jenokellner
Solid
We are timebombs,cold killing machines
Posts: 11,326
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Post by jenokellner on Jun 23, 2009 12:10:40 GMT -5
OMG,Mate You're hell of a spammer Jeno
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Post by killingjoke on Jun 23, 2009 14:55:28 GMT -5
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Post by John on Jun 23, 2009 14:56:04 GMT -5
one of these days he'll run out of links. the internet only has so many you know! hahahahaha and then.. this www.endoftheinternet.com/
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Post by killingjoke on Jun 23, 2009 15:28:18 GMT -5
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Post by metalheart2 on Jun 24, 2009 1:25:46 GMT -5
Heh heh ;D
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Post by killingjoke on Jun 25, 2009 11:39:13 GMT -5
interview : For Udo Dirkschneider today�s metal scene lacks personalities May 27 2004
The first (and it would seem, last) Kosice Rock Night is behind us. Despite the fact that the headliner was the German group U.D.O. led by Udo Dirkschneider, the one-time frontman of the famous Accept, the organizers had to take a radical step due to the low turn out and move the show from the sports hall to the GeS club at the last moment, and then the number of bands partaking was pared down from the planned five to three.
This could be due to a lack of advertising or the fact that 450 Crown entrance fee might have been a little steep out here in the east. God only knows. In any case the small crown will not do much for the reputation of the town. That, however was not the only problem the organizers had to struggle with. The groups arrived a few hours late, and that meant the faithful were already seated when the gear was being loaded in.The road manager and Dirkschneider himself made no attempts to hide that look of disappointment as they checked out the suitability of the venue. And then, in spite of the possibility of fuses blowing (high performance equipment in a small club is almost unworkable), the German technicians got to it and the sound check was underway something before seven...
First up was the German group Majesty. A band with the imposing Tarek Maghary up front, and producing that old school heavy metal, clearly influenced by the work of Manowar, Judas Priest, or Helloween. They have three albums to their credit, while the most recent titled "Reign in Glory" was released around the end of last year by Massacre Records. Majesty`s energetic productions along with the powerful, pompous-sounding refrains (like in the hit "Into the Stadiums") got the fans in their corner right from the first song.
Next up was the Swiss fivesome Crystal Ball, having in common with Majesty not only a very similar genre (these were also from the heavy old school - energetic, melodic, perhaps not so Manowar style �aggressive�), but also had their last album (HELLvetia) produced by the Stefan Kaufman (ex-accept, U.D.O.) .
The main stars of the evening hit the stage with the intro music from the James Bond film "Thunderball" (by Tom Jones) and then got straight into their act with the song of the same and title track from their studio album. Not very conspicuous on the street, but impossible to miss on stage, Dirkschneider (dressed in the battle fatigues) took on the audience with no mercy... After another track from the new album called "Bullet and the Bomb", then came one of the biggest hits from the work of Accept - the song "Metal Heart". What can I say... I am sure I was not the only one getting a little misty-eyed at the notorious guitar solo.
Udo and co. (Igor Gianola - guitar; Stefan Kaufman - guitar; Lorenzo Milani - drums; and Fitty Wienhold - bass guitar) really put on a professional show. Though I mentioned they appeared a little uncomfortable entering the venue, you never would have noticed it on the stage.
The mood in the club rose song by song. Songs from U.D.O. were mixed with songs from the Accept days. so along with things like "Independence Day", "Holy" and "Blind Eyes", also came "I am a Rebel" (a hit along the lines of Twisted Sister`s "We`re not Gonna Take It"), "Princess of the Dawn" and other gems. Also to be mentioned was the impressive solo by the technically gifted drummer Lorenzo Milani, though the soundman beautified things with some effects - a flanger, or perhaps the club itself helped make it sound so good. This great show, which no one present will forget, wound up around midnight, with an impressed crowd even pushing them on for a couple of encores.
