In between, and after, fronting
Accept for many years, making genius albums and creating a legend Udo Dirkschneider, with his characteristic raw voice, has established his own band. This is the third album and still my favourite.
Thomas Smuszynski handles the grooving bass, Stefan Schwarzmann the great and detailed drums while Mathias Dieth performs fantastic melodic and extreme high quality guitar playing. So a lot of this album's quality lays in the musicians' performances.
The music is traditional classic Heavy Metal, in a pretty relaxed and very positive direction. The sound on Faceless World is kind of unique; the atmosphere is lighter than on so many other Metal and
U.D.O. albums. The instruments are very well balanced and the production very smooth and almost crystal clear in a cool way.
One of my favourites on the album is the hymn
Living On A Frontline. The easy going jamming intro, that explodes into a hard pumping rhythm, sounds fantastic. The split melodic choruses are fitted perfectly into the music, where the very in front and hard sounding bass takes a lot of the attention.
Udo varies his voice in a great way and this song is a clear example of an in many ways simple song that is mega catchy.
The mid-tempo song
Faceless World has some great acoustic elements and the melodic keyboard helps in creating some great changing atmospheres. The chorus sounds very bombastic in the classic
Accept tradition, a perfect underlying chorus and a central one sounds genius when they come to life at the same time. The drums are also worth mentioning; they display some cool details and are working into the song in a great way.
Can't Get Enough have a completely different approach. It seems like all band members are trying to play as wild and uncontrolled as possible, and yes it sounds fucking fantastic. It has some brilliant crazy guitar lead sections, fast powerful drums, and some powerful raw-edged singing. The song comes out very experimenting and has many changing passages that add some complex elements into the song.
The album's ballad track
Unspoken Words, is also one of the best. The dark and depressing mood supports the retrospective great lyric about painful love and yearning.
Slow in its main rhythm and with a tight bass as a solid fundament, some excellent acoustic melodies are also found in this great song.
Most of the songs are powerful and have a very direct style.
Blitz Of Lightning is one of them. The harmonious chorus and great raw vocals work perfectly together. The guitar play is of a very high caliber, great twists and small technical inputs. The main riff is very catchy and the slower solo fits nicely.
I have commented on some of the greatest elements on the record, and there are lots of them. What also must be said are my critiques. This will be over fast, but I must say that a few tracks are a bit standard in their main chorus and rhythm.
Born To Run for example is kind of riff based and the chorus is a bit plain compared with the brilliance of many of the other songs. I like the fast riff but the main rhythm is not that exiting. A part from these small details the album seems very complete and offering many different directions.
You really have to listen carefully to get a hold of all the guitar details and cool underlying keyboard tunes; this of course is a good thing.
What I like very much about this album is the positive glow it has. The melodies and catchy tunes are everywhere and the lyrics are very positive, about looking forward and grapping life by the throat.
A perfect album for the days when you just want to drink a lot of beers and relax.
Written by
Tommy Wednesday, April 16, 2003
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