U.D.O. – Live From Russia

I can’t say I believe Udo Dirkschneider and his doctor are true friends. As far as I know, at least it still sounds like it, the man smokes like a freight train, and he still works hard after all these years. Give Udo a stage and a couple of headbangers, and he’s up there. So, here’s a double live album recorded while touring the great Russian continent. 25 songs from the catalogs of U.D.O. and Accept can’t do much wrong. Also, this time producer and guitar player Stefan Kaufmann found out that takes from different gigs can be mixed together to make the whole thing sound like one concert, not like the irritating last Accept live CD.

The CD sounds good, the band is on top of it as well, though hearing Accept classics without the mighty Baltes and Hoffman always will be strange. Speaking of Accept classics, I’ll give Udo lots of credit for picking songs that didn’t make the live albums released by the German legend. You would expect the usual Accept songs, that you’ve heard live a thousand times before, but no way: Here’s “Monsterman”, “Heaven Is Hell” and “Winter Dreams”, as well as other more forgotten jewels. So overall, this is a good live album with lots of relevant material.