U.D.O. at the Gramercy Theatre

U.D.O.'s Udo Dirkschneider

Back in the 1970s, when heavy metal was leather and studs, before the 1980s spandex and make-up era, Accept was a respectable hard rocking and hard touring band from Germany. Accept opened for many of the biggest names and received generous admiration from hard rock and heavy metal audiences, but the group never got big enough to headline on its own. Perhaps Udo Dirkschneider’s singing was too screechy for its time, but it paved the way for AC/DC’s Bon Scott. In the 1970s, the band only enjoyed widespread recognition with the song “Balls to the Wall.” Dirkschneider left Accept in 1987 and formed a new band, U.D.O., which releases its 14^th studio album, Steelhammer, on May 24.

U.D.O. is harder and heavier than anything Dirkschneider had ever done, judging by the concert at the Gramercy Theatre tonight. Many of his new songs brought his sound up to date – they were faster and thrashier – but the bulk of the band’s performance was rooted in no-fluff 1970s heavy rock, a sound older than some of the four musicians he brought to share the stage. Unlike newer metal bands, U.D.O.’s two guitarists, Andrey Smirnov and Kasperi Heikkinen, returned to an old format by simply trading speedy guitar leads without a lot of crunching power chords or distortions. Bassist Fitty Wienhold and drummer Francesco Jovino pounded the rhythm section. Accept missed out in the 1970s, but if today’s larger hard rock audience hungers for a pure metal resurgence, U.D.O. will lead the way.