Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: U.D.O.
Label: AFM Records
Release: 2015
Length: 67:44
Rating: 4/5
The question always pops up when the spiky, grumpy uncle Udo drops a new album: is it even worth doing a review, when you don’t know what to write that wouldn’t read almost exactly like the review of the previous U.D.O. studio release? Ahhhh,… Let me at least dig up an excuse for what comes next. Best for a person to keep their confession as short as possible, but if that doesn’t work (like with me), then out of the string of U.D.O. albums that come out every two years, let’s just review every third or fourth new studio album.
»Decadent« is the 14th studio album from U.D.O. , led since 1987 by none other than Udo Dirkschneider, the former untamed, ultimate frontman voice of the classic Accept albums of the eighties, and the guy who recently »loaned« his son Sven to NWOBHM veterans Saxon, to help them drum their way through a few leftover gigs on British soil this February, dates Saxon had to make up after sudden health problems hit their drummer Nigel Glockler on tour.
After the album »Rev-Raptor« in 2011, the U.D.O. lineup (yes, exactly the one that played the band’s only Slovenian show in Ljubljana back in 2004) changed. Both guitarists left: Igor Gianola and a big veteran of German metal, ex-Stormwitch guitarist and ex-Accept drummer Stefan Kauffmann, who had been moaning about serious back problems for quite a while. Dirkschneider didn’t sit on his hands and quickly drafted just one single guitarist into U.D.O., with whom he recorded the album »Steelhammer« (2013). Shortly after the album’s release, the technically polished Andrey Smirnow got an equal partner on guitar in Finnish musician Kasperi Heikkinen. So: two young stallions, hungry to prove themselves, with skull veins bursting from excess testosterone! Of the veterans, bassist Fitty Weinhold stayed on, along with the ever-moody drummer Francesco Jovino, who the band is already looking to replace at the time of writing this review (Jovino, for example, filled in for Mike Terrana during Hardline’s set on May 1, 2014 as part of the Frontiers Rock festival in Italy).
If »Steelhammer« was a test that showed U.D.O. had more than survived, the new album »Decadent« is a consolidation of the band’s classic course. The new U.D.O. are hungrier than ever. Hungry to sound like old Accept. Almost more than ever before. As if they were doing it on purpose to annoy Hoffmann and the crew.. Dirkschneider isn’t ashamed of it. In interviews he loves to say he couldn’t care less, that when it comes to writing new U.D.O. music every bit of sentimentality about the old days goes out the window, and that there’s simply no room for nostalgia. »Decadent« is therefore cut along the standard lines of the U.D.O. dossier, which is a dead ringer for Accept. You don’t need Einstein to crack this »riddle«. Largely thanks to the voice of Udo Dirkschneider, who hasn’t lost a speck of the vocal uniqueness that defined a major chunk of classic metal songwriting through the eighties, when Accept racked up huge commercial successes and inspired generations of new musicians!
I’ve got the digipack edition in front of me! It has a whopping fourteen tracks! Two are bonus tracks, and even without them at least two are surplus to requirements. The bonus ones are Let Me Out and Shadow Eyes, which sound the most like Accept on the album. The songs follow an old-school songwriting formula, once again extremely close to the Judas Priest school, a bunch of tracks instantly pull toward Accept, and the riff penetration likewise instantly and proudly drills straight to the bone! No duds. Udo Dirkschneider is far too experienced to slip up. Besides, over the years routine predictability gets into your blood. Better to stay true to what you have down cold, like the back of your hand, than to wander into uncharted territory. Two songs reek of novelty-chasing. Those are the title track and, soon after, Mistery, which are skippable. It’s nice that U.D.O. try to modernize and spice up their songwriting, but it just doesn’t suit them. Hence the remark that even fewer than 14 tracks would be way too many for the new album.
As you can see, yet another overlong review. If you’re a fan of Accept, Judas Priest and, of course, everything U.D.O. have released to this day, »Decadent« is the album for you! Full of lean, mean riffing, masterfully backed by coquettishly blessed rhythms of detonating destructiveness, laced with the unique vocal charisma of Udo Dirkschneider, which rust won’t be getting a grip on any time soon. A gorgeous piece of pure-blooded metal and Udo’s new projectile, aimed first and foremost at his loyal fans!
Lineup
Udo Dirkschneider – vocals
Andrey Smirnov – guitar
Kasperi Heikkinen – guitar
Fitty Wienhold – bass
Francesco Jovino – drums
Production
Udo Dirkschneider & Jacob Hansen
Tracklist
1. Speeder
2. Decadent
3. House Of Fake
4. Mystery
5. Pain
6. Secrets In Paradise
7. Meaning Of Life
8. Breathless
9. Let Me Out*
10. Under Your Skin
11. Untouchable
12. Shadow Eyes*
13. Rebels Of The Night
14. Words In Flame
* …bonus tracks on the limited-edition “digipack” release of the album
