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U.D.O. - Thunderball


*
=Staff's pick

Thunderball*
The Arbiter
Pull The Trigger*
Fistful Of Anger*
The Land Of The Midnight Sun
Hell Bites Back*
Trainride In Russia (Poezd Po Rossii)*
The Bullet And The Bomb
The Magic Mirror*
Tough Luck II
Blind Eyes


Genre Heavy Metal
Udo Dirkschneider
Vocals
Tracks 11
Stefan Kaufmann
Guitar
Runningtime 53 Min.
Igor Gianola
Guitar
Label AFM Records
Fitty Weinhold
Bass
Release 29 March 2004
Lorenzo Milani
Drums
Country Germany
-
Keyboards
Similar artists ---

U.D.O. are back with another effort. The mighty metal machine rolls on.....No further explanation required. It all continues in the same, undisputible style as before, and this time they have managed to make an outstanding album with very few, if any weak parts.

Without further ado, this is an overview of the material: It opens with the titletrack Thunderball, which is a fast and aggressive hammerblow which sounds like taken directly from the lost tapes of the recordings of Timebomb. A perfect opener with a great, distinct chorus, and already here you start to realize what this album will sound like. The Arbiter that follows is a bit slower, but on the other hand very heavy with a fat, slow grinding riff that can be described as a breed from the Deathrow-era. Very good. An overall feeling of Accept in their prime time is in fact present, perhaps more than on the past releases, while listening to this album.

Already by the time the opening riff for the next piece has warmed us up, and Udo makes way for the verse by commanding "Fire Your Guns!" you are sold. A great, groovy riff builds up to a great song with a nice, old Accept smelling tune. The pace so far has been high, above midtempo, and very "thick" and they have no intensions of slowing down yet. Fistful Of Anger is another one with a good groove and a killer chorus with massive choirs is over us almost right away.

Next out is The Land Of The Midnight Sun, and here the tempo is being brought down slightly. Built up like one of the classic, majestic hymns it brings us through good clean vocals accompained by a pumping, galopping riff, over a good bridge up to an extremely catchy refrain with major singalong potential. Hell Bites Back.....well - what can come out of a title like that? Exactly - a fast, straight forward tune with a kick in your face chorus. Again, back to Timebomb and it oozes joy for playing metal from the boys. Then for the most on forehand discussed and debated song: Trainride In Russia. Starting with accordion and with Udo backed by a choir singing in russian, it builds up to a complete russian polka/tango with lyrics about people, travels and the landscape of the country in question. It works. It works damn fine, and the chorus is catchy and sticks and they somehow manage to make this song into something very metal so you just have to love it. A future livekiller, mark my words.

The Bullet And The Bomb goes in the veins of Deathrow again with a groovy, grinding riff that perhaps are among the most anonymous ones on the album. A weird solo drags down the impression a slight bit, but the chorus is impeccable. A classic and distinct Dirkscneider/Kaufmann refrain - heavy as few. In The Magic Mirror we again get clean vocals by Udo, which leads us up to one of the catchiest refrains they have composed up 'til now, and is my pick for favourite on this album. There is a a clear smell over how some of the midtempo songs on the No Limits album sound over this one. Strong choirs and the singalong factor is reaching full scale. Tough Luck II is perhaps the one song that does not have much that stand out. A decent riff that could belong somewhere on Holy, and an average refrain. Good, not more, and only saved by the fact that U.D.O's lowest level are amazingly high.

The closing effort Blind Eyes is a worthy closer that rounds everything off with a great chorus in the veins of Azrael and similar semi power ballads. I don't like to mention that word, but it's hard to describe it otherwise. Imagine a mixture of Azrael, The Healer, Winter Dreams with a bit more groove and a bit fatter guitarwork. This is overall a bit more "juicy" productionwise than the 2-3 previous releaseses, and it sparkles a bit with a newfound energy from the guys. They really want to deliver a power package of pure metal, and they succed. It does not feel "placed" for the sake of creating a selling album, commercial or anything like that - it's just great, fat metal from the heart. They are still up there at the top - fighting with the utter elite. Refraining from buying this one is not an option.

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

Production
Vocals
Compositions

8

9

8,5

 
Summary



8,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy

Related links:

www.udo-online.de