Veteran German metal masters U.D.O. are already a powerhouse of a band which has created an impressive library full of bombastic, blistering, badass Teutonic metalworks over 33 years and 17 albums. Imagine, if you will, combining that energy, that volume, that ear-splitting, ground-shaking maelstrom with a 65-piece European military brass band. Cacophony isn’t a strong enough word to describe the result, but fortunately fans of metal with a orchestral twist will be able to hear for themselves the results of this unexpected musical melange, as U.D.O. in partnership with the Concert Band of the German Armed Forces (in German the Musikkorps der Bundeswehr) release the album We Are One, worldwide on AFM Records, July 17.
The two entities had come together for two special concerts in 2018, the first taking place at the vaunted and venerable Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany, which sees tens of thousands of metal maniacs from around the globe congregate to enjoy their favourite bands. Another show took place in front of a more general audience a few weeks later – both were critically acclaimed and hugely popular with the somewhat diverse audiences.
Naturally, each group wanted to continue this mutually beneficial partnership, and the seeds were sown for the War Are One conglomeration, anchored by the five-piece U.D.O., which features legendary German metal frontman Udo Dirkschneider, alongside his son Sven on drums, guitarists Andrey Smirnov and Fabian Dee Dammers, as well as bassist Tilen Hudrap.
It was after the second show with the Concert Band of the German Armed Forces where the idea of recording an album together first came about, primarily due to the response from the two audiences and also because of the fun had by all participants.
“We did a great first show at Wacken in 2018 and the response was very good and also for us the feeling on stage to play with a huge orchestra like this big brass orchestra was really something. After this we did another show that was two and a half hours long and there were not only metal fans at that one, but there were also brass music fans. It was like, how do you explain why it worked? And this is no joke but there were people at that show who were 70 or 80 years old standing up and clapping and cheering. To us, this meant something special was happening,” said Udo, adding that it was also decided immediately to do original material, not simply cover the U.D.O./Accept repertoire alongside the brass orchestra.
“We were talking about it after the second show and we all said, okay we have to continue this and then the idea was born to make an album together. So, we had some meetings and were sending messages back and forth about what we wanted to do and how we had to make it work. Then the band started writing songs and, in the end, the two guys who do the arranging for the orchestra [Guido Rennart and Alexander Reuber] they were selecting the songs from the demos we were sending because they knew which ones would work best. At one point I think we had about 30 songs and we got it down to the 15 that are on the album. Once we decided on the songs, they got into doing the arrangements for the brass orchestra and when they sent us their first arrangement it was right on the point. It was like, ‘yes, this works so well.’ There was a lot of back and forth, but nothing to serious, maybe just change a harmony here or maybe we wanted to have more trumpet in some places to make it more heavy.”
“For the first two shows, we played the U.D.O. catalogue with the orchestra and we said to the main guys from the orchestra after that second show, imagine if we would start writing songs, especially for this kind of orchestra and putting U.D.O. material to go with it. We had several meetings, as my dad said, and it was all done, step by step over about a year,” added Sven.
“We delivered the main ideas for the songs and then the two guys who were doing the arrangements sat down and listened to all that material and said, ‘okay, we can imagine doing this and this and this,’ and then they chose the songs they thought would be best. They would send them back to us and we would listen to them again, then have another meeting to make sure we were all on the same page and had a clear direction where we wanted to go. But as my dad said, it was a perfect fit right from the start because they nailed it on the head. And I think it’s because they were there when we played those two shows with the orchestra and knew what we were about and what was going on.”
U.D.O. also got help in composing the songs from Lt. Col. Christoph Scheibling, the commander of the orchestra, and two former members of Accept, Stefan Kaufmann and Peter Balte, with Kaufmann also acting as one of the album’s producers, alongside Stefan Reich and Mattes.
The theme of the album and especially of the title track, We Are One, is multi-faceted, and can mean many things to many people, but essentially it is expounding the benefits of people coming together to do good for themselves, for their communities and for the planet.
“I think the title We Are One was there pretty early on when we first got together and asked what we should do lyric wise and where do we want to put this album. The orchestra also had the wish that we start to talk about world problems like climate change, wasting food and not recycling properly and this whole refugee movement going on, where no human should be illegal on this planet. We are all living together in this one world and this world is very fragile, so we should keep it safe and healthy. And then also the title fits perfectly with the coming together of two worlds, a metal band meets a brass orchestra. So, it fits in both ways,” said Sven.
