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U.D.O.: Decadent
UDO - Decadent CD Album Review

U.D.O.: Decadent

Melodic/Heavy/Speed Metal
3.5/5.0

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AFM Records
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 15.01.2015

The ever prolific and legendary heavy metal vocalist Udo Dirkschneider returns with his fifteenth U.D.O. album, Decadent. If you're guessing from the title that there might be some meaning here, there is. Udo takes the role of social critic, saying, "Decadent behavior by privileged society exists in the whole world in completely different shades. Decadence is almost like a universal language. What bothers me the most is the egocentrism that goes along with that. People who have everything seem not to really care about the world around them anymore; it’s like they use their own privileged status as an absolution for that. Also they do not seem to see that there’s a correlation between their own luxury and the poverty of others." Whoa. And you thought most heavy metal dudes were ignorant intellectual midgets.

Udo Dirkschneider Photo

Udo Dirkschneider and band

How this all plays out on the album is quite relative or unknown. Since I received a digital promo, no lyrics were provided. Therefore, I can't say how many songs explore Udo's social criticism, and then how wise and fairly he speaks to the problem. What I can say is that, musically, the ideas play out in the usual Udo way: classic 'true' metal, heavy, melodic and often speedy. Big riffs as usual, and generous guitar leads abound. Catchy refrains also. And then there's Udo's vocal presence: gruff and leathery, melodic and always bordering upon being unintelligible. Although he's better heard in the songs with a big groove and zippy chorus like Pain or Untouchable. Then there's more presence in the ballad Secrets In Paradise and the longer anthem, with a symphonic touch, Words In Flame which closes the album. Basically, Decadent is Udo being U.D.O. once more, delivering 'true' classic melodic heavy metal, and after 40 years in the metal biz, he usually gets it right.

U.D.O. - Decadent (2014) // official clip // AFM Records


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In Short

Basically, Decadent is Udo Dirkschneider being U.D.O. once more, delivering 'true' classic melodic heavy metal, and after 40 years in the metal biz, he usually gets it right.

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