U.D.O. - Leatherhead

After ACCEPT’s new awesome album is UDO’s turn to release his thirteenth album and eventually questions about “how’s it gonna sound? will it be a rival to ACCEPT’s latest masterpiece?” began to emerge.  “Leatherhead” is the first single (or more likely EP) from the forthcoming album called “REV-Raptor”. Here we have 4 new tracks 2 are taken from the new album (” Leatherhead” and “Rock’n’Roll Soldiers”) and two previously unreleased (“Free Or Rebellion” and “Run”) as well as two promo videos of “Leatherhad” and “Jingle Bells”. The first two tracks sound like typical UDO songs (as if they were taken from UDO’s latest albums) along with some unavoidable ACCEPT influences (if we could say so..) while “Free Or Rebellion” is what we call a sing along song, just the thing for a live performance. I think that the highlight of this release is the ballad-like “Run” in which UDO’s performance sounds exceptional since he sings in a more melodic way rather than growling reminding me of “Asrael” from the “No Limits” album! The only objection I have for this release, something that really spoils the single as a whole is the industrialized (God forbid!!!) sound on the guitars and drums, especially in the first two songs . Besides that “Leatherface” serves as an appetizer for the upcoming album. So let’s wait for the main dish until the 20th of may before we jump into conclusions.
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\r\nDimitris Karantounias\r\n