UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER is a German singer/songwriter who has been performing with various bands since 1968. He released 10 albums with ACCEPT and has 18 more as a solo artist. This current release is 17 cover tunes. Covering a wide range of musical styles, this is a compilation of some of the greatest songs ever written. Released on April 22, 2022, via Atomic Fire Records, get ready to hear something from your past reimagined to something done as only UDO can. The disc opens with a cover of "Faith Healer" by ALEX HARVEY. UDO takes the song and keeps the tempo pretty true, but takes the sound heavier. The original is hard rock and this is more metal. The biggest change is, of course, UDO's signature vocals. This choice of songs works really well.

Most of these tracks work pretty damn well. I love UDO's voice, so when I read the track list for this record, I got a little worried about some of his choices. He took on some iconic songs from my youth, and to be honest, it put a bit of fear in my metal heart. I'm happy to report that most of the songs are better than I anticipated. I've heard some of these songs slaughtered by other artists, but UDO handled them all with care. I mean, they took on RAINBOW's "Man On The Silver Mountain." That is classic Ronnie James Dio. How can UDO possibly do that. Well, they stayed true to the tempo and tones and just let one iconic voice honor another iconic voice. I'm not just impressed, I'm happy they did this one. But, what about Mick Jagger? Does this same theory work on that one?

"Paint It Black" is one of the all-time greatest songs ever in the history of music. They do not sound like THE ROLLING STONES, but the song is very recognizable. They did it and did it well. I cannot say this is better than the original, but I can say they treated it with the proper respect it deserves. The band works their magic on JUDAS PRIEST's "Hell Bent For Leather." Here's another song that could have gone awry as the vocal styles are so widely divergent, but UDO makes it work. UDO honors AC/DC, Queen, Led Zeppelin and Motorhead much the same way. He never tries to imitate, he just does what he does best, sing in that amazing gritty voice. Is this whole album like this? Not completely. The BILLY SQUIER cover of "The Stroke" did not impress as much, but it is not a bad cover. I liked it, just not as much as the rest. One out of 17 is a really good track record.

You may ask, what about the title track? Can UDO really take on FRANK SINATRA? Yeah, he does, and while it is not my favorite cover on the record, it is good. They add strings and horns into the instrumentation and UDO goes as clean as ever on the vocals for the first half of the song. They let the song build at times, giving it a nice ebb and flow. This was surprisingly good. Overall, this album full of cover tunes from multiple genres and taking on lots of different vocalists' work manages to exceed expectation. The choices were interesting and ended up being much better thought out than I would have anticipated. I have to admit I was wrong and I tried to judge an album by its' cover art. Shame on me for that. I am quite pleased with the result of this effort.