Scorpions "Return To Forever (Japan, Limited deluxe edition, Digibook) "

Return to Forever is the eighteenth studio album by German rock band Scorpions. It was released in Europe on 20 February 2015. The album marks the final release of the band with longtime drummer James Kottak, who was replaced in 2016 by former Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee.

In 2011 Scorpions started searching their archives for any previously unreleased songs. Those were the songs that didn't make an album mainly because of the limited space on the vinyl records. Guitarist Rudolf Schenker explained: "We have a library in our warehouse where we have a lot of old songs, especially from the days where you had only the possibility of putting eight or nine songs on vinyl. We always recorded 13 or 14 songs, so (the rest) are hanging out somewhere in our warehouse". In the period between the January and March 2012, the band worked in the studio with producers Mikael Nord Andersson and Martin Hansen on 12 unreleased songs from the 1980s and early 1990s. Those were the demos from the Blackout, Love at First Sting, Savage Amusement and Crazy World era which were unfinished. Band members added new musical parts on those old recordings, such as new rewritten lyrics to make them sound more modern. Matthias Jabs explained: "We're doing it the way we are recording albums today, but the basic ideas, the riffs, the feel, the way they were written and arranged, we try to keep as much from the old recordings as possible. Thirty years later no one would come up with these ideas we came up with when we were younger, so we want to keep that spirit in there."

In a March 2014 interview for Guitar World, Matthias Jabs confirmed that band had twelve songs for the new album. In that same interview, Rudolf Schenker also said that band is planning to release total of 15 songs from the seventies and eighties. Among them are electric versions of songs "Rock 'N' Roll Band" and "Dancing With the Moonlight" which were saved for the "Bonus Tracks".

Songs on the album originate from periods between late seventies and the year 2014. "Crazy Ride" originates from late seventies. There are also four songs from the eighties. "Hard Rockin' the Place" is a song from the beginning of eighties. It's a song that band always had on their demo CD. Band members often picked this song for their albums, but every time they tried the song, it never fit any of the albums. "Rock My Car" is a song that was written in 1985. "Catch Your Luck and Play" is a song that was written between 1986 and 1987, and it was supposed to go on the Savage Amusement (1988) album. It was originally titled "Bite of the Snake" and had great opening riff, but it didn't have great catchy chorus and great hook line, so Rudolf Schenker in collaboration with Andersson and Hansen wrote a new chorus. "Eye of the Storm" is a song that was written around 1991. The band occasionally picked the song for their albums, including Humanity: Hour I (2007), but didn't make on this album because band was working with different composing teams and had plenty of other songs, so this song couldn't fit on it. "House of Cards" is a song that originates from late nineties and early 2000's. "Gypsy Life" is song that was written around year 2000 for the album Acoustica (2001). "The Scratch" is a song that was written in October 2014, and was the last song written for the album. "One and One Is Three" is a song that Rudolf Schenker started on Christmas 2012 with Scorpions's road manager Clifford Gauntlett. Gauntlett came up with the title of the song and also started to write lyrics with Schenker, and then later Schenker finished song with his guitar technician and album producers Andersson and Hansen.

Track listing

1. "Going Out with a Bang" Klaus Meine, Martin Hansen Hansen, Mikael Nord Andersson 3:47
2. "We Built This House" Meine, Hansen Hansen, Andersson 3:53
3. "Rock My Car" Meine Rudolf Schenker 3:20
4. "House of Cards" Meine Schenker 5:05
5. "All for One" Meine, Andersson, Hansen Meine, Andersson, Hansen 2:58
6. "Rock 'n' Roll Band" Meine Meine 3:54
7. "Catch Your Luck and Play" Meine, Andersson, Hansen Schenker 3:33
8. "Rollin' Home" Meine, Hansen Hansen, Andersson 4:03
9. "Hard Rockin' the Place" Meine Schenker 4:06
10. "Eye of the Storm" Meine Meine, Andersson, Hansen 4:27
11. "The Scratch" Andersson Andersson, Hansen 3:41
12. "Gypsy Life" Meine Schenker 4:51

Total length: 47:38

Includes a 12-page booklet.

A music video was made for We Built This House.

Recording information:

Mastered at Cuttingroom Studios in Stockholm, Sweden.