Following his 1987 exit from the German power metal band Accept, vocalist Udo Dirkschneider formed U.D.O. with guitarists Peter Szigeti and Mathias Dieth, bassist Frank Rittel, and drummer Tomas Franke. The group's debut album, Animal House, was in fact written by Dirkschneider's former bandmates in Accept, and by the time of the 1988 follow-up Mean Machine, Szigeti, Rittel, and Franke had all been dismissed, replaced by guitarist Andy Susemihl, bassist Thomas Smuszynski, and drummer Stefan Schwarzmann. Susemihl himself was out of U.D.O. for 1990's Faceless World, replaced by ...