Dirkschneider: Live – Back To The Roots (2016)
The reasons why the band U.D.O. in 2016 was performing under the name Dirkschneider, are well known. With all of his virtues and even the similarity of vocals, the current vocalist of Accept Mike Tornillo still sings old songs in his own way, and not enyone likes it. That’s why a lot of fans of heavy music decided to go to the concerts and hear the good old-fashioned songs of the legendary band Accept played by the original vocalist for the last time. 2-CD “Live – Back to the Roots” was a good gift not only for those who could not see Dirkschneider live performance for some reasons, but also for those who had visited it. The concert was recorded on April 2, 2016, when the band performed in the German town of Memmingen. In recent years, the lineup of the Dirkschneider has changed dramatically and, in addition to bassist Fitty Wienhold (1996), guitarists Andrey Smirnov and Kasperi Heikkinen are playing in the band, and son of Udo, Sven, was the new drummer. And fresh blood has a positive impact on the U.D.O. albums, and in theory it was supposed to affect the performances. But in fact, it isn’t always that simple. The release leaves a somewhat mixed impression. Firstly, the first songs gave the impression that the musicians played slowly and to give Udo the opportunity to sing, taking his time. But such songs sounded not so convincing as they supposed to be. And Dirkschneider himself sang at first not so confidently, but then he demonstrates all the possibilities of his vocals. However, after Udo’s voice, the musicians also began to play faster, and by the middle of the show the songs sounded very vigorous. Secondly, the songs were performed only from the albums of 1980-1986. Yes, to releases reunited for the first time Accept does not all have an unambiguous attitude, but in “Objection Overrulled” is rather worthy of attention. Yes, and U.D.O. performed in their time a number of songs from this period. But otherwise there are no special complaints and listening to most of the concert and those old-fashioned and favorite songs were very nice.
After a two-minute intro the show starts with “Starlight”, a song performed slowly and gloomily. The song “Flash Rockin ‘Man” sounds good, it was originally gloomy and heavy. “Midnight Mover” is one of the really hits of Accept, it turned out to be powerful. In general, “Live: Back to the Roots” both fans of Accept and Udo Dirkschneider will like this release. But competitors do not sleep, and Accept already presented their live release at the beginning of 2017, where you also can hear the old songs of the band. I will not compare these two works, because someone likes vocals of Udo, and someone Hoffman and Baltes. So there is the option to compare and chose who is better.