Following the release of the ‘Infected’ EP last month, UDO are set to unleash their full album upon the metal community. Well respected for being at the forefront of German, and heavy metal in general, is this album what you would come to expect? Damn right, pure unadulterated proper metal.
The aforementioned EP was a good taster, but does not tell the whole story of UDO in 2009. The band continues to lay down traditional influences and attain their status know by many as the German Judas Priest, but it would be unfair to label them as merely copy cats. Ok, the songs are not that original, but it the arrangement and melody that carries your attention forward from the ghostly synth start of ‘Bogeyman’ to the end of the album when it will make you immediately play it all over again. The albums title track has quite an infectious melody during the bridge to the chorus with a palm muted chug-a-thon on the guitars to make it all more metal, however, there does seem to be a high percentage of synth parts on this album. They are merely there for sound effects and atmosphere, thankfully not like Nightwish or anything like that.
The album is mixed well; every instrument can be heard, in quite a “loud” recording. The band manages to provide a crowd chanting song in ‘Black & White’, but that’s about all it has to offer. It is too slow, but having said that the twin guitar fills are nice and give the track some more substance. The chanting and cheese continues with ‘Heavy Metal Heaven’ which ambles along at the same tempo as Manowar’s ‘Warriors of the World’ and has that same kind of anthem feel, although I do find myself wanting more. Again, the guitar harmonies boost this track. So later on the album, things begin to sort the men from the boys; we get much more upbeat and more proper metal and the anthems come without trying for them. Perfect examples include ‘Doom Ride’ and ‘Stillness of time’. The latter of these tracks lean heavily towards the classic epic metal of Queensryche and Savatage. The disc is full of metal tunes, there are a couple of filler tracks in ‘Devils Rendezvous’ and ‘Whispers in the Dark’ (for which the style does not suit UDO’s voice for me), but on the whole it’s a consistent release. I would have liked to have seen ‘Bodyworld’ on the album, that is a killer tune, but you will have to buy the ‘Infected’ EP to hear that one!
You cannot really expect anything different; you know what you’re going to get with UDO, straight out metal, powerful vocals, strong headbanging arrangements and guitarists of the highest calibre.
http://www.myspace.com/udoonline
http://www.udo-online.de/
http://www.afm-records.de
