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U.D.O. - Rev-Raptor

Published May 18 2011


*
=Staff's pick

Rev-Raptor*
Leatherhead
Renegade
I Give As Good As I Get
Dr. Death
Rock'n'Roll Soldiers
Terrorvision
Underworld
Pain Man
Fairy Tales Of Victory
Motor-Borg*
True Born Winners*
Days Of Hope And Glory


Genre Heavy Metal
Udo Dirkschneider
Vocals
Tracks 13
Stefan Kaufmann
Guitar
Runningtime 51 Min.
Igor Gianola
Guitar
Label AFM Records
Fitty Wienhold
Bass
Release 20 May 2011
Francesco Jovino
Drums
Country Germany
-
Keyboard
Producer Stefan Kaufmann
Similar artists ---

To me, U.D.O. is the embodiment of heavy metal and they have not failed to please me once during the course of their discography, except for the pretty lame album Mission No. X. Unfortunately, they now manage to do it again with their 13th full length album Rev-Raptor.

It opens with a classic type of U.D.O. song; up-tempo with a distinct and effective chorus and it's a good and familiar start. After this follows the previously released single track Leatherhead which I, when I first heard it, got bad vibes from since it sounded really lame, riff- as well as chorus wise, and it's actually one of their worst creations in many years. After that they pick up the speed again with Renegade. Good flow and good pace, but somehow a bit too anonymous and weak and does not spark much interest. It's frustrating, because you want it to do that, but it never happens.

By this time we have reached the mandatory ballad. We know the drill with those by now; acoustic and dreamlike guitars, a melancholic guitar lead floating over a sentimental sounding choir. These songs are almost always good coming from U.D.O., but this one is one of the weakest they have done.

Dr. Death and Rock'n'Roll Soldiers are standard cuts with standard riffs, partly enjoyable but the chorus kills the song in each case. I assume that Rock'n'Roll Soldiers is supposed to be another one of those metal hymns, where the music and the metal lifestyle is praised, and I am all in favour of those but this is lacking too much balls to spark any rebellious emotions.

This far into the album there is a strong feeling of lack of inspiration, and I am quite frankly bored and as much as I love U.D.O., I am twisting a little awkwardly in my chair over this. That is something that has hardly happened when listening to a U.D.O. album in the past. Running on autopilot is a fitting description.

After this there is a long block of songs that don't reach anywhere (Terrorvision, Underworld, Pain Man, Fairy Tales Of Victory) and very few memorable riffs or choruses can be heard, even though Underworld has a very nice chorus which they should have based the song more around. Pain Man is just below their dignity to release on an album.

But suddenly a great cut appears in form of Motor-Borg. Fast paced with good melodies and similar in structure to the great Speed Demon from the previous album Dominator, and this is really the only great track on this album from start to finish, with strong competition from the opening song Rev-Raptor. The next song True Born Winners has a great and catchy chorus and here the album surprisingly picks up a bit again. Days Of Hope And Glory rounds it off in a good way, being a good slow cut with a strong and yet again catchy chorus as they should sound coming from U.D.O. But alas, it is too late since the whole album has been a long transport up to this point.

I have, unlike many people as I understand it, liked the past years production quite a lot, and here it is still good but it's very dry and the guitars, admittedly, are too much compressed this time. It's not as warm, thick and dark as I found it to be on Dominator, but instead more as on for example Mastercutor, only a bit edgeless in comparison.

I can stretch it to saying that this is a decent effort. Not completely crap, but it's definitely an album way below their average level with very few highlights and too much standard elements. If you were one of those that thought that Dominator was a disappointment, you will most likely like this album even less.

See also review of: Decadent , Steelhammer , Live In Sofia , Celebrator , Dominator , Infected , Mastercutor , Mission No. X , Thunderball , Man And Machine , Live From Russia , Timebomb , Nailed To Metal

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

7

8

7

8

4

 
Summary



4 chalices of 10 - Tommy


Related links:

www.udo-online.de
www.myspace.com/udoonline