Walter_Langkowski said:
My man Bryant, you now, in my eyes, have balls the size of boulders for that statement alone :Spin: ! I give you a lot of respect for giving us your two cents on your love of the Dirkscchneider-man! I like to hear when people can eloquently state what they like and dislike about a band with passion and sincerety, since I rarely do, as I work (part-time) in an environment where I am forced to hear people's BS about bands all the time. And trust me, the interesting ones are few and far between. Usually, it's like-
me- What do you like about them so much?
Random Guy- Uhhhhh...I dunno... -long pause-...they just rule, man!!!
Yeah. Great. Thanks for the conversation. Somebody put two in the back of my head, please. Can I go home now?
Anyways Bryant, as I have gotten older, I have noticed that certain discs sound different to me nowadays, good and bad, so if you could tell me one U.D.O album that will blow my socks off to the roof, what one would that be?
Well I am more of an Accept fan than U.D.O. fan, but Accept wrote and recorded U.D.O.'s first release "Animal House." Though Udo had his own touring band, it was Peter, Wolf, and Stefan on the disc and of course Udo, so that to me is U.D.O.'s finest hour. If "Lay Down the Law" (a track from that release) doesn't make you want to go beat up your neighbor or break something, nothing will. It is a very intense song.
I also don't mind one bit explaining "why" I think Accept were better than their metal comrades like Priest and Maiden:
It all goes back to the "teutonic sound." Teutonic basically means Germanic and that in itself isn't a big deal, but I have never seen a true definition of the word as it relates to the early German metal wave. To me though, the teutonic sound is a style in which the guitars sound almost machine like without sacrificing melody. Also the german greats like Uli, Wolf and Micheal are all masters of the harmonic minor scale (though many of the guitar greats are) and also have a style of phrasing and note choices that seem to come from mostly Germans (though I can think of one other from Norway, namely Mr. Jorn Viggo Lofstat that has a similar phrasing sttyle.)
Maiden lacked power in the guitar sound. While accomplished musicians, there wasn't as much in your face, head banging aggression from Smith and co. Most of the power from that band came from Mr. air raid siren, Dickenson.
Priest did offer the great blend of power and melody in their guitar attack, but the rythm section was extremely basic. Stefan Kaufmann was playing double bass back in 1981 and Peter Baltes was also a great bassist. To this day, Accept's huge "gang" vocals that are present on BttW, Metal Heart and Russian Roulette as well as later albums are still hard to beat.
I think the two main resons Accept never acquired the popularity of the aforementioned bands were because of Udo's unique vocal delivery, as he is definately an acquired taste, but still a very talented vocalist, and the fact that Accept delved into some topics that were a little taboo with some sexually ambiguous stuff. That was the brainchild of Gaby Hawk (aka deaffy) now Gaby Hoffmann who was Accept's manager and now Wolf's wife as she wrote the lyrics for the band from BttW onward.
Anyway, you will find that there are some big Accept fans around and we are a loyal bunch. In the grand scheme of things metal, I think they have quite a large niche. To this day, "Metal Heart" and BttW sill get spins fairly often in my player even after twenty years and I can't say that about many CDs.
Bryant
