No Limits

While the 90's may have been a down-period for Udo Dirkschneider's original band - Accept - the latter half of the decade undoubtedly belonged to U.D.O. The diminutive German frontman's traditional Metal powerhouse released a string of brutal albums beginning in '97 with 'Solid' (which lived up to, though perhaps didn't surpass, its own namesake) and culminating in 1999's masterpiece known as 'Holy'. But sandwiched in between these two is arguably the best effort from U.D.O.: No Limits.

U.D.O. simply does not relent in their straight-forward catchy Metal attack from track 1 to track 13. The entire beginning of the record has all of the foot-pounding Accept-style riffs we've now come to expect from guitarist Stefan Kaufmann, and the album in general flows incredibly well. There is nary a ballad to be found among such killer tracks as 'Way of Life' and 'Back with a Vengeance', the latter being probably the best song on the record. The addition of the classic Accept tune "I'm a Rebel" is a nice touch, if a bit out of place with the overall style of the record, which has sort of a futuristic / sci-fi feel to it that is mirrored in the 2005 U.D.O. album 'Mission No. X'.

Some could argue there is some filler, maybe 'One Step to Fate' or perhaps 'Lovemachine', but even these have moments of brilliance, especially when it comes to guitar solos which - while not blistering or overly complex - serve the mood of the song better than most modern Metal acts do. Udo's passion for unrelenting, ridiculously catchy classic Metal is apparent during every second of this release, and if you consider yourself a fan of the same then pick this up before it goes back out of print.