U.D.O. - Live From Russia

*=Staff's pick	CD 1 Holy Raiders of Beyond Midnight Mover Independence Day Metal Eater* Protectors of Terror Animal House Turn Me On Drum Solo T.V. War No Limits Run If You Can Winter Dreams In The Darkness*	CD 2 Like A Loaded Gun Recall the Sin* Break the Rules Midnight Highway Heaven Is Hell Monster Man Living on a Frontline* Heart Of Gold Shout It Out Cut Me Out I'm A Rebel They Want War*

Genre	Heavy Metal	Udo Dirkschneider	Vocals
Tracks	26 (2 CD)	Igor Gianola	Guitar
Runningtime	133 Min.	Stefan Kaufmann	Guitar
Label	GUN Records	Fitty Wienhold	Bass
Release	10 Sep. 2001	Lorenzo Milani	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Accept, Vanize

This is the first livealbum released under the name U.D.O, and it's good - this is really good! The tiny german man that seems to have eaten barbwire for breakfast for the past 20 years & company do it again! Releasing an album that oozes pure metal and find it's way in to the very bones of your body. I guess there is no real need to go further in to what these guys have acheived in various formations earlier in the late 80's and the 90's - if you are not familiar with Mr. Udo's previous work, I strongly doubt that you have much business on this site. But regardless of what ever they have done before and keep doing - they do it better than anyone else.

This is an album that should really please both the people that think that Accept was the best there ever were and that it faded away with the change into the still going U.D.O. project, and those (including me) who think that we probably haven't yet seen the top of what Kaufmann & Dirkschneider can achieve. I think it has gone straight upwards the past 10 years, both when it comes to melodies, refrains, sound, and the overall powerfulness.

There is an excellent mixture of the best and the rare from both the Accept-era, and the current U.D.O.-period on this album. It is an act of genius and consideration towards the fans to bring songs like Midnight Mover, In the Darkness, Heart of Gold, They Want War and Monster Man on the album. These are songs that are hardly beeing played live nowdays, and are not previously released any livealbum either - and here they deliver these classics with seldom heard energy and pondus. This is straight in-your-face metal played with honesty straight from the heart.

Although I must take a hesitating position towards one thing in this release: the sound. I find it a little bit - not bad, really - but....thin, light and not so clear and powerful as you might have wished. I find it perculiar that U.D.O, that has the ability, knowledge and equipment within their circle of musicians to produce such wellsounding cd's as they always do, are not able to come up with better than this. If you listen to the other livecd's that are released today, this is quite a bit below average, but - perhaps we are just very spoiled nowadays? 6-7 years ago I would have been satisfied. But one thing, Udo: a drumsolo? on a live cd? Is that really necessary....? I have a few drummer friends, and I have never heard that even them are especially interested in seeing or hearing such stuff - and absolutely not on a cd.

To round it off: This is a killercd - you know what are about to hear when you buy an U.D.O album - live or regular - and this is no exception. This is indeed a really good one, both because of the repertoar and also due to the feeling of pure metal Mr. Dirkschnieder manages to deliver from the first second until the last. The question is if we have ever been given this much Metal for our money before, if you divide the cd cost with the quantity/quality. I doubt that. Noone on earth can possibly be more Metal than Udo Dirkscheider. I just have to make this final statement: Amazingly enough Udo sings better and better for every year that passes - may he live forever!

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	9,5	10

Summary
9 chalices of 10 - Tommy