From his earliest days in Accept in the late 1970s and early 1980s, through to his many albums with U.D.O., the elder Dirkschneider has always shown a penchant for writing songs about societal ills, corruption, and other banes of humanity.
“People are always asking me where I get my ideas and it’s very easy – you switch the TV on and turn it to the news and definitely you have enough material for doing lyrics. Let’s put it this way, with Accept and U.D.O. we were writing lyrics not about dragons or witches or whatever. We were always trying to write something about what is going on in the world, what is going wrong social wise or politically. But most of the time I was kind of saying things indirectly or through stories. But for this album, we are saying things more directly: things are definitely more in your face, and hopefully people get the message and start thinking about these things,” he said, as he and Sven talked more specifically about some of the more incendiary tracks on We Are One.
“Rebel Town is a song about the demonstrations against the Berlin Wall in the 1980s, and also for people wanting to be more free. A lot of the stuff that was going on in East Germany, nobody was really happy anymore. So, the song is about, how in the end, Germany was united again as a democracy. But it also talks about how it’s possible to have a peaceful revolution if you want, and how it can still make change. You can do it in a peaceful way like the kids are doing over her with Fridays For Future, where there is no damage or violence: they are just making demonstrations and already the government is reacting to them here. It proves that you don’t need any weapons and don’t need to be destroying property or burning cars or trucks or looting stores. But there are always some people that like to do that, but this is for me a completely stupid thing to do that.”
“Pandemonium is about all the evilness that is flying around. The word kind of means the base for the devil. It’s his own city built in Hell, and that’s what this topic is about, it’s a metaphor for all the craziness and all this anger going around in the world. You can even slant this topic to be about something like world dictators and shit like that, trying to build their own empires,” Sven explained.
“And that pretty much sums up what we’re saying in this song and in a lot of other songs on this album. There’s a lot of shit going on that’s worldwide, and as you asked before, there is a big movement going on over here in Europe for all this climate stuff. There’s the big Fridays For Future where demonstrations are happening every Friday to get people to work to save the planet for the next generations. I think it’s crazy that people are denying climate change. I would like to live in a good environment for the rest of my life and it’s great to see the new generations taking a stand so we can have a planet where people won’t be burning up in 50 degree C heat.”
Sven said the song Here We Go Again is not only noteworthy because it tackles, in a very frank and powerful way, the current worldwide refugee crisis, but also because it marks the first time Udo Dirkschneider has shared lead vocal duties with his son.
“It is the first ever vocal duet done by my dad and myself, yeah. And it’s kind of a funny story. Because we needed to demo vocals on some of the tracks, I said I would do it because my dad was still [at his home] in Ibiza and couldn’t get to the studio. I did these demo vocals and the producer listened to them and said, ‘you know now that you have to sing the song with your dad, right?’ And I thought he was joking, right. He said, we’re going to do this. So, here we are, our first ever father-son vocal duet,” he said with a chuckle.
“And this is a song that is very important to us all. We have had a huge movement of refugees going on over the last couple of years and there are people who are against this, even in Germany there are a lot of people who are against this. They say these people come to our country and say they steal our jobs and that there is not enough space and lots of stupid shit like that. And it should be clearly said that the message is that no human being should be illegal on this planet. Everybody has the right to look for a better place to live, especially if they are coming from a place where it’s constant war and poverty. Listen, there is all this talk of walls: we had walls over here and it was bullshit, so why do it again?”
Prior to the pandemic, it was hoped that the combination of the Musikkorps der Bundeswehr and U.D.O. would be able to play a few shows in Europe this year, but Covid-19 has scrapped those plans.
“We were never planning on doing a full tour with this album, it’s just not possible with a full orchestra. But we planned to do another show at this year’s Wacken festival and then maybe four or five other shows in Germany, but everything is cancelled. The only thing we’re able to do is tons of interviews, which we have already done and have more to do. The album is coming out on July 17 and once it’s out we can sit back and see the reaction from fans,” said Udo.
“We are doing the Wacken show next year with the orchestra, that has already been confirmed. So maybe if the album is really successful there may be a chance to do a lot more shows with the orchestra – not a tour like for two months, but maybe a few in Germany or some other places in Europe and maybe even a handful of special shows in Canada and America. You certainly cannot do this in a club, even a big club because with the band, the orchestra and a small choir, there are about 85 people on stage, so we need big stages. And we will maybe record one of those shows. I think it would be stupid and a waste if we didn’t do that.”
For more information, visit www.udo-online.com or www.facebook.com/udoonline.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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