A one-off charity campaign during the pandemic grew into an all-star heavy metal project: DIRKSCHNEIDER & THE OLD GANG — DATOG for short — united six seasoned musicians, many of whom have helped shape the metal genre’s legacy over the past four decades.
At the core: iconic vocalist Udo Dirkschneider, founder and longtime frontman of ACCEPT, and leader of U.D.O. and DIRKSCHNEIDER. He’s joined by Peter Baltes (bass, vocals; ACCEPT, DIRKSCHNEIDER),Stefan Kaufmann (guitar; ACCEPT, U.D.O.),Mathias “Don” Dieth (guitar; SINNER, U.D.O.),Udo‘s son Sven Dirkschneider (drums, U.D.O., DIRKSCHNEIDER),and powerhouse vocalist Manuela “Ella” Bibert, whose standout performances on the U.D.O. orchestra album “We Are One” (2019) solidified her place in the lineup.
Together, they released three singles between 2020 and 2021 — “Where The Angels Fly”, “Face Of A Stranger” and “Every Heart Is Burning” — followed up by a special charity EP, called “Arising”, to help support artists, crews and musicians affected by the coronavirus lockdown. The immense success of their recordings and music videos surpassed every expectation, with more than 23 million streams and views in total to date.
“The whole thing developed a momentum of its own that we hadn’t expected,” recalls Kaufmann. “Fans and labels immediately wanted to know: is there more to come?”
The answer has arrived.
After four years, DATOG return with “It Takes Two To Tango”, a powerful new single and the first taste of their much-anticipated 2025 debut album “Babylon”, released via Reigning Phoenix Music — a trusted partner of both U.D.O. and DIRKSCHNEIDER. The track kicks off the next chapter in DATOG‘s journey, proving that the chemistry, passion, and fire between these six musicians is as strong as ever.
DATOG comments: “We’re very happy about being part of the RPM family and continuing our work with Jochen Richert. We secretly started this joint campaign a while ago, and our mutual experiences behind the scenes have so far shown us that we are all definitely on the same page and driven by the same musical mutual factors: passion, loyalty, and the love for heavy music.”
Managing director Jochen Richert (Reigning Phoenix Music) adds: “Grabbing the chance of releasing DATOG‘s much-anticipated debut album was a no-brainer, of course. After their first steps exceeded, by far, several hopes and dreams, their new material is nothing short of a continuation, if not now on a higher level. Thank you to the whole GANG for your trust, let’s rock this together!”
Musically, “It Takes Two to Tango” puts the pedal to the metal, supported by a lyric underlining the aforementioned idea behind DATOG: the common joy of playing music! A virtue that surely will also infect all the viewers of the supporting music video, which was filmed by RCN TV at the legendary Dierks Studios (Stommeln, Germany),where actually the full record was tracked. The concluding mastering was handled by guitarist Kaufmann at ROXX Studio (Solingen, Germany).
“‘It Takes Two To Tango’ is strictly speaking only half of the song title, as the lyrics go on to say ‘(But) It Takes Six To Rock’. “This motto says it all”, the group states and adds: “An absolute joint effort!”
DATOG is:
Udo Dirkschneider – lead vocals
Peter Baltes – bass, lead & backing vocals
Manuela “Ella” Bibert – lead & backing vocals, key instruments
Stefan Kaufmann – guitars, backing vocals
Mathias “Don” Dieth – guitars, backing vocals
Sven Dirkschneider – drums, backing vocals
Photo credit: Eddi Bachmann
Source: blabbermouth.net
