CD Review: U.D.O. – Decadent

CD Review: U.D.O. – Decadent
AFM Records
All Access Rating: B+

U.D.O. - Decadent 2015

Udo Dirkschneider is, once again, spoiling for a fight. Lined up in his crosshairs on Decadent, album No. 15 from his long-running post-Accept band of battle-scarred, traditional metal warriors, are greedy, cigar-chomping fat cats given to spitting on the less fortunate.

Waging class warfare with torrential, tight-fisted riffs, galloping rhythms and growling, impassioned, teeth-gnashing vocals, U.D.O. takes on corruption and Capitalism run amok, questioning whether societies with such wide divides between the rich and poor can, or even should, survive.

On point and on message, the team of Udo, Mattes and Fitty Wienhold – the same threesome that produced the titanic Steelhammer release a year ago – have a clear vision for Decadent. The thrashing toxic waltz of a racing "House of Fake" snarls and lashes out, while the rugged, down-and-dirty groove of "Breathless" is a caged animal pacing impatiently. An uprising of big hooks and bass thumping that sounds like cannons going off, "Pain" is melodically tumescent, its growth unchecked as riff blitzkriegs "Speeder" and the philosophical "Meaning of Life" – fast-fingered guitar leads flying underneath the tumult – carry the fight with focused aggression.

Oddities like the bi-polar, deliciously sinister and heavy "Mystery" and a directionless acoustic number entitled "Secrets in Paradise" are strangers in this land of U.D.O., but Decadent rarely deviates from its righteous path of honest indignation and designing sharp-clawed metal constructs that are so familiar, yet so undeniably compelling. Though a somewhat less powerful statement of purpose than Steelhammer, Decadent has more to say and it does so in a more varied manner. still slamming its battering ram of a head against the wall and hoping for the betterment of human kind. Let's hope U.D.O. won't ever water down its ideals or its sonic assault.
– Peter Lindblad

CD Reviews: U.D.O. – Mean Machine and Man and Machine

U.D.O.

Mean Machine: Anniversary Edition

AFM Records

All Access Review: A-

U.D.O.

Man and Machine: Anniversary Edition

AFM Records

All Access Review: B+

U.D.O. - Mean Machine Anniversary Edition 2013

Cutting the cord with Accept proved to be more difficult than Udo Dirkschneider imagined. In 1987, this short, stocky, powder keg of a singer announced his separation from a metal band that’s always been “balls to the wall.” Intending to go solo, he assembled a band of mercenary gunslingers to make his new project, U.D.O., the scourge of true German heavy metal.

Parting ways on the friendliest of terms, the two parties divorced. Only Udo wasn’t quite prepared to go it alone right away with his new playmates, seeing as how his former Accept songwriting partners created and crafted the content for U.D.O.’s debut LP, Animal House, which sounded a lot like classic Accept – intense, aggressive, engorged with testosterone and defiant, with just a hint of melody to sweeten the deal and hooks galore.

Interestingly, by the time U.D.O. set about recording their sophomore outing, Mean Machine, Dirkschneider had sent packing three-fourths of the original U.D.O., leaving only guitarist Mathias Dieth to forge ahead with Dirkschneider and newcomers Andy Susemihl on guitar, Stefan Schwarzmann on drums and Thomas Smuszynski on bass. This time, the remaining members of Accept stayed out of it. With fresh troops having arrived, U.D.O. was ready was battle.

U.D.O. - Man and Machine Anniversary Edition 2013

Their first salvo was 1988’s Mean Machine, a solid, workmanlike effort propelled by brawny riffs, searing guitar solos, hard-nosed, pulverizing rhythms, shouted backing vocals and Udo’s menacing wildcat howl. Part of a massive 2013 reissue campaign initiated by AFM Records to unearth U.D.O.’s entire back catalog – meant to coincide with U.D.O.’s 25^th anniversary – Mean Machine was included in the second wave of re-releases that hit U.S. shores on Feb. 12, along with Animal House, Faceless World and Timebomb. And it may be the best of the bunch.

Forging straight ahead, with the emphasis on power, violence and excitement, Mean Machine practically spits nails, offering a series of vicious, bloody-knuckled traditional metal attacks like the electrifying “Don’t Look Back,” “Dirty Boys” and “Break the Rules” – these brawls of blistering hard rock, where lead pipes and chains are perfectly acceptable weapons and Udo is orchestrating the fighting with his feral utterances and ferocious delivery. Simmering with tension, “Streets of Fire” explodes into thunderous choruses, while “We’re History” goes on a curb-stomping spree of metal riffage that effectively, and in no uncertain terms, ends a relationship built on lies. A dark, melancholic ballad, “Sweet Little Child” floats in on tendrils of piano and makes for wonderful, almost Gothic drama, but it’s only a short layover of tenderness and mercy before the sonic crunch of “Catch My Fall” bites down hard.

Like the rest of them, Mean Machine gets a graphic makeover and comes with a bit of bonus material. In this case, it is packaged with a live version of “Break the Rules” that is meaner and nastier than the original, plus the video for the song of the same title. Meanwhile, Man and Machine, initially put out in 2002, is not nearly as raw as Mean Machine, but it is a more polished, if less consistent, piece of work. Augmented by a punishing concert version of the title track and a remix of Udo’s original duet with Doro Pesch on the dream-like “Dancing with an Angel,” this cringe-inducing astral projection of softly melodic incandescence, Man and Machine begins with the pummeling, dystopian industrial nightmare of a title track and and its high points are more glorious than those of Mean Machine.

