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After many solo albums with his own band U.D.O., ex-Accept frontman Udo Dirkschneider finally released his first DVD, "Nailed To Metal - The Complete History" for his numerous die-hard fans.

This DVD is jam-packed with U.D.O. goodies and the most interesting one is certainly the "Live in Russia" concert recorded in 2001. The overall picture is very average but acceptable (with sometimes some annoying black and white and distorted effects), and the sound is rather surprisingly good for a 2.0 audio mix. However, the footage is limited to only nine tracks - a 45 minutes set list, instead of a full concert. I would have preferred to have an entire gig and fewer extras. Nevertheless, the gig is awesome and it's so great to see U.D.O. perform their songs and the Accept ones so well and accurately.

Stefan Kaufmann (ex-Accept drummer) really impressed me on guitar. I thought he was just the rhythm guitar player in U.D.O. (which is already an accomplishment since he used to play another instrument before.) Stefan performs the lead guitars breaks well and with easiness. The highlight of the gig is when the band makes the crowd sing (an Accept trademark), when Stephan performs the anthem lead guitar harmony on the excellent heavy as hell "Shout It Out". The band plays three Accept songs ("Midnight Mover", the tremendous "Winter Dreams" and "I'm A Rebel" as the encore), and finally six U.D.O. songs (four from the "Holy" album).

The videoclips section is also fine to watch. The best ones being "They Want War", "Heart Of Gold" (videoclip and Hit Studio TV show appearance in 1989), "Independence Day" and "Still", an Aria song during which Udo appears and sings in Russian with the band! "Timebomb" (electronic press kit), which explains the story of the band up to that album. The rest of the clips are less interesting to watch, but why not include them since it's the complete U.D.O. history!

There are also seven previously unreleased audio tracks on the DVD. Five of them are there in demo version but the sound is as good as a final studio track. "Recall The Sin" is rather quite different than the studio version included on "Holy" (I like the studio version a lot more). "X-T-C", an Accept track on "Eat The Heat" (the only Accept album which doesn't have Udo as the lead singer), is played very well. "The Key" is an excellent bonus track off the album "No Limits". They should have included lyrics, the cover of the album or some other information while the songs play; we only see "Now playing…" on the screen. Nevertheless, this is more than 30 minutes of pure U.D.O. audio.

There are also other sections on the DVD like "Behind the scene", three separate footage totalling about 45 minutes of U.D.O. on tour in Russia, in the USA, and finally one where we can see Udo makes a parachute jump(!) There are also a short photo gallery, a biography of each member (with sadly many mistakes like "Iron Maidon") and links to Web sites. But the most impressive section is the discography, which includes cover art, lyrics, years, other information and especially excellent audio samples of all songs! I've never seen a complete discography like this before on any DVD.

Finally, the special boxset also includes a 60 minutes bonus CD appropriately called "Nailed To Metal - The Missing Tracks", which are eleven songs not included (minus "Holy", "Raiders Of Beyond" and the drum solo) on the "Live In Russia" double CD released two years ago. This is a very good live CD that sounds as good as "Live In Russia". The CD includes seven Accept tracks. "Restless & Wild" is finally played in its entirety (Accept has always played the first part of the song until the bridge and then switched to "Son Of A Bitch"). However, drummer Lorenzo Milani didn't make the renowned great short drum lead in the middle of the bridge (after "…when the night is gone"), like Stefan used to do on "Restless & Wild". Nevertheless, he did a great job on the entire CD, he's very tight.

The CD and the DVD are available separately (this reminds me of "batteries sold separately".) (-; The special boxset includes both CD and DVD in a double DVD case. The description on the box states that the total playing time is 315 minutes which I think is a bit overstated (they probably included all audio samples, reading the biography and lyrics in the total time)! (-: Nevertheless, the boxset contains a lot of material.

Overall, the boxset gives you a good bang for the buck, and it's definitely a must have for any die-hard U.D.O. fan. You get a very good retrospective of the U.D.O. history with this DVD. However, a longer show would have been appreciated. It's great that AFM Records released it in NTSC format and made it more easily available for the North American market. Finally, hail to ex-Accept Udo and Stefan for keeping on going after all these metal years!

Contents:

The Complete History

Live from Russia:

1. Holy
2. Raiders Of Beyond
3. Midnight Mover
4. Independence Day
5. Metal Eater
6. Winter Dreams
7. Shout It Out
8. Cut Me Out
9. I'm A Rebel

Videoclips:

1. They Want War
2. Break The Rules
3. Heart Of Gold (videoclip)
4. Heart Of Gold (making of)
5. Heart Of Gold (hit studio 1989)
6. Timebomb (electronic press kit)
7. Independence Day
8. Still (Udo with Aria)
9. Go Back to Hell (live in Bochum 1988)
10. Drum solo (Russia 2001)

Previously unreleased audio tracks:

1. X-T-C (taken from the album A Tribute To Accept II)
2. The Key (bonus track of the album No Limits)
3. Mad Dogs And Loaded Guns (demo version for the album Solid)
4. Warchild (demo version for the album Solid)
5. Rated X (demo version for the album No Limits)
6. Tough Luck (demo version for the album No Limits)
7. Recall The Sin (demo version for the album Holy)

DVD Extras:

• Behind the scene (on tour in Russia, on tour in the USA, parashoot jump)
• Photo gallery
• Biographies
• Discography of all the albums including covers, lyrics and audio samples
• Websites

Additional live CD features:

The Missing Tracks:

1. Holy (5:17)
2. Raiders Of Beyond (4:11)
3. Metal Heart (5:39)
4. X-T-C (4:02)
5. Drum solo (4:26)
6. Fast As A Shark (4:05)
7. Princess Of The Dawn (8:00)
8. Restless & Wild (4:20)
9. Thunder In The Tower (4:51)
10. Hard Attack (6:22)
11. Balls To The Wall (8:47)

Additional Information

This DVD is in NTSC format but uses MPEG audio instead of Dolby Digital which is extremely rare for NTSC. According to the DVD FAQ, not all NTSC players can play MPEG audio tracks. It works fine on my system, but there were some sound glitches on another system I tested. Be careful.