Location: Zlin / Masters Of Rock Cafe / Czech Republic
Date: Sunday, February 17, 2019
Welcome to the steel mill! »Steelfactory« is the 16th studio album from the renowned German heavy metallers U.D.O., led by the one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable figure of Udo Dirkschneider. Udo is the man, the myth, the legend. In 1967 he founded the pioneering Accept in the German city of Solingen, and with his charismatic voice and unique approach he co-defined and co-shaped the very notion of heavy metal. Whenever you think of Udo Dirkschneider, you automatically think of the pioneering days of heavy metal, when there were fewer bands on the planet, but every single one of them was good, and then some. Every one totally their own thing, born of nobody else’s mold. And Accept were among the first down that road, opening the door for others with their vision.
Let’s fast-forward. By more than five decades. To 2019, that is. Our Udo will be racking up his 68th year this year, yet the excellent new studio album “Steelfactory” from his U.D.O., with whom he’s been roaming the planet since 1987, shows no sign of creative fatigue or hollowness. Quite the opposite. Udo screams on it with undiminished drive, zeal and passion. At times he sounds more fired up than ever, and the new album is a document of remarkable freshness and inspiration, picked up over the last three years, when U.D.O. toured under the name Dirkschneider and played nothing but Accept material.
The new “Steelfactory” tour of Europe has been picking up steam nicely, and the band stopped on Czech soil for the third day in a row, playing the city of Zlin and its famous venue Masters of Rock Cafe. Rockline’s original plan was to catch U.D.O. in Memmingen, Germany, since the date fell perfectly on a day off, Friday, February 8, 2019, which is also the Slovenian national cultural holiday. Then it turned out that U.D.O. shows could be combined with shows from the current Uriah Heep tour into as many as four concert nights in a row, along the route Vienna–Prague–Hluk–Zlin, catching U.D.O. at two of those shows (Prague, Zlin).
Why Zlin too? First, because this was finally a chance to see U.D.O. as the sole headliner. Second, because we were curious what the famous Masters Of Rock Cafe actually looks like. We’ve been meaning to go there for years, but something always came up and wrecked the trip. Third, to have a word with the Slovenian metal hero Tilen Hudrap, who became a permanent member of U.D.O. last fall. Fourth, because we just really, really like it in the Czech Republic, and so on…
We missed Dead City Ruins, the Australian hard rock veterans supporting U.D.O. on the current tour, yet again. Our fondness for the Czech Republic was nearly spoiled, in fact, by the “high and mighty” and not exactly friendly PR person of the local promoter, who literally “acted” like she had no idea we were on the accredited media list. We only got through via management, because the Czechs weren’t answering our requests. We spent so long fighting for plain, normal entry to the venue (more than half an hour) that the Australian hard rockers Dead City Ruins had already finished their set by then, so hopefully we’ll catch them on stage some other time. There’s a quiet plan to see U.D.O. in Parma on April 4, 2019. We’ll see. Anyway, after a few maneuvers and some determined persistence (stubbornness pays off now and then), the two of us finally managed to break the ice and get into the venue. It was packed to the last corner. Definitely with way more tickets sold than the venue’s fire safety allows. The place is really lovely. The foyer is cozy, the walls are covered with a great gallery of the concerts that have gone down in the club’s history, and, most importantly of all, there’s a spacious bar. Then there’s the venue itself, where some 800, maybe nearly 1,000 people crammed in and gasped for air. People were packed together like matches. The result was seriously suffocating conditions that made normal breathing impossible. Oxygen was in short supply, while thick, muggy heat hung in the air. Steam. Lenses were fogging up like crazy, so the photo gear couldn’t function normally, and even the batteries wouldn’t behave as usual. Insane. Sweat was pouring off everybody in streams. The place was properly drenched and hellishly sultry. Mixed, of course, with alcohol fumes. People were walking all over each other.
The band came out professional and hit with everything they had. Even in conditions like these. No holding back. In that truly hellish atmosphere, General Udo once again showed off his strength of character and his big heart, standing his ground on stage for two hours on a injured knee and singing his lungs out. Once more his vocal performance simply stunned. The theatricality he conjures with that distinctive, unmistakable screech, and the still strikingly successful and convincing hits on the highest notes, which he nails so well with his shrieking. On top of all that, the man handles the occasional adaptation and vocal adjustment with great skill. As said, the climate definitely didn’t suit him this time, so there were a few more of those adjustments than usual. Add to that the heat radiating from the stage lights, which the great musician had to endure the whole way through. But did anything bother him in the slightest? Not for a second did he show it. He led the show in his own style, with the occasional address to the crowd, where he loves using the concise formula: “All right! Thank you Zlin!”, and preferred to focus on the performance. And that’s what really matters.
