U.D.O. – Man And Machine

YEAH! Udo Dirkschneider continues not only to live on his legacy from Accept, but this time he really lives up to it! “Man And Machine” is indeed his best solo release since the very first one back in 1987, “Animal House”. Or is this a solo project? I wouldn’t bet money on that as his old band mate Stefan Kaufmann is in the band. Therefore, I don’t think it’s right to call it a solo carrier. Whatever it is, Germany’s heavy metal icon presents melodies and fist pounding music only he can come up with. A couple of the songs could might as well be old Accept leftovers from their most successful era, and you’ll smile until your upper head falls off when “Hard To Be Honest” comes out of your speakers.

The title track is such an incredibly strong melody, the duet ballad with Doro Pesch is beautiful, and it goes on and on. I never gave up hope in U.D.O., but I must admit that I never thought the guys had this much more in them for the metal fans. The CD is very well produced, thanks to Stefan of course, and I find myself hitting the repeat button all the time. Man or machine, I have no idea what Udo is. But he’s The Man in German metal (not talking about all that speed metal of course), and his machine part spits out killer songs on this release. Along with the very good live record “Live In Russia”, that came out last year, U.D.O. shows that heavy metal can not and will never be kept down. Udo for the Rock’n Roll Hall Of Fame!!!