Initial Analysis: U.D.O., "Touchdown"
The Teutonic legend (and his son) livens things up a bit
Released: August 25, Atomic Fire
“Acting like a fool won’t make you cool!”
Ever since returning to active duty in 1997, the Udo Dirkschneider Organization has made a point of efficiently delivering new releases with the same basic sonic template no matter who else plays alongside the group’s namesake frontman. But the staggering volume of albums U.D.O. has put out since Solid not only garnered increasingly diminishing returns, but eventually became mostly pointless exercises in keeping the group on the road playing gigs (usually somewhere in Eastern Europe). And what went unspoken, though it was very much in the ether, was that his former bandmates in Accept had accomplished the impossible and not only resurrected the brand without him, but were thriving and even achieving greater levels of popularity than during their glory years. Indeed, for many years it felt like Udo was mostly living in a bubble of his making, picking up new members (including his own son) as the need arose and only really acknowledging Accept by intermittently taking the U.D.O. band out under the Dirkschneider banner and performing setlists only containing material from his former band.
But with the recent past as prologue, Touchdown actually introduces some new wrinkles to the formula. Although the title and artwork are as nonsensical and ridiculous as ever (Udo Dirkschneider screeching about the glory of American football????!!!), there are a couple noteworthy considerations at play here: for one, with the surprise recruitment of Peter Baltes on bass, U.D.O. now has more classic lineup Accept members than the iteration recording and touring under the name, and neither Dirkschneider nor Baltes have been shy about expressing ill will towards Wolf Hoffmann, signaling a greater sense of purpose this time around. For the first time in a long time- possibly ever- Udo Dirkschneider indicated he was ready to compete.
More than that, while there wasn’t that long a gap between U.D.O.’s 18th(!!) album and the preceding Game Over, Touchdown plays like the band’s pandemic record, from the on-the-nose opener “Isolation Man” to the increased aggression throughout. Andrey Smirnov and Dee Dammers sound more cohesive as a guitar tandem (somewhat surprising, what with the aforementioned isolation and such), and the writing (mostly by Smirnov, Udo and Sven Dirkschneider, with Dammers contributing to a handful of tracks) is more focused than usual for the very prolific act. Although Game Over came out in 2021, this one has the sound and feel of a band ready to come back and hit the stage with renewed vigor.
As a result, Touchdown is that rarest of things: an U.D.O. album that doesn’t feel completely pointless. This sense of purpose carries over to storming tracks like the aforementioned “Isolation Man” and especially “The Betrayer”, one of the most thundering Dirkschneider tracks in years if not decades. Of course this is still U.D.O., so there is no small amount of absurdity, from Udo’s garbled broken English and trying to turn every chorus into a gang chant (see the above quote from “Punchline”), but as was always the case with Dirkshneider, the absurdity isn’t beside the point, it’s part of the point. So what really matters isn’t the clunkiness of the words or the belief that any line can be an anthem if the words are shouted by several guys at the same time, but rather the conviction with which those clunky lines are shouted by these dudes, and on that level Touchdown delivers much more often than usual, to the point where the sheer ludicrousness of the title track gets washed away by the enthusiasm of everyone involved, becoming a late-career winner and something sure to draw hollers from Eastern European concertgoers.
But precisely because this is U.D.O., the winners are counterbalanced by occasionally rote riffing and writing, as well as an unfortunate ballad or two. Thankfully the latter is kept to a minimum here, but arguably the biggest miss on Touchdown is directly related to one of its biggest plusses: Peter Baltes was a key member of Accept for decades not only because of his steadiness on the bass, but also because he played a crucial role in the songwriting process. But here he is strictly a 4-stringer, whereas his skills as a composer could’ve helped shore some of these tracks up.
In the end, although Touchdown is in many ways just another U.D.O. album among many, in its best moments there is a spark that reminds us of how entertaining Udo Dirkschneider can be when he puts in some effort.
Rating: 3.5/5
