Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: U.D.O.
Label: AFM Records
Release: 2018
Rating: 4.5/5
Udo Dirkschneider hardly needs a detailed introduction. Where on earth did the last three years go? So much has happened for the man known as the former frontman of the mighty Accept and the eternally devoted leader of his own band U.D.O. The last U.D.O. album came out three years ago, and just this summer the legendary screamer was wrapping up the last shows on the summer festival circuit with his U.D.O. band, but under the name Dirkschneider. On those tours, U.D.O., temporarily renamed Dirkschneider, played strictly Accept material. And in new interviews and statements it has also officially leaked out that Udo and his two former Accept buddies (Hoffmann, Baltes) must be seriously on the outs, but that’s another story.
Why such a fact-heavy intro? Because it’s no surprise, let alone a revelation that would shake the earth’s poles, that the music of Accept and U.D.O. is closely linked. Not just historically, but stylistically. Whoever listens to Accept listens to U.D.O. (and vice versa). It can’t be any other way if you’re a fan of old-school metal. But »Steelfactory«, which came out at the end of this August, leans especially venomously on some of the guitar phrases from the more distinctive songs of Accept’s career. U.D.O. have seriously reset over the past three years. They certainly didn’t lack looseness and fun during that run of shows under the Dirkschneider name. The energy lines in the band are distributed perfectly, so there was no shortage of ideas or creative chemistry in the studio later on. If you just snag on the new Make the Move, you quickly figure out that not only the song title, but the lead guitar phrase itself, hauls in the riff of the Accept classic Midnight Mover in an incredible way. The playing of Accept material after the Dirskchneider tours really did seep into the later writing of the new U.D.O. music for the album »Steelfactory«. That’s a fact. If we dig further through the album, we run into, say, Rising High, which again, similarly, not just by title but by riff and chorus melody, irrevocably conjures up the Accept riff of Aiming High. One Heart One Soul and Blood On Fire actually carry identical lead guitar riffs. But while the former has an especially bombastic chorus melody going forward, the latter swings into a downright sinister pre-chorus and a dark continuation in which Udo’s trademark screech wins out completely!
Not to go on about the same thing for too long. The riffs you hear on »Steelfactory« can be described as the best riffs Accept never recorded in the eighties. That’s how much songwriting compatibility there is in the creativity of both bands. But that’s a fact that has followed Udo’s solo career since the second half of the eighties, and there’s really no discovering America here. The new album convinces, as always. And this time all the more so, because the three-year break was extremely welcome. It brings a heap of excellent songs. While the earlier U.D.O. albums, because of the too-short intervals between releases, suffered in credibility from »less skillfully packaged recycling« of the riffs used, »Steelfacotry« really doesn’t have a single weak spot, not one moment, and it »recycles« what’s already been said far more skillfully and cunningly than its studio predecessors. Above all, Udo and the crew show off their arranging skills in the mid-tempo tracks (A Bite Of Evil and In the Heat of the Night, both highlights of the album, and then Rose in the Desert before the end). At the tail end sits a new excellent ballad, My Way, where Udo enchants by using the natural tone of his voice. Otherwise, the man, who has seriously wandered into his mid-sixties, howls and screeches furiously. With undiminished power, and that’s the main thing that keeps the guy’s credibility firmly on the scene. Over the decades he hasn’t lost a speck of power in his vocals. The ripping slap-in-the-face tracks are here too! The opening Tongue Reaper and Eraser toward the end will chip your skull to pieces!
Udo and the crew are incredibly experienced. On this album everything stands exactly as it should, including all the mid-eight passages and the fantastic soloing. The bass line digs and tears insatiably (Hungy And Angry) across the album, and Udo is, as I said, screeching like a little devil, a proper beast. The album is played and recorded with unbelievable potency and boiling passion. That’s all the more fascinating given that Udo has an incredibly long and fruitful career behind him, and the man could calmly announce his musical retirement. But with the zeal he’s showing and his songwriting creativity, let’s hope he doesn’t come around to that idea for a long time yet. It would be a sin.
An excellent new U.D.O. album, then! Just the way it should be. Even more. Considering the initial demands and expectations of the band, it’s even better.
Heads up. Fans, check out both special »limited edition« releases too. For the European and Japanese markets. The extra tracks are excellent as well. The Japanese edition has a bonus track, What A Hell Of A Night, an incredibly fun »rock’n’roller«, built on a major scale, that could easily stand in for one of the lead tracks of the new album (that’s what happens when the Accept riffs Burning and I Am A Rebel course through its creator’s veins).
Lineup
Udo Dirkschneider – vocals
Andrey Smirnov – guitar
Fitty Weihhold – bass
Sven Dirkschneider – drums
Production
Jacob Hansen
Track list
01. Tongue Reaper
02. Make The Move
03. Keeper Of My Soul
04. In The Heat Of The Night
05. Raise The Game
06. Blood On Fire
07. Rising High
08. The Devil Is An Angel (bonus track on the “digipack” edition)
09. Hungry And Angry
10. One Heart One Soul
11. Pictures In My Dreams (bonus track on the “digipack” edition)
12. A Bite Of Evil
13. Eraser
14. Rose In The Desert
15. The Way
