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Dirkschneider: Live- Back To the Roots

I think I probably need to admit that I caught Dirkschneider (Udo Dirkschneider – vocals, Sven Dirkschneider – drums, Fitty Wienhold – bass, Andrey Smirnov – guitar and Finland's finest Kasperi Heikkinen – guitar) at Manchester Academy earlier this year with Anvil in support. It was an unbelievable night of metal, sadly not witnessed by enough people but it was a Wednesday evening.

Flawless is the adjective I would use to describe Dirkschneider's performance that night. The great man didn't have much to say between songs but why would he? Look at the list below –classic after classic after classic followed by yet another classic. Each track is delivered expertly by the crack band especially the crunching guitars of Andrey Smirnov (a very smiley individual if ever I saw one) and Kasperi Heikkinen and is a righteous celebration of the great man's career with Accept and if this is genuinely the last time that Udo brings out the hits to play then this, which was recorded at the sold out show at Kaminwerk in Memmingen on April 2nd, 2016, is a magnificent way for these songs to go out. The package is available in the following formats, 2-CD Digipak and Gtf. 3-Vinyl in 4 different colours (black, gold, silver and clear) via AFM Records.


Track Listing:

  1. Intro 2:32
  2. Starlight 3:43
  3. Living For Tonite 4:01
  4. Flash Rockin' Man 4:22
  5. London Leatherboys 4:58
  6. Midnight Mover 3:34
  7. Breaker 4:49
  8. Head Over Heels 5:31
  9. Neon Nights 9:04
  10. Princess Of The Dawn 11:03
  11. Winter Dreams 5:41
  12. Restless And Wild 2:56
  13. Son Of A Bitch 3:30
  14. Up To The Limit 4:52
  15. Wrong Is Right 3:13
  16. Midnight Highway 3:58
  17. Screaming For A Love Bite 4:24
  18. Monsterman 3:13
  19. TV War 3:34
  20. Losers And Winners 6:27
  21. Metal Heart 8:24
  22. A Rebel 3:31
  23. Fast As A Shark 4:57
  24. Balls To The Wall 9:04
  25. Burning 8:21

Added: December 11th 2016
Reviewer: Simon Bray
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 1736
Language: english

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Dirkschneider: Live- Back To the Roots
Posted by Steven Reid, SoT Staff Writer on 2016-12-10 19:19:22
My Score:

It's funny how it often works out that as one faction in a splintered group releases an album, so the other party does likewise. In fairness, singer Udo Dirkschneider is long departed from Accept, but there is still a certain irony that as his old band prepare to unleash the excellent live DVD/bluray Restless & Live early next year, so Udo himself has gone Live - Back To The Roots. As that title suggests, the chief barker has decided, for the last time, to tour playing only songs by his previous outfit, this album being a celebration of those shows.

And what a celebration it is, classics from Restless & Wild, Balls To The Wall and Metal Heart interspersed by numbers from earlier and later in Accept's catalogue; running to 24 songs this is an impressively exhaustive run through of some utterly indispensable metal. Credit too to Udo's band,Sven Dirkschneider (drums), Fitty Wienhold (bass) and Andrey Smirnov and Kasperi Heikkinen on guitars, the quartet doing a superb job of performing well loved songs with real passion and respect. Thankfully these are not 'clever' reimaginings of these songs, instead what we have here are potent, faithful outings.

It's all too easy to forget just how influential Accept were back in the day, their hard hitting manner easily seen as the roots from which European power metal sprung forth and their willingness to blatantly show their love of bombastic classical pieces reworked into metal monsters, the catalyst for a whole host of symphonic metal bands. However, first and foremost, what Accept did was rock heavy and rock hard and that's exactly what Udo and his band do here, everything from opener "Starlight" through "London Leatherboys", "Princes Of The Dawn", "I'm A Rebel", "Fast As A Shark" (including an enthusiastically crowd sung intro), to closer "Burning" still capable of leaving a lasting, memorable mark.

With Accept keen to focus on their post-Udo work, what Live - Back To The Roots provides is the best of both worlds, the band's classic and to some extent ignored, back catalogue celebrated in real exuberant style. With Accept going strong and still moving forward, it's good to be reminded of why we loved them so much in the first place and while some could see this is a backwards step for a singer with his own highly respected solo career, there's no denying that what Dirkschneider has recorded here is utterly irresistible.



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