As we found out in our report on the band’s show two days earlier, when U.D.O. played Prague, Udo Dirkschneider is, after a long time, armed with a crew of nothing but young musical stallions, who aren’t just excellent, even top-notch musicians, but have also clicked together extremely well. With each other and, of course, with Udo. And you can feel it. The quintet’s stage energy is outstanding. And I’m saying that even with the tougher playing conditions U.D.O. faced in Zlin. Beside the Russian Andrey Smirnov, who has been working with Udo since the album “Steelhammer”, the other three are younger recruits. The first of them is of course Udo’s son Sven Dirkschneider, who joined U.D.O. back when the band was temporarily renamed Dirkschneider, plus two newcomers. One is the Slovenian Tilen Hudrap on bass, who replaced Fitty Weinhold, and the other is the Belgian Fabian “Dee” Dammers. With a lineup like this, Udo has gotten himself a generational garrison of musicians who can really get each other on a friendly level too, and thanks to the generation gap he can also steer and command them more easily. Udo has put together a backing band that communicates superbly, senses each other instinctively and understands each other without words. Considering that it’s relatively new, the bonds will keep growing in the future and make the crew even stronger. That’s a solid foundation for recording new albums too.
The band also put the classic Timebomb (“Timebomb”, 1991) into the Zlin set, but otherwise stuck to the repertoire we’d already enjoyed two days earlier at the Prague show. And they blew away absolutely everyone. Outstanding soloing from the phenomenal Smirnov, complemented by Dammers’ own virtues, and the quintet’s confident, incredibly self-assured and relaxed communication with each other. A wild Tilen Hudrap, who once again fired up the crowd theatrically in his address before Hungry And Angry. Insane. Hats off and full respect to this remarkable guy, who keeps all his heart, faith, dedication and sincerity, because he knows that’s the only thing that counts and the only thing that gets you anywhere.
The set list was downright fantastic. The new album was represented by five tracks. This author quietly wished for Bood On Fire too, but was still amply satisfied with: Tongue Reaper, Make the Move, Hungry And Angry, In the Heat of the Night and especially the grandiose anthem One Heart One Soul! One after another, they showed just how strong an album “Steelfactory” is. Among the other tracks, the incredible Independence Day (“Solid”, 1997) was a particular treat, along with Heart of Gold (“Faceless World”, 1990), and two excellent, calmer to mid-tempo numbers, I Give As Good As I Get (“Rev-Raptor”, 2011) and the “Animal House” (1987) classic In the Darkness. The aforementioned wrecking storm Timebomb also viciously shook the neck vertebrae of the sweaty, disheveled heads in the “squeezed” crowd, and the cheeky 24/7 (“Mission No. X”, 2007) heralded absolute debauchery soon after in the set list. Both encores also sounded and resounded wonderfully theatrical. In the first, Udo and company combined the title track of the album “Holy” (1999) with the title track of the debut “Animal House”, and the crowd kept eating out of his hand with undiminished hunger. In the second encore the band launched into the title track of the album “Man And Machine” (2002) and closed the show with a theatrical peak, playing yet another “Animal House” classic, They Want War.
What to say in closing? Not much, since the music speaks for itself. Just that a concert by the legendary U.D.O. is something any fan of the Teutonic school of German heavy metal pioneering simply has to experience. If only to pay tribute to a legend who keeps all his charisma, his contagious energy and his exceptional vocal firepower, and to salute all that defiance and uncompromising spirit, driven by his heart and dedication. Through the years. Through a gigantic five decades of musical sacrifice and commitment.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Tongue Reaper
2. Make the Move
3. 24/7
4. Mastercutor
5. A Cry of a Nation
6. Metal Machine
7. Independence Day
8. In the Heat of the Night
9. Vendetta
10. Rising High
11. In the Darkness
12. I Give as Good as I Get
13. Timebomb
14. Hungry and Angry
15. Heart of Gold
16. One Heart One Soul
—encore I—
17. Holy
18. Animal House
—encore II—
19. Man and Machine
20. They Want War
