40 years of Balls To The Wall: This milestone anniversary of Accept’s iconic album simply couldn’t remain uncelebrated by Dirkschneider, an incarnation to pay tribute to the musical past of their frontman Udo Dirkschneider.
Except releasing two live albums, Dirkschneider had never been a recording band, but that has changed today as they are releasing the reimagining of the mentioned cult album, titled Balls To The Wall Reloaded. Gathering a top-notch selection of guest vocalists consisting of old companions but also of musicians from newer generations, the re-recording highlights the unbroken influence of the album on both old and young metalheads worldwide.
Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with both Udo and Sven Dirkschneider to find out a little more about this album that has the entire hard rock world talking.
“The idea for this re-imaganing came about while we were playing some festivals,” explains Udo.
All these people were coming up to us and saying are you gonna do something special for the 40th anniversary of Balls To The Wall and I would say oh maybe a tour and people would say oh maybe I could do this or that song with you and from there the idea just grew.”
“I liked the idea because Balls To The Wall is the most important Accept album,” he says continuing. “So from there I sat down and wrote out a list of songs and I started to put down that maybe this song would match this person and that person with this song. Then Sven started getting in touch with people.”
“That was the hard part,” interjects Sven laughing. “We had to contact all these people – and some were easy because we knew them personally but others we found ourselves having to contact record labels. Then was the really hard part – the production plan. We had to do that because we had ten different singers and when had to see when they would be free to record. That was a very big process getting all that co-ordinated.”
The re-recording of these classic tracks also provided some challenges for Udo himself as well.
“I was pretty nervous,” he admits. “I started to wonder whether or not I could still reach those notes but yeah in the end I did it and it works and I feel proud that I can do stuff like this after 40 years and I am really happy with the result.”
With the list of guest vocalists on the album including Dee Snider, Doro and Mille Petrozza Sven admits that by far the most enjoyable of the album process was getting to hear their vocals as they came in.
“Some of them really surprised me,” he admits. When London Leatherboys came in with Biff Byford’s vocals on it it actually sounded like a Saxon song. Likwise with Michael Kiske on Losing More Than You’ve Ever Had – he put these typical Helloween vocals on there and that was really fun listening to these versions. It felt really special having these files on my computer where those singers sing these songs with their own atmosphere and character so present in their singing.”
Balls To The Wall Reloaded really has become a whose who of the hard rock scene of the last few decades and it pays a true testament to just how important Accept and their music have been to that scene. That is not something that is lost on Udo either.
“The reaction of everyone really surprised me,” he says. “They were all so into it. I kept hearing people say wow yes I really want to be involved with this and like Sven said I love that everybody people their own character on their. To hear Michael put his Helloween stamp on our song was really special. I found it really interesting to hear every version and I think in the end it fits perfectly with my vocals and I really just want to say thank you so much to all the guest singers. I am also really happy to say that now we are touring with this album we are hoping to get some of the guest singers on stage with us. That is something very special for all the fans – for all the people. Really I am so proud of everything that has happened with this album.”
Balls To The Wall Reloaded is out now.
