Search - Udo :: Faceless World

This is the ultimate quintessence of 20 albums !

g | stormshire | 01/24/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"U.D.O / Faceless World.- almost at least. F.W is undoubtedly Dirkschneiders best work to this day - and it surpasses everything Accept ( his old band ) has done under their history.
Why ? This album has a flow and so much awesome catchy loops that it paradoxly is hard to remember them all !!
Before I get attacked by any Accept-fans I have to modify that ; If You think that very basic - rawsounding, fast sing-along metal anthems without temposhifts is
the best things in life , then You probably should choose other albums from Dirkschneiders
repertoar over this one. However , if You are interested in shading development and
songs who contain variation , if You appreciate a somewhat slower ( which in
UDO:s case doesnt mean slow ) tempo so that melodies and separate instruments
can be accentuated more clearly - then this is the undisputed choice for You. Songwriting is absolutely above all comparison - it's really hard to understand that
so much talent and inspiration could be concentrated to one album. And that's why
I dare to rate it better than the other UDO/Accept-CD:s ; while they have a couple
of great songs and the rest more average , this album is just pure masterpiece material
from start to finish.
Instrumentally it is top notch , I don't think I've heard so much feeling and precision in
guitarplaying on any other metal albums at all in this genre. As on previous album
(Mean Machine 1989 ) Matthias Dieth is the artist behind the guitar here - one
of Germanys most skilled metal guitar players. Here he is taking his frightening wizardry
to the absolute maximum. Udos singing is as genuine and emotional as ever - one has to admire the man , shouting his lungs out for that unmistakeable hissing.After a few listenings one other thing became obvious ; the backing vocals are not just "hummed" a little in the background ( like on other albums ) - they are really
SUNG ( !! ) on Faceless World . . This is a important factor that helps bringing out the great catchiness and loop in the lead melodies.One more techical marvel to be mentioned , production is stunningly good ( yes , this starts
to get a tiresome catalog of superlatives - but there is no other description possibly )
- remember that this was recorded 1990 ! Fresh as the spring and razorsharp sounding !
So , if You are the slightest into metal , do not walk by this - it might make a great change
in Your way of listening to music. I was completely swept away by this ( and I'm certainly
not a greenhorn in terms of metal ) , hopefully You can discover " Faceless World " in
the same fashion ! Usually I recommend one certain song to testlisten , this is not
really meaningful here ( although I like the title track very strongly ) - they are all tremendous !
Enjoy !"

An 80's style guitarist's review

Blackfrost | 11/01/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Alright, so I bought this album based on the guys review as well, that said that this was the best UDO solo album. Everyone has their opinions, but I agree with the other guy who said that the reviewer was definitely misleading.



So, here's my high level opinion on the album as an 80's metal guitar player/enthusiast: It's a generic 1990 pop metal album with some very technically skilled playing, decent production, but extremely uninspired song writing.



The only reason I ever even noticed UDO again, was that I rebought the first UDO album "animal house" and still to this day, am totally awed by the songs (yes I know accept wrote most of them) but the guitar playing was absolutely top notch in both skill and melodic quality. Maybe Mattias Dieth actually needs Peter Szigeti in order to inspire his playing to the next level.



Overall, Faceless World is pretty blah, but has a few stand out tracks like Future Land and the Opening track. The rest of the album is just standard background pop metal with no real noticable hooks that would lift it up above any other generic pop metal artists of this time period."