U.D.O. - Rev-Raptor
I have really been looking forward to this release, and hearing last month’s pre-album “teaser” EP, Leatherhead, only made me more impatient for it. I’m a huge fan of U.D.O. main-man Udo “Bastard!!” Dirkschneider, and his old band, Accept, and have been since I was a kid, listening to I’m a Rebel and Breaker. Rev-Raptor, which is apparently named after a toy robotic dinosaur, is every bit as good as I was expecting it to be. Some people -assholes, I call them- might not like how… let’s say, consistent, Udo’s music always is. But the man with the metal heart knows to not fuck up a good thing, and this means that you can always count on him to deliver memorable Metal. In fact, just try to not sing along with “Leatherhead” or the amazing “Fairy Tales of Victory” (which is probably the best song on an album chock-full of ass-kickery)! One listen and you’ll be banging your head and singing along with Udo! And that brings me to the only real flaw I can find with Rev-Raptor: You don’t get all the songs on the regular jewel-case CD. The digipak version has two bonus tracks, plus two videos (“Leatherhead” and “I Give As Good As I Get”). The Japanese version has two different bonus tracks. (There is a super-limited edition version, too, which has the digipak version in it, but even then you still don’t get the Japanese bonus tracks.) If “I Give As Good As I Get” is released as a single, or EP, as “Leatherhead” was, perhaps it will have the Japan-only tracks on there, but I’m not holding my breath for that. So, those of us who care are left with the option of not having all the songs, or tracking down not only the digipak version, since the US is, of course, only getting the stripped-down jewel-case edition, but also somehow the Japanese version. That feels suspiciously like AFM is fucking me with no lube, and I didn’t even get dinner first! I’m sure that it’s not Dirkschneider’s fault, but it’s still frustrating, and that’s exactly what I don’t need when listening to music I like. I wanted to give this album much closer to a 10, but holy hell, the band recorded 17 songs and I’ve only heard 13 of them. I’m missing about a quarter of the music, and the rating reflects it. By the way, AFM, and all other record labels out there, if you ever wonder why people illegally download your releases, it’s in part due to not wanting to buy multiple versions of the same album just to get all the songs.
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