Udo+dirkschneider

The long-awaited live album from Dirkschneider's 'Back To The Roots' was released on October 28th via AFM Records. During the tour rock legend Udo Dirkschneider was presented a 'Sold Out'-Award for the extremely successful Dirkschneider tour, where 31 out of 48 Europe shows were sold out! 'It's unbelievable, I never expected this tour to be so overly successful', Udo comments, 'It's beautiful to see how many people walk with me on my personal way of saying goodbye to the ACCEPT chapter.' The singer with the charismatic voice had his musical breakthrough with ACCEPT in the early 80s. 'It's still so much fun to sing these songs live, they are a part of my biography, but nevertheless it's about time to turn that page. There was so much talking and speculations about me and ACCEPT, so this is kind of a musical statement from my end - which seems to be very interesting for the fans who came to these shows'.

He is THE constant of the German metal scene: On April 6, 2022, icon Udo Dirkschneider will be 70 years old. Born in post-war Wuppertal, when heavy metal was far from being invented, he has for many years been one of the decisive characters who have helped shape this musical genre so decisively. For about five decades, it is impossible to imagine it without him. On April 22nd his most personal and extraordinary album will be released: it contains 17 cover versions of exactly those songs that have influenced the musician and singer the most. Among them are all kinds of classics of music history - even those you might not have expected from Udo. Behind all the tracks is not only a very personal story, but also a sometimes surprising arrangement, which despite their very individual implementation, however, live and breathe Udo's signature at all times. The cover album also makes one thing clear: how many in the music business have come and gone over the years. Udo Dirkschneider is still here. If his unchanging nature was briefly what almost doomed him in the midst of the norm-constructed music industry in the 80s, it has long since become his very great strength. All this makes Udo Dirkschneider one of the greatest and most imposing rock and metal icons of the last decades.

In addition to their still ongoing successful "Back To The Roots" Tour, DIRKSCHNEIDER released "LIVE - Back To The Roots - Accepted!" on August 4th (EU) / August 18th (USA) as DVD/2CD, BluRay/2CD and Gtf. Triple Vinyl in two different colors. After putting out the live double CD last year, fans were asking for a visual output, so finally, in December 2016, the show in Brno (Czech Republic) was recorded for that purpose. Besides many classics from Udo Dirkscheider's Accept era, there's a cover version of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" as bonus track on the CD and Vinyl. The singer with the charismatic voice had his musical breakthrough with ACCEPT in the early 80s. "It's still so much fun to sing these songs live, they are a part of my biography, but nevertheless it's about time to turn that page. There was so much talking and speculations about me and ACCEPT, so this is kind of a musical statement from my end - which seems to be very interesting for the fans who came to these shows."

Following his 1987 exit from the German power metal band Accept, vocalist Udo Dirkschneider formed U.D.O. with guitarists Peter Szigeti and Mathias Dieth, bassist Frank Rittel, and drummer Tomas Franke. The group's debut album, Animal House, was in fact written by Dirkschneider's former bandmates in Accept. Fans of Accept should enjoy the first solo album from lead singer Udo Dirkschneider, which employs all the crushing power of that band's Teutonic metal sound without the latent pop influences. Udo's unmistakable howl leads the charge on Animal House, while his backing band do an uncanny job of copying Accept's immaculate metal crunch. Of course, the fact that all the songs were written by Accept and producer Deaffy may have something to do with the familiarity of the sound.