U.D.O. - Infected

Published June 18 2009

*=Staff's pick	Infected Systematic Madness Bodyworld* Platchet Soldat (remix) Poezd Po Rossii (live)

Genre	Heavy Metal	Udo Dirkschneider	Vocals
Tracks	5	Stefan Kaufmann	Guitar
Runningtime	24 Min.	Igor Gianola	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Fitty Wienhold	Bass
Release	26 June 2009	Francesco Jovino	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboard
Similar artists	---

Later this year, in August, U.D.O. will release their new full length album called Dominator, and true to their tradition they give us a little taster prior to that. Infected is the only forthcoming album track, and in addition we get two non-album tracks, one sort of remix and one live track.

It opens with Infected and this is a good, familiar and standard U.D.O. song. Relatively fast, pretty catchy and the most melodic one here. The chorus gives a slight nod to the classic, and to this day their most catchy, Faceless World album (1990). A logical and good continuation of the previous Mastercutor album.

After this follow two more heavy and grinding tracks, Systematic Madness and Bodyworld, which both rely heavy on the riffs that carry the songs forward. It's even close to being Rammstein-like in Bodyworld, and I really like it in combination with the melodic parts. I certainly hope, riff-wise, that the upcoming album will contain songs of this massive caliber.

As the years have passed, U.D.O. have started to write more simple and monotonous refrains, and the same goes for the ones on this release and it does not really reach all the way at any point here, but luckily Infected has the best one which is a bit comforting. Up to this point, the album Thunderball (2004) comes to mind several times, both when it comes to sound and song writing, but with a slightly fresher and hungrier tone to it mixed with the best from Mastercutor.

Being apparant fans of all things russian lately, U.D.O. round off with two tracks touching the subject. Platchet Soldat is said to be a remix, but of what I am not sure. It does not sound like anything I have heard from them before, except for the chorus which is almost a carbon copy of the song The Dawn Of The Gods from the album Man And Machine (2002). The rest of the song is however more laidback and slow, and is one of those half-power ballads from the band, and it also contains violin if I am not mistaken.

Poezd Po Rossii is a song from the mentioned Thunderball album which I have always thought is great, and here we get it in a decent live version from Moscow 2008, although nothing special.

By all standards a quality release from U.D.O., and if this overall is representative for how it will sound later this year, I can assure you they will add yet another great album to their discography. If you are a die-hard fan, be sure to try to get your hands on this release fast, preferably by pre-ordering, because it will be released in a strictly limited amount of 2.222 copies world wide.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7,5	7	8	8,5	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tommy