the two inadvertently switched their in-ear monitor packs were also discussed. Ian stated that the band’s production from the mid-1980s and early 1990s had a less guitar-driven sound than the harder musical direction of Europe today.

We definitely have the roots in especially the British ’70s hard rock, like [Deep] Purple and Thin Lizzy and Rainbow and those bands. So, that’s where we came from and the inspirations that we brought into our sort of mold of rock music. And, obviously, some newer influences got in there as well. But, yeah, basically that’s where we come from, the British ’70s hard rock era.

When we started all over again in 2004 [with the] ‘Start From The Dark’ [album], we decided that we were not gonna become like a novelty act, just relying on the ’80s stuff and the big hits. But in order to do this for real, we said that it needs to be driven by the force of music, creating new music and try different styles and different directions and just let the music take us on a journey, not to think too much about it ahead. Just let the music flow, and it becomes what it becomes. And it still has that signature Europe mark to it, I think — melodic, heavy, but also dynamic, with balance and stuff. I think that’s the main theme that’s been going through the albums.

Ian released this statement regarding the release of “Come This Madness” through Silver Lining Music and Hell & Back Recordings.

I think the songwriting process has been upgraded a lot. The last album ‘Walk The Earth’ came [out] in 2017. So it’s been quite some time. But the good thing with that is that all the songs and all the ideas, we’ve had a lot of time to revisit the songs and re-evaluate them. And so I think what the album has, it’s the best of all these songs and ideas that we’ve been collecting through the years since ‘Walk The Earth’. So we had time to live with the songs and to make the best of the songs, and I think that shows a lot in the context of arrangements and the way we orchestrated the songs. So it’s an adventurous album, but it also has elements from the ’80s with very melodic guitar solos and strong hooks and melodies in basically every song, but still some heavier elements that we might have been used to with the later Europe albums. So it’s the old and the new.

“Come This Madness” still has the more aggressive hard rock vibe, Haugland continued.

Since we come from that ’70s rock era, and we loved Black Sabbath and those bands as well, I think we all carry with us a lot of heavy riffing and heavy melodies and stuff like that, and rhythms as well, me having Cozy Powell and John Bonham as my favorite drummers. So it comes naturally. A lot of people say that when we play live, they think that the songs from the ’80s, like ‘The Final Countdown’ and ‘Rock The Night’, blend beautifully with the newer songs that are a bit heavier. But for some reason, when we get on stage and we play the older songs together with the new songs, it becomes like a unified experience. So it’s really nice to be able to do it that way.

Haugland explained why it took almost ten years for “Come This Madness” to be recorded and released.

The funny thing is that we haven’t been unemployed during this time. Basically every year we were out doing all the festivals around Europe, and we’ve been touring in Asia and in South America. So it’s been going on constantly, basically, even though we haven’t had time to record anything. And then the pandemic hit us, so there was another year that went by. So for some reason, it doesn’t feel that long, what it actually is… Time flies, and it’s weird.

Ian stated that he doesn’t think fans will have to wait ten more years for a “Come This Madness” sequel.

I’ve heard a lot of demos prior to when we recorded this album. So I know there are a lot of great ideas still in the can that we will be working on. And so hopefully it won’t be another almost 10 years before the next album will come.