In the summer of 2004, Europe went on a festival tour through the European continent. The concert setlists included the old hits, but also introduced the title track from "Start from the Dark". The album was released on 22 September 2004, the same day that John Norum became a father. "Start from the Dark" featured a more modern sound compared to Europe's previous albums. "We wanted to be doing something at least that was a little bit relevant now; bit of a dry mix, detuned a bit," Tempest said, "So we felt like we didn't want to do an 1980s album per se, we just wanted to start like a fresh band really." Eventually, the album sold in excess of 600,000 copies worldwide.