U.D.O. – Dominator

It is never enough with the grandmaster guru of German Heavy Metal, Udo Dirkschneider; he is just on full auto when it comes to releasing albums. Since 2000, the guy has released seven albums out of his total of twelve. This is what is called a non-stop Metal man. Dominator is Udo’s latest bombardment of the undying Accept heritage that inspired the majority of Germanic Heavy Metal. Get ready for another punch in the face from the awesome German heavy weight headbanger.

Udo, ever since he started his solo career back in 1987, kept the sound and production of Accept yet with additional spikes of utter heaviness. Dominator as well as Mission X and Mastercutor became a lot dirtier, in production terms, and even more heavier than previous great albums such as Animal House, Holy and Faceless World.

Taken as a whole, Dominator is a strong U.D.O. release, however it’s rather regular like all of Udo’s creations in the past few years. The only small technical error is in the mastering. There are a few solo sections in which it is rather difficult to differentiate the sound because the rhythm guitar is just choking the higher endnotes. Do not get it wrong, Dominator is a good album and even better than Mastercutor as far as the material goes. All the same, there is nothing that can elevate the album above the “good” grade.

Animal House was a great offshoot of Accept back in the day when Udo left the band. You can say it was an alternative to the Eat The Heat album that came out 2 years later with an unusual Accept approach. Animal House is Udo’s best work of all time because he gave his material a more powerful sound under the Accept basis. If you compare Dominator, and don’t include the Hard Rock / Glamish stop of Faceless World, to the former you will see that it gets even more intense. Yet, it seems that Udo didn’t come to astound anyone, he just came to do what he does at all times with the same aim of making another Heavy Metal album based on his past success with Accept.

Within Dominator you will notice that Udo hadn’t lost his feel when it comes to writing big-time Metal anthems such as “Heavy Metal Heaven”, a track which can be considered on the same line as the old Judas Priest anthem of “United”, and “Stillness Of Time,” which is another great track that mixes Udo’s great anthem writing with a semi-ballad.

Looking through the other tracks, you will find the traditional Udo tracks with a full blown dose of Accept characteristics. When it comes to the riffs, solos and even the slight touch of the keys, it would raise the same question once again, why do the same thing under a different banner, why can’t Udo reunite with his old gang?

Tracks as “Dominator”, “The Bogeyman”, “Infected”, “Doom Ride” and “Black And White” can easily become Accept tunes on both their spirit and their feel. Only time will tell if the great Udo will come to a decision to rejoin Accept once again as he did for a couple of shows four years ago, their just too much alike as different acts.

To summarize it up, Dominator turned out to be a good album, however there is nothing here that you didn’t already hear from this great German shriek master. In years to come, you can presume that nothing will change in Udo’s music writing, yet it’s not such a bad thing, who knows maybe he will join Accept again. Be sure to hear about a new album coming up in one and half or two years from now because as said before, this guy is a non-stop Metal man.