U.D.O. — the heavy metal five-piece led by former ACCEPT vocalist Udo Dirkschneider — will release a new album, Touchdown, on August 25 through Atomic Fire Records. The 13-track LP was recorded at various locations with producer Martin “Mattes” Pfeiffer and was mixed at Redhead Studio (Wilhelmshaven, Germany) while the mastering was handled by Stefan Kaufmann at ROXX Studio (Solingen, Germany),The record also includes a guest appearance by violinist Stefan Pintev on the closing track, and bass tracks were recorded by former ACCEPT bassist Peter Baltes. Artwork was provided by Martin Häusler who was also responsible for shooting band photos in support of the new album campaign.
The official music video for the album’s title track can be seen below. Stream or pre-order the album HERE.
Musically, “Touchdown” kicks off rapidly before culminating into an anthemic, fan block and stadium capable chorus, graced by a highly fitting violin solo contributed by Stefan Pintev. The music video is in no way inferior and allows the worlds of football and heavy metal to collide brilliantly.
Sven recalls, “The song but also album title began to take root when we were sitting in a sports bar in São Paulo, Brazil where a football game was shown. The word that came out of the speakers the most and therefore was remembered the best afterwards was simply ‘Touchdown.’ That’s why my dad [U.D.O.] suggested that it should become the name of our new album – and a touchdown is also what we have created musically with our new songs in my opinion. We’re very happy with the results! The title track deals, of course, with nothing but the type of sport itself, and it also represents us as a band very well: We’re a team that enters the stage together evening after evening to win the crowd. That’s what we do; highly motivated, in a way aggressively but powerful too — qualities that can be found in football and a bridge to our music.”
Touchdown track listing:
1. Isolation Man
2. The Flood
3. The Double Dealer’s Club
4. Fight For The Right
5. Forever Free
6. Punchline
7. Sad Man’s Show
8. The Betrayer
9. Heroes Of Freedom
10. Better Start To Run
11. The Battle Understood
12. Living Hell
13. Touchdown
Touchdown will be available in the following formats:
- CD jewel case
- CD digipak (EU; incl. bonus DVD Dirkschneider – Live At Wacken 2022)
- Limited Box Set available at:
- Atomic Fire Records in Yellow-Green Splatter vinyl
- Nuclear Blast in Purple Black Dust vinyl
- EMP in Red-Clear Black Dust vinyl
- -2xLP in gatefold in the following variants:
- Black, Silver, Clear/Blue-White Splatter (US excl.)
- Clear-Blue Marbled (AFR excl.)
- Yellow-Green Splatter (AFR excl.)
- Purple Black Dust (Nuclear Blast excl.)
- Red-Clear Black Dust (EMP excl.)
- Clear-Black (Sweden Rock Magazine excl.)
- Digital
