Following Udo Dirkschneider's departure from the legendary Accept in 1987, he formed his own band called U.D.O.. On November 3, 1987 U.D.O. released their first album Animal House. They release other 3 albums before going into a hiatus and reuniting for the album Solid in 1997. Since then U.D.O. has been very productive, albeit too many lineup changes to count, and released 11 albums in 20 years. Regardless of changes, the band has never deviated from Dirkschneider’s vision of serving up traditional balls-to-the-wall, no-nonsense heavy metal. I personally have always seen U.D.O. as a "best of" band. I don't find any particular album to be a one cohesive and excellent collection of songs. But most of their albums do feature some very good metal tracks and their setlists live are always very nice. With that said, I'd probably highlight the debut Animal House and 1999's Holy.
In 2020 U.D.O. brings a special seventeenth album We Are One which is a joint effort of U.D.O. and Das Musikkorps der Bundeswehr ( music corps of the German Armed Forces). It also features a reunion between Udo Dirkschneider, and Accept alumni Stefan Kaufmann and Peter Baltes. The three of them were together during the golden years of Accept (79-87). We Are One contains 15 new songs that have been developed and arranged by U.D.O. together with Christoph Scheibling. The two former Accept musicians have been part of the songwriting too – as well as the German Armed Forces’ composers Guido Rennert and Alexander Reuber. The album is a dream that Dirkschneider has had for a long time. Since the show with Das Musikkorps der Bundeswehr in Wacken (2015) as well as the "Navy Metal Night" in Tuttlingen (2014), he fervently wanted to continue and grow the collaboration. Now please note that this is a different concept than the recent Blind Guardian orchestral album, Legacy of the Dark Lands. The 2019 album was fully orchestrated without any guitars. Dirkschneider opted for proper metal/rock songs with a full band and the a 60 piece orchestra and choir arrangements are combined with the band throughout the album. The production and mix are well done as the band can be heard and it’s not too bombastic.
The first four songs on the album, despite some cheesy moments, are pretty much U.D.O. as we love it plus the orchestra. In the middle of the album there's a buried jewel "Rebel Town" and "We Strike Back" brings back the heavy metal and also the instrumental songs are quite nice and are basically film scores. Despite the good songs and my appreciation for such a nice risk taking grandiose project, I have several issues with the album. For example, during the the title track I keep waiting for Stevie Wonder to come in and sing 'We Are the World, We are the Children'. Then, despite the cool saxophone intro on "Neon Diamond" and the guitar solo, the song is too much AOR for me, same for "Mother Earth". "Blindfold (The Last Defender)" could be part of the Titanic soundtrack. "Here We Go Again" is like a ska punk song? Not sure what's going on there but not my cup of tea.
"We all live on this planet. No matter who we are or what we do, we all just have this one planet," Udo Dirkschneider explains about the message behind the songs. Therefore, the songs on We Are One are about the different challenges we are currently facing, climate change and the worldwide refugee movements for example. But in the end it all sounds corny, it's borderline a Christian rock album.
There are nine very good songs on We Are One that would stack up against any U.D.O. album with the extra spice of the orchestra. Those songs amount to 45 minutes which would've made it a very strong album. But as a whole going through 75 min with AOR and pop moments with corny lyrics becomes a bit too much for me. I do appreciate the ambition of the project and there's value in it, so pick your favorite songs and enrich your U.D.O. playlist.
SCORE: 77/100
Genre: Heavy Metal
Released by AFM Records GmbH on July 17th, 2020
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Rating System*
99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad
* slightly adapted on May 24th, 2020 due to statistical review
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