Sweeping epics “Like a Lion,” “Animal Instinct” and the exotic “Unknown Traveller” build on the instrumental grandeur of Led Zeppelin and the roaring emotions of power metal, while a churning, meaty “The Dawn of the Gods” growls and snarls with primal, animalistic fervor. Along with Solid, No Limits, and Holy, the re-released Man and Machine arrived in late January in the first batch of reissues, representing U.D.O.’s later period. Why some of these anniversary editions feature more bonus tracks than others is puzzling, and you wish each album would include liner notes that might shed additional light on the inner workings and history of U.D.O., although at least Man and Machine has a plethora of behind-the-scenes, studio photos of bassist Fitty Weinhold, drummer Lorenzo Milani, and guitarists Igor Gianola and Stefan Kaufmann, both of whom recently announced their departures from U.D.O.

Some of these records have been out of print for a while now, and while U.D.O. hasn’t really distinguished itself from Accept over the years in any meaningful way, it’s nice to have them back. Still, had more thought been put into the packaging of each reissue, the word “essential” might apply here. (www.afm-records.de)
  –    Peter Lindblad

CD Review: U.D.O. - Live in Sofia

CD Review: U.D.O. - Live in Sofia

AFM Records

All Access Review: A

U.D.O. - Live in Sofia 2012

Any examination of Udo Dirkschneider’s metal heart would have to conclude that it’s as healthy as it was a quarter of a century ago, when he started his titanic post-Accept project U.D.O. Pumping furiously, even after all these years, it is the engine that still drives U.D.O., and when the band that bears his name storms the capitol of Bulgaria on the occasion of this concert recording, it seems as if it could explode from his barrel chest at any second – not that such a calamity would silence the indestructible Udo, still one of the most electrifying frontmen metal has ever seen or heard.

Unwilling to concede the upper hand to his former band, even with the roll Wolf Hoffmann and the boys have been on of late, releasing not one, but two nearly flawless, riff-heavy mazes of old-school metal, U.D.O. stakes its claim as Germany’s most potent power-metal force with a relentless, devastatingly heavy double CD/DVD live package, titled Live in Sofia, that celebrates the band’s 25^th anniversary. Initiating the launch sequence of a massive U.D.O. reissue campaign slated for 2013, Live in Sofia is a visceral, thrilling document, enlivened by a roaring crowd lending its full-throated support and unified chants to what is an absolutely ferocious performance from U.D.O. Intense and breathtaking from the first note, Live in Sofia only adds to the fiery mythology of Udo, the well-chosen, 23-track playlist working as a survey of the veteran singer’s long and storied career, its choice of songs running the gamut of Accept classics and U.D.O.’s most flammable material.

Muscles clenched and veins popping, as he seethes with rage and emits spine-tingling screams and animalistic growls, Udo means business every time he opens his mouth, spearheading this invasion of overwhelming sonic weaponry. Setting the attack-dog riffs of lid-lifter “Rev-Raptor” on an audience eager to riot, U.D.O. then rolls into an inferno of guitars in “Dominator,” which dies out just before the shark-like thrashing of “Thunderball” begins and the snarling, sinister menace of the slow-burning “Leatherhead” grows hot – Udo prowling through the thrilling mob violence of each track like a hungry predator. And amazingly, we’re only four songs in, with such adrenaline-fueled action as the rampaging “Break the Rules” and “Two Faced Woman” – both of them boasting tight, clawing hooks – still to come.

A warrior for traditional metal, dressed in his familiar military fatigues, Udo tips his cap to Accept’s glory days by whipping his renegade charges through grinding, writhing versions of “Metal Heart” and 11:10 of the ubiquitous rock-and-roll monolith “Balls to the Wall” – this after sharpening their knives in “Screaming for a Love – Bite,” a prickly nugget of pop-metal poison ivy. Udo can’t escape his past, but then again, why would he want to?

As with U.D.O.’s “Vendetta” and “Man and Machine,” the surging dynamics and crushing power chords of Accept’s “Princess of the Dawn,” co-opted at Sofia by a tighter-than-leather U.D.O., testify to the rugged, fierce instrumental prowess of both bands. On the other hand, the darkly melodic “I Give as Good I Get,” the dramatic sweep of “The Bogeyman” and Stefan Kaufmann’s unexpectedly atmospheric electrical storm “Kokopelli” – basically, 11:27 of interesting and diverse guitar soloing – speak to U.D.O.’s versatile musicianship. Passion and precision are U.D.O.’s calling cards, and Live in Sofia is the kind of controlled burn that U.D.O. excels at. There’s nothing excessive about Live in Sofia. Trimmed of fat, parts are played with calculating brutality, and yet is it fair to call U.D.O. regimented? Maybe that’s the right word after all, although there seems to be a mandate for the pack of rabid dogs known as Kaufmann, Igor Gianola (guitar), Fitty Wienhold (bass) and Francesco Jovino (drums) to make their own statements as vociferously as they can, even as they work up a frothing lather as a lean, mean unit. Udo would accept nothing less.

-            Peter Lindblad