UDO-Dominator

AFM
2009



Probably the first time I heard Accept was probably well over 25 years ago when I heard "Fast as a shark" on a late night metal radio show. The first thing that hit was the speed of the song as I not heard anything that fast at the time. The next thing that hit was me was Udo Dirkschneider's voice. Honestly wasn't too sure of what to make of it because I had certainly never heard anything like this growl before. Indeed his voice grew on me over the next few years as I became an Accept fan. I was sad to see him part from the band, but have followed his solo career on and off over the years. The music on Dominator is nothing new or unexpected as it's mostly medium fast and not a whole different from what Udo (the singer) has tackled in the past. However it's not all just stuck in the past because the music is certainly polished enough to come across as being fairly fresh. Now the real focus is of course the vocals and it's easy to tell that Udo's voice has aged quite well. He has retained his distinctivly rough, gravel type voice and he still knows how to wield it as well. This is classic style metal about as good as it can be played. The go straight ahead and the lyrics are pretty much the same old things, but they hit at with a great deal of steam and determination. Sometimes it's alright to be predictable if what you are playing is this good. "Dominator" certainly manages to be one of the better real metal albums of 2009.