Artist: U.D.O.
Title: Celebrator
Genre: Heavy Metal
Release Date: 4th May 2012
Label: AFM Records
Album Review
After Udo Dirkschneider left the German Heavy Metal band ACCEPT in 1987, he founded his own band - adequately entitled U.D.O.. Accompanied by a changing line-up of musicians and with a little return to ACCEPT, he recorded his own albums over the years, such as ‘Mean Machine’ (1988), ‘Timebomb’ (1991) or the most recent ‘Rev-Raptor’. The driving force behind the music is unmistakably Udo’s very unique and outstanding voice. As a celebration for the band’s 25th anniversary, ‘Celebrator’ puts out previously unreleased material as well as B-Side-songs together on a two disc compilation. As always, compilations or collections are a two-sided medal. On the one hand, they provide die-hard fans the opportunity of acquiring further, unknown songs and thus completing their discographies. On the other hand, many tracks are often not exactly new or innovative and therefore, the CDs tend to sound desultory.
‘Celebrator’ offers a lot of remixes from classical U.D.O. songs, like of ‘Tallyman’, ‘Bodyworld’ or ‘Streets Of Sin’. Those remixes merely give the songs a more modern touch but do not change the overall character. The ACCEPT classic ‘Head Over Heels’ has been reassembled featuring HAMMERFALL; this collaboration works very well, whereas the cover of LORDI’s song ‘They Only Come Out At Night’ (featuring LORDI) appears rather strange at first and only makes sense after several times of listening. Classical roots have neither been neglected, another Accept-classic ‘Balls To The Wall’ has been re-organized to a piano version. This song probably sticks out the most, since the opposition of rough lyrics and soft piano tunes poses an interesting contrast. Steppenwolf’s well-known hymn ‘Born To Be Wild’ ends the second disc of the compilation and offers another relevant song. In general, ‘Celebrator’ has some good moments, but the collection is only suited for die-hard U.D.O. fans, since most of the songs can be found elsewhere or is simply not of so great importance.
Tracklist
|
CD 1 |
CD 2 |
Line-up
Udo Dirkschneider – Vocals
Igor Gianola – Guitar
Stefan Kaufmann – Guitar
Fitty Wienhold – Bass
Francesco Jovino – Drums
Website
www.udo-online.de
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 5
Sound: 8
Extras: -
Total: 6.5 / 10
Comments powered by CComment