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Udo Dirkschneider shows no sign of slowing down. He's now 71 years old and this is studio album #18 for his band since 1987 after he left Accept. Yet, a lot of people think of Accept first when thinking of him. Anyway. Touchdown (can't say I'm crazy about the football reference, but that's me ;)) is exactly what you expect to hear from U.D.O. It's been a largely consistent band throughout its 36 years of existence. I've found some albums a bit too tame for their own good, but that's definitely not the case here. All the songs are very melodic, as one can expect, but the album is mostly made of good, catchy rockers—and they rock hard as some of the tracks are downright aggressive. Udo sounds great on this (assuming you like his style in the first place). I've always found it a little weird that he can turn out such catchy vocal lines doing his style, but he's done it again. The guitars are meaty, lots of fat, heavy and crunchy riffs in the best tradition of the '80s. No syrupy ballad this time around, though there are a few slower moments that don't even manage to break the pace of the album. Overall, this album is up there as one of the band's heaviest, catchiest and most aggressive to date. It's not just good on disc; with the mix of speed, melody and aggression, most of these songs are bound to make a killing in the live setting. Great stuff.