U.D.O. – Game Over

U.D.O. – Game Over
Release Date: 8th October 2021
Label: AFM Records
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Genre: Heavy Metal
FFO: Accept, Judas Priest, Running Wild.
Review By: Kenny Newall

U.D.O. (or UDO for short) are back with another collection of mediocre, unoriginal, pop-structured heavy metal. I’ve never been a fan and Game Over hasn’t helped. But their songs are just so damn catchy, I hear leather studded men of a certain age declare. Well, yes, but then so is Covid, even worse so is One Direction. So catchy alone doesn’t always cut it. And that’s really all UDO have to my ears; some catchy as hell choruses. Fear Detector, Empty Eyes and Thunder Road in particular get my head nodding a fuck yeah on this latest release, but that’s it. The verses are invariably in there because they have to be and the riffs sound regurgitated from the 80s and 90s with song structures that just seem lazy. As lazy as me describing the album as acceptable. But if you’re a fan then I reckon you’ll love it. And there’s a reply section below for you to have your say. This after all is just the opinion of one man (of more or less that same certain age), not a definitive assertion that the likes of N.M.E. and certain Metal Hammer reviewers seem to think they’re worthy of.

So, sadly only I See Red, Time Control and Metal Damnation satisfy me the whole way through. Though I See Red invokes a Hucknallian nightmare with the lyric, “everything is simply red.” Thankfully, lead single (video below) and obvious live singalong does offer the much better consolation that Metal Never Dies. Though not life as we know it, due to the global impact of climate change, a theme of Game Over. Further pause for thought sees Kids And Guns focus on child soldiers and minors involved in shootings. The album’s music and videos may be adolescent, but the lyrics are those of a man who has travelled the world and gives a shit.

What’s disappointing is that I wanted to rate this highly when I saw it in my inbox. They’re a band I feel I should like as I love this style of music, but they just don’t span my dex. If they were to Go Back to Hell to gain some oomph then maybe, but quite frankly, with about four decades worth of other bands to choose from, I don’t feel the loss.

(Miscellaneous thoughts: Kids And Guns is very much an AC/DC pastiche and UDO’s earlier Accept vocals always remind me of Bon Scott. Like A Beast has a telephone conversation intro that screams, well, Scream. And just to bang on once more about the unoriginality, Nuclear Assault for one beat them to the album title way back in ’86).

(2 / 5)