{"id":93328,"date":"2022-04-22T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T23:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=93328"},"modified":"2022-05-02T13:28:50","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T12:28:50","slug":"album-review-udo-dirkschneider-my-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-udo-dirkschneider-my-way\/","title":{"rendered":"UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER – My Way (2022) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER
My Way<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nAtomic Fire (2022)<\/span>
Rating: 4\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Okay, let\u2019s get this straight \u2013 I\u2019m not a big fan of cover versions let alone albums wholly dedicated to them. My Way<\/em> is legendary heavy metal veteran Udo Dirkschneider (U.D.O. \/ ex-Accept) putting his own stamp on some classic tunes, but it just doesn\u2019t sit right with me.<\/p>\n

Backed by son Sven who handles drums, guitarists Stefan Kauffman (U.D.O.) and Peter Koobs, and bassist Peter Baltes (ex-Accept) \u2013 who do more than their job is worth at dragging these songs into some sort of credible realm \u2013 Dirkschneider attempts to apply his inimitable tone to Frank Sinatra\u2019s \u2018My Way\u2019 and fails miserably, and it hurts so much to say so.<\/p>\n

And you can take your pick of numerous other dire rehashes throughout this 17-song effort, such as The Rolling Stones\u2019 \u2018Paint It Black\u2019, Tina Turner\u2019s \u2018They Call It Nutbush\u2019 \u2013 complete with cheesy horns \u2013 and the cringe stomp of The Sweet\u2019s \u2018Hell Raiser\u2019.<\/p>\n

I understand as to why Udo has tried to be versatile here, and at times his coverage is decent, especially with the more predictable hard rock and metal numbers such as Mot\u00f6rhead\u2019s \u2018No Class\u2019 \u2013 although the vocals here seem a real struggle for the German warbler.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Dirkschneider fares much better with Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u2018Rock And Roll\u2019, bolstered by the work of his band. AC\/DC\u2019s \u2018T.N.T.\u2019 is also suitably raucous, as is Judas Priest\u2019s \u2018Hell Bent For Leather\u2019. But I\u2019d expect Udo to be able to slip into these modes with ease.<\/p>\n

Although Udo\u2019s band is more than competent with every track, the more fiery numbers are a tad tepid musically. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band\u2019s \u2018Faith Healer\u2019 is competent in its plodding, and Arthur Brown\u2019s \u2018Fire\u2019 just does enough musically but not vocally, as does Uriah Heep\u2019s \u2018Sympathy\u2019. But for a guy whose vocals have been an acquired taste for me for years, they really do seem unfit and uncomfortable with such a record\u2026 even if all done for fun.<\/p>\n

Rainbow\u2019s \u2018Man On Silver Mountain\u2019 lacks the power and feels like a pub rock jam, while Billy Squier\u2019s \u2018The Stroke\u2019 is just an average romp. By contrast, the rendition of the Scorpions\u2019 \u2018He\u2019s A Woman, She\u2019s a Man\u2019 really does do it justice, the combo rattling hard and fast.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately even the solid cover of Frankie Miller\u2019s \u2018Jealousy\u2019 fails to fully stir the soul, and Queen\u2019s \u2018We Will Rock You\u2019 is just a version I\u2019d rather not even talk about\u2026 it\u2019s that bad.<\/p>\n

The reality is, what My Way<\/em> does is showcase a vocal style that is now worn and tired, battered by years of metallic yelps and fireball wails. That\u2019s not to say that Udo Dirkschneider doesn\u2019t still have the vim, but maybe this record, for all the fun that was probably had in making it, just wasn\u2019t a good idea.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UDO DIRKSCHNEIDERMy Way Atomic Fire (2022)Rating: 4\/10 Okay, let\u2019s get this straight \u2013 I\u2019m not a big fan of cover versions let alone albums wholly dedicated to them. My Way is legendary heavy metal veteran Udo Dirkschneider (U.D.O. \/ ex-Accept) putting his own stamp on some classic tunes, but it just doesn\u2019t sit right with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4775],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-udo-dirkschneider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93329,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93328\/revisions\/93329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}