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U.D.O. - Mean Machine
1988 RCA
Track
Listing:
1. Don't Look Back
2. Break The Rules
3. We're History
4. Painted Love
5. Mean Machine
6. Dirty Boys
7. Streets On Fire
8. Lost Passion
9. Sweet Little Child
10. Catch My Fall
11. Still In Love With You
Line-Up:
Vocals:
Udo Dirckschneider
Guitars: Mathias Dieth,
Andy Susemihl
Bass: Thomas S.
Drums: Stefan Schwarzmann
Website: www.udo-online.de Horatio's Rating:
A
Overall Rating: A
Also be sure to read:
U.D.O. - Holy
by
Horatio
Accept - Objection Overruled by
Horatio
Accept - Predator by
Horatio
Accept - Russian Roulette by Horatio |
Horatio's
Review:
I forget how many years I've owned this album and neglected it.
I recall not being impressed with it back in 1998 when I first heard it, ten years after it
initially appeared. A few weeks ago I was getting ready for another night of
draining work when I did my customary lucky dip of a cassette for my nightly drive.
I was already late after a bout of phone sex with some dude. I wasn't overwhelmed when I saw
'Mean Machine' staring back at me once I got in the car. I contemplated throwing it onto the snowy roads and letting
a car run over it. My copy of Cinderella's 'Night Songs' that is.
I gave it a spin and three weeks later (probably a year by the time this hits the site)
I'm still addicted to it. Metal to the core, every one's favourite metal god
dwarf can lay claim to a justifiable metal classic.
'Dont Look Back' is one of those songs that redefines heavy metal as a
genre. Punishing with its speed and aggression, this destroys anything off
'Russian Roulette' and is trademark Udo. I'm drawn to this type of metal like
Udo himself is drawn to young boys in leather with shaven balls sticking out of their crotchless pants.
'Break The Rules' has a high tech 'Turbo' feel, classic 1988, with a synth bass I presume.
The whole album is one crunching riff after another, with every typical Udo theme you've come to
expect. Udo laments the Berlin Wall on 'Streets Of Fire', won't we ever
learn? Was Udo secretly pining for the return of the wall after 1989 when he
saw the East Germans pillaging his beloved Cologne? Put it back up, I say.
Udo's crowning moment is surely 'Dirty Boys', in which Udo sings 'dirty
boys always on the run, till six 'o clock in the morning, dirty boys always
having fun, never get them out of my mind!'
I want to ask the essential question: Why can't Udo get these dirty boys
out of his mind? Apparently these hoodlums are tearing up the streets of
Munich while Udo sits on his couch at home alone, writhing in agony as he sees the dirty boys in his head, getting into fights, romancing the local
ladies, sweating from the summer heat and coming home bloodied and grimacing.
Is he jealous? Does he want to take them down a notch? I could
make a good video for this, with Udo in his camouflage as his brain overloads with visions of these lad's antics.
Anyone who thinks 'Still In Love With You' is a crap ballad will be overjoyed to know that it's actually a thirty
second piece of grindcore. That's right! The crap ballad in question is
actually 'Sweet Little Child'.
Aside from that, this is a verified classic. 'Mean Machine'!
That's all you need to see. It's superior to 'Faceless World' the following year and on par I
believe with 'Timebomb'. The scrappy little bugger is more prolific than
most, although from what I've heard his recent albums aren't a patch on 'Mean
Machine'. I grow weary of reading the same hackneyed profiles that
claim Udo lost his way after 1987's 'Animal House'. This surpasses that, in
my opinion, which usually doesn't hold much sway with anyone around here, or anywhere else for that matter.
It's bloody freezing where I'm sitting writing this. It's over.
'Dont look back, don't you ever, now or never look back!!'
Horatio's Rating: A
Discography (last updated 1.3.06):
Animal House - 1987
Mean Machine - 1988
Faceless World - 1990
Timebomb - 1991
Solid - 1997
No Limits - 1998
Best Of... - 1999
Holy - 1999
Live In Russian - 2001
Man And Machine - 2002
Thunderball - 2004
24/7 EP - 2005
Mission No. X - 2005
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