DECADENT
After more than 40 years in the business and with a renowned breakthrough in the early 80’s with ACCEPT behind him, as well as several million records sold worldwide, Udo Dirkschneider is not only one of the biggest rock legends in the business, but he’s also someone who has seen a lot.
The new album “Decadent” will be released on February 3rd in North America via AFM Records. The 15th U.D.O. studio album deals mostly with the decadent behavior of the rich upper classes, with the main theme of the album basically that of social criticism.
During his career Udo has visited virtually all the rock capitals of the world.
Long before the fall of the Iron Curtain, he travelled to Russia, played shows at the height of over 4000 meters in South America and at the beginning of 2014, even played in Ukraine, right at the heart of the conflict in Simferopol, then the absolute hot spot of the conflagration.
During this time and all over the world, Udo has experienced and witnessed a lot of things, including the devastating gap between rich and poor and the ruthless behavior of those in power.
“Decadent behavior by privileged society exists in the whole world in completely different shades,” says Udo. “Decadence is almost like a universal language. What bothers me the most is the egocentrism that goes along with that. People who have everything seem not to really care about the world around them anymore; it’s like they use their own privileged status as an absolution for that. Also they do not seem to see that there’s a correlation between their own luxury and the poverty of others.”
On this new album “Decadent” Udo points out the (largely bad) habits of our society. This is also the main theme of the very graphic music video for the title track and first single “Decadent” itself, where the divide between rich and poor is visually illustrated in a brutally honest way by adding real film material from the news.
“If all of us would live a little bit more consciously and think about who has to pay the price for our standard of living, we could make the world a better place.”
Udo Dirkschneider and Mattes (Redhead Audio Productions, Wilhelmshaven) produced the album together with Fitty Wienhold – a successful team that also worked on previous album “Steelhammer” – and once again, it’s a winning combination that has taken elements from the whole band, who were involved in the song writing process, and crafted yet another great statement of intent from an artist still at the peak of his powers.
Udo and Fitty recorded the songs at Ibiza’s “Double U Studios” and Mattes then mixed it in Wilhelmshaven. Jacob Hansen (Volbeat) then did the mastering.