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Here it is finally, the new U.D.O. album, "Man And Machine". Check out the cover, it looks similar to the Accept album "Objection Overruled". This is a good sign that the album would sounds a lot like the Accept days, to my pleasure! (-: The album starts with a robotic spoken words intro that warns about an intrusion of an unknown species. Enter "Man And Machine" with a military drums beat and a killer "cubic" riff! Great, I’m already sold! (-:

Next are "Private Eye" and "Animal Instinct", 2 good solids songs with strong structures. "The Dawn Of The Gods" is a tribute to heavy metal music, it’s a great song with a wonderful chorus and very good leads. "Dancing With An Angel" is a good mellow song featuring Doro Pesch on vocals with Udo. They interact in the verses and sing together in the chorus. What a contrast between Udo and her (-; but the result is interesting! "Silent Cry" is another good mid-tempo mellow song with a very good chorus and an excellent lead. "Network Nightmare" is a fast tune. I don’t dig the chorus but the song is good with good verses and another very good lead. "Hard To Be Honest" begins à la Accept: a heavy guitar riff, next, the other guitar enter and finally the whole band! It’s a good mid-tempo song with a present bassline for the verse. "Like A Lion" is another good mid-tempo song with once again another very good lead guitar. "Black Heart" is the weakest song on the album. "Unknown Traveller" is probably my favourite one on the album. It’s a great ending for the album, the song lasts 6:51 and has some wonderful riffs with a solid chorus.

My favourite songs are "Man And Machine", "Private Eye", "The Dawn Of The Gods" and "Unknown Traveller". The album contains 11 tracks and lasts more than 50 minutes. The production is flawless, I love the guitar sounds a lot. The 2 former Accept members, singer Udo Dirkschneider and guitarist Stefan Kaufmann wrote all the songs. The other members have some credits as well. The album is not as heavy as "Holy" but I really dig it after some spins. Many songs have some mellow parts; heavy-wise the album can be compared to "Russian Roulette" from Accept. The leads are very good and I also dig the lyrics all over the album. Overall, I really love "Man And Machine", it’s a very good album that former Accept fans must listen to. This is great and refreshing to hear simple basic heavy songs in these days. Don’t get me wrong, the tunes are very well done with among other things, terrific guitar works but they have simple structures compared to bands like for instance "Blind Guardian" and "Rhapsody". This is the true essence of traditional heavy metal music and U.D.O. has reached its goal with this CD. This is the 10th release by U.D.O. and they are still kicking ass. They still play the same kind of music (heavy metal!!!) since day one, but they still can bring new riffs and ideas.