Just after sound check the leader of U.D.O. and one-time frontman for accept sat down for a few words. Despite some apprehension (regarding what was mentioned above), Udo Dirkschneider was pleasant company, without any of those forced star manners and with a very professional approach to the media...
Do you remember when you played that small venue here last time?
"I remember it was a strange place, you know you have some good places and some strange places but it doesn`t really matter so long as you put on a good show, and the people are satisfied afterward."
You have a new album out, many people say that it is harder than the previous albums.
"It is harder in a way, but surly has a lot of melodies in there, for me what is interesting is that we have got a lot of atmospheres in there, heavy stuff and also a ballad like `Blind Eyes` with the cello, another song `Train Ride in Russia. It`s very unusual to have a song with an accordian, but this song is in a way a tribute to the Russian fans you know. U.D.O. is very big in Russia. So it is an interesting album for us and many say it is the best studio album from us so far."
I think that in your case we can say `the older the...
"...harder. We are not thinking too much when we start writing a new album. We never say that an album has to be done in this way or that way, it is just about how we feel when we start recording, and this time it was more toward the heavy stuff. I don`t know about the next album, but in our career we have tried to avoid the modern trends and influence."
If I`m not mistaken there was a time when you hated keyboards.
"Well I`ve never hated keyboards, I always liked Deep Purple, but for Accept we never used them, or we used them for the first time on the `Faceless World` album."
That was another typical metal image - No Keyboards!
"Yeah, when we write some songs and the songs need some atmosphere, then we put classic instrument or something underneath some keyboards, I don`t care. What`s important is that we can play the song on stage without keyboards. So it is just for the sound on the album. On the album `Blind Eyes` there is a cello, and on stage we do it with guitars."
Do you remember, when you played on the keyboards last time?
"Me? Oh that was a long time ago, I started playing the keyboards when I was fourteen. Then I had no interest in singing."
Today it is even hard for the legendary bands, what have to done to keep the popularity?
"In the 90`s this kind of music was not really popular, but we keep going on and not changing and I know a lot of bands that when the music become unpopular they tried to change things. We never did this, and over the last three years this music is becoming more popular again. It is interesting to see the old bands still around like Judas Priest coming back, Iron Maiden is still there, all these bands..."
What about Scorpions..?
"The Scorpions. I heard their last album and they say they want to go back to the original stuff, but I don`t think they did the right thing. For me this album just showed, and I`m very good friends with the Scorpions, but this is not a good album."
When we talk about the German music scene in the start of the eighties, people think of the Scorpions and Accept. Today when we say it many people envision Scooter, bands like that.
"In Germany Helloween is around, Running Wild, Doro, Primal Fear is around, Gamma Ray is around. All of these old bands are still around, I think in a way Germany is the most popular countries for heavy metal. So for England it may be nothing, what is this band called, Darkness? Well this is rock and roll and not heavy metal. While in the eighties all the heavy metal was coming from England. So at the moment, a lot of people say that Germany is the heavy metal country."
But now it`s also a country for the dance music - Berlin Street Parade...
"In Germany? No. When you have a look at the charts at the moment a lot of metal bands are on the charts. It can be the next big international act."
Most of the German sing in English, but then there is a band like Rammstein which sings in German and has fans around the world...
"Well they have a following in America and are very big in Russia, I don`t know why, but the Russian guys loved it. But for Rammstein with their last album called `Mutter` are perhaps becoming too commercial. So many people want to see what is coming up for the next album. Another German band singing in German and starting to get very popular is called `OOOmph!`, and they were doing that kind of music before Rammstein so maybe they are stealing it. But we were never singing in German, and if for a hard rock band you want to do things international-wise, then you will have to sing in English."
But you sang something in Russian on the new album...
"Like I say, it was a tribute to the Russian fans, and we didn`t plan to put the song on the album. When we started writing lyrics we said that we should write about some experiences we had on tour. So the first thing that came to our mind were our experiences in Russia, and we said `what kind of music can we put around this?` and then we tried a lot of things and in the end we came up with the accordian with that polka sound, and then we thought about trying to sing the chorus in Russian."
