Hey everyone this is Red Iron here for The Great Metal Debate to share with you our review of We Are One - the new collaboration between U.D.O. and the Musikkorps der Bundeswehr, the official concert band of the German armed forces.
The U.D.O. lineup is mostly intact since their most recent studio album, Steel Factory. 68 year old Udo Dirkschneider is on vocals bringing a refined touch and instinct he has developed over the course of 26 studio albums worth of experience. You of course know his gritty voice from Accept classics such as “Balls to the Wall” and “Fast as a Shark”. The band has Andrey Smirnoff and Fabian Dee Dammers on guitars, Tilen Hudrap constantly standing out on bass, and Sven Dirkschneider, the son of Udo, behind the drum kit. But that's not all: this time they have around 60 friends along for the ride. The Concert Band of the German Armed Forces is the same orchestra that supported U.D.O. at Naval Metal Night, and the joint effort of We Are One is the logical continuation.
The album contains rock, metal, prog, ballads, and even some funkiness, all the while keeping a consistent tone and quality. There are 15 songs arranged by U.D.O. together with Christoph Scheibling with songwriting contributions from two former Accept members - Stephan Kaufman and Peter Baltes. Composers Guido Rennert
and Alexander Reuber help this to be one of the most energetic fusions of rock an orchestra I've heard. We Are One has more life flowing through the most contemporary performances like the Scorpions playing with the Berlin Philharmonic and at no point will you feel like the rock band is being restrained to stay in time with the orchestral elements. When you tell me I'm gonna listen to a rock/metal album with orchestration I kind of assume I've heard it before, but We Are One was filled with new sounds.
During my first journey through the album I found lots of fun material well put together from all angles. We Are One is filled with strong moments and a variety of sounds. It's much better than most orchestra rock fusions and the production of the recording is solid and clear. My two favorite tracks are numbers 4 and 14. “The Future Is The Reason Why” is about climate change, but I'm all about the music here: this is the military vibe I was expecting. It's a march of sorts with groovy riffage over drummer boy snares and flutes. Sabaton has some competition. The orchestra and choirs are highlighted here instead of simply supplementing Udo vocals, and it would be awesome live chanting ‘Hey Hey Hey!’ The other song you can't miss is “We Strike Back” near the end of the album. It's the shortest of the songs that isn't an instrumental and is undeniably ‘metal’ metal. The growling intro and a tempo that is thrashier than the preceding songs; it almost has “Aces High” moments but with strings and horns. I'm a sucker for a fast rocker and will probably overplay this upbeat song in the car.
The guitar solos are spectacular, fantastic in tone and how they fit into each song. The bass lines frequently have my attention, not just there to round out the sound but to motivate the music. Every single song has something unique to offer. The orchestra isn't just mimicking the music of a rock band; they're utilized as our own element, another tool and another layer to convey feelings. There's a ton of energy to this album and they pack the whole disk with maximum music.
Power metal fans and arena rock fans need to hear this album. If you don't want to have politics in your music, steer clear. When the songs come up on shuffle I'm not going to skip they're all solid though they may raise the eyebrows of an unsuspecting passenger. These tracks don't drain me like some military power metal tends to do so if you've got an hour drive ahead of you throw We Are One on in the car.