Dirkschneider & The old Gang

What a story! Over the past few years, a charity campaign featuring six prominent musicians for the benefit of artists affected by the coronavirus lockdown has developed into a spectacular project that will undoubtedly cause a sensation. We are talking about Dirkschneider And The Old Gang, DATOG for short, with a line-up whose majority has had a decisive influence on the history of heavy metal over the past four decades: Udo Dirkschneider was the founder and long-time singer of Accept and, after leaving the band, also led his follow-up bands, U.D.O. and Dirkschneider, to international fame. In DATOG he is joined by Peter Baltes (bass, vocals; Accept), Stefan Kaufmann (guitar; Accept, U.D.O.) and Mathias Dieth (guitar; Sinner, U.D.O.) as well as Udo's son Sven Dirkschneider (drums; U.D.O., Dirkschneider), who has played for his dad for the last ten years. The sixth member of the gang is singer Manuela Bibert, who has not been let off the hook since her great performance on the recording of the U.D.O. orchestra album “We Are One” in the spring of 2019.In this constellation, three DATOG singles, (“Where The Angels Fly”, “Face Of A Stranger” & “Every Heart Is Burning”), were created between summer 2020 and fall 2021, including video clips that are well worth watching, this got the train rolling: “The whole thing developed a momentum of its own, that we hadn't expected in this form", Kaufmann looks back somewhat surprised! “After the singles incredibly went viral, fans, record companies and concert agencies immediately got intouch and wanted to know whether there was more to come, in other words, what the prospects were for a full album? In fact, we very quickly had more songs in reserve that fit the band's concept, and that's how the album that everyone wanted actually came about.” DATOG will release their debut album “Babylon” on October 3rd, 2025, via 'Reigning Phoenix Music'. Starting in April 2025, a new single will be presented on the 6th of every month for an entire year (!), accompanied by a performance video and a lyric video. So you don't have to be a prophet to predict that this plan will be a successful ride through all the various metal instances.Especially as the stylistic DATOG concept mentioned by Kaufmann is based on three singers - Dirkschneider, Bibert, Baltes - and therefore contains different vocal profiles that proves to be the band's unique selling point. “Of course, we didn't even try to split the vocals equally, but carefully analyzed whose voice would fit best for each part”, explains Udo Dirkschneider, who, as an experienced team player, knows that the music alone should dictate the respective arrangement. The same applies to the songwriting, which was also not about cultivating supposed vanities, butfollowed the motto exclusively: The best songs win!A wise decision, as the twelve songs on “Babylon” show! Because within a clearly defined basic stylistic direction and alongside magnificent solo performances, especially from exceptional guitarist Mathias “Don” Dieth, the album is particularly characterized by great complexity and anenormous wealth of facets. This ranges from the first pre-release single “It Takes Two To Tango” (April 6th, 2025) with its driving guitar riff and the uptempo number “Time To Listen”, which follows on May 6th, 2025, to the final single on March 6th, 2026 with the shuffle-fueled “The LawOf A Madman”. In between, there is “Hellbreaker” (June 6th, 2025), a hard-hitting metal pamphlet, the ballad “Strangers In Paradise” (July 6th, 2025) and “Babylon” (September 6th, 2025), a worthy title track. Almost exactly halfway through the monthly single releases, the full album and the song “Metal Sons”, a tribute to true, original heavy metal, will be released on October 3rd, 2025.Finally, we come to the summary of the DATOG story, which, as already mentioned, was initially only intended for a specific purpose, but has now become an impressive spectacle: with “Babylon”, where the German all-star band presents twelve brilliant metal songs which, despite their unusual vocal concept, never degenerate into a Babylonian confusion of voices. Quite the opposite: the album inspires both compositionally and vocally and convinces every sound fetishist with its transparent yet powerful production.