Something the Scorpions did with the single "Winds of change" where they recorded a special single in Russian.
"Yeah but they did it wrong (ha ha)."
You said something commercial sides of the music, it was one of the reasons that you left Accept...
"In the mid-eighties a lot of people said to the rest of the guys `oh you have to be more commercial, you have to break open the American market` and this is a long story. But then they said that we could not do it in America, though we had sold 2 and a half million albums. There were too many business people around. Then they wanted another singer and took an American singer. It took two years to record the `Eat the Heat` album, but it was is the same studio and I was in studio number three and they were in studio number one and I had already done two albums and they were still on the first album and I knew all the material on the `Eat the Heat` album, the first idea. But then they were changing and they had gone too far from the metal side."
There was no chance for compromise?
"Yes, well I listened to the first demos of the album after `Russian Roulette`, it was really commercial. But in the studio they said that it was not the right thing. I think `Eat the Heat` was a compromise album, and then they started a tour for 6 weeks, and then it was all over and they found out that they had done a lot of things wrong, and then we did a reunion but things did not work out. I mean we are still good friends, Peter was last year there in America with his whole family, but these are almost completely out of the music business. When we did the reunion we found out that we were going musically in different ways and the chemistry was wrong in the end. We thought it was better to stop before we destroyed anything. What I`m doing now with U.D.O., like Thunderball, it`s like Accept we do the same kind of music, so I have Stefan with me, and he was a very important guy with arranging and composing with accept. The basic of U.D.O. is the Accept side, we`ve never changed it, we still play a lot of Accept songs and it`s just a different name."
And what about your brother Peter?
"I don`t know what he`s doing, I heard that he is working on a new album but i`m not really in touch with him."
Did you ever think about a common project?
"Yeah, but the problem with my brother is that in a way he has got a similar voice, and he is the little brother and he`s going to the record companies and I try to help but then it is always `you are the little brother and blah blah blah... It`s very hard for him."
And the image, what about the army uniforms and the short haircuts?
"Well in the eighties you have to do something on stage, you do entertaining, at that time we said we had to do something different than the other bands. So we went to shops, a military shop and put this stuff on and everybody said `that`s it` and they said maybe you can cut your hair, and I thought I didn`t know about this but why not? But you are in show business and here we go."
And what is your opinion of the metal scene of today?
"Today, there are very good bands around but I miss personality, like Ozzy, like Rob Halford, Bruce Dickenson, Ronnie James Dio, these types. You see a band, good musicians, but it`s like there is nobody on stage in a way."
Do you think it`s a good time to make legends, the young bands, everything is going quickly and there is no time for...
"...for new bands. That`s what the whole business is changing. The record companies don`t give much opportunity to new bands. They do one album, and if that album is not selling enough, next band. In the eighties they gave us support for four or five albums. These days it`s very hard for a new band to start and get the support from the record companies. These days I would not want to start as a new band, horrible, a nightmare. No money and, I know this from Majesty who are on tour with us, a very good band and if they can get a record company for the next album then they are on a good way. You need some money from the record company, a good album and to go on tour, that costs some money."
In the eighties there were some group bands behind the wall, behind the eastern wall, Czechoslovakia, Russia and Poland...
"I don`t know so many bands from the eastern countries, I know that Ariel were quite popular in Russia. In a way they were a copy of Iron Maiden or Helloween, they were good in way but not with quite such a singer and so on..."
For my last question, how do you see the future of U.D.O., yourself, heavy metal...
"The future. At the moment this is the longest tour I have ever been on, with U.D.O.. And we will definitely be on tour until March next year, then we have to do a new album, and we have offers for 2005."
How long do you want to be on stage?
"I don`t know. As long as, and this is the most important thing to me, I don`t get to feeling that I`m getting tired of it. Then for me it`s better to stop. But at the moment, I don`t have to say this."
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