Had to believe, but this is the 15th studio platter under the U.D.O. moniker (and eighth since '02!), the former Accept singer offering a dozen new tracks (the digi will add ‘Let Me Out’ and ‘Shadow Eyes’ to the running order) similar to “Steelhammer”. Prior to that 2013 disc (and the reunification of his former Accept song-writing partners, Peter Baltes & Wolf Hoffmann), Udo Dirkschneider was the undisputed keeper of the Accept mantle/style and for a long time didn't feel the need/urgency to compete with the speedy legacy of classics like ‘Fast As A Shark’ or ‘Restless And Wild’. Things changed with “Steelhammer”, upping the ante and “Decadent” follows suit, jumping out of the speakers with an appropriately entitled opener, ‘Speeder’. The similarly minded, bouncy and aggressive ‘Under Your Skin’ features plenty of guitar undulations and interplay, as does ‘House Of Fake’. Lyrically, most of the material deals with worldwide corruption/inhumanity, the rich getting richer, while the common man (and poor) are financially/socially run over. ‘Mystery’ sees a staccato riff atop an off kilter klezmer rhythm (sort of a demented circus calliope). Sort of a mystery what he was trying to do.

‘Pain’ gets everything back on track: the twin, locked in mid-tempo Accept sway and opening lyric defiantly proclaiming “I give my finger to the system” (later, in the spoken word section that's become de rigueur for U.D.O. “Try eating some of your own shit, for once, because I'm not taking it anymore”). Speaking of recent expectations, there's the acoustic tinged (and otherwise plodding) ‘Secrets In Paradise’ follow-up. Prominent raspy growl aside, ’Breathless’ is virtually commercial, compared to its surroundings. Can see the Little General swaying back n forth to the mid-tempo ‘Untouchable’. Machine gun riffing dominates ‘Rebels Of The Night’, while ‘Words In Flame’, even with acoustic guitar intro, is fairly tame (and straight forward) for a closing U.D.O track. Here's to another string of North American dates in 2015!