When I heard that
Wolf Hoffman was reuniting his classic traditional Heavy Metal band
Accept without their long time, leather lunged frontman Udo Dirkschneider I was initially very sceptical.
After all last time he did this was for the horrible exercise in selling out with 1989's Eat The Heat. A rather commercial sounding metal record fronted by David Reece that had an ear to the glam sounds of the L.A Strip. My cynicism was eased when
Wolf stated that the band would be concentrating on their classic 80's sound which produced such talismanic metal records as Breaker, Restless And Wild and Balls To The Wall.
Since Udo has stated that after the bands 2005 reunion for some live shows he had no intention of working with
Wolf again, Hoffman was forced to look elsewhere in his quest to produce a new
Accept record.
The rest of the line up was easy to complete as he had long term collaborator Pete Baltes on bass plus
Herman Frank on guitar and Stefan Schwarzmann handling the drum duties. In the search for a frontman they happened across American Mark Tornillo from little known New Jersey rockers TT Quick.
The newly formed 2010
Accept line up then retired to an English studio to record the bands twelfth studio album
Blood of The Nations. And to those of you who were worried about another black mark against the
Accept legacy I am pleased to allay your fears as Blood of The Nations is an all out metal assault on the senses which stands tall and proud beside the best of the bands output.
Laying down a marker for what to expect from the rest of the album
Beat The Bastards flies
out of the speakers and throttles you with both hands. It's speed metal in the good old Fast As A Shark style. Hoffman and Frank palm mute and harmonise their way through five minutes of metal goodness and new boy Tornillo shows no fear in being handed such an important mantel as he screeches his way through this opening number.
In fact throughout the entire album Mark displays no "rabbit in the headlights" fear and sounds simply awesome. His gravel-throated style can certainly be compared to The German
Tank Udo but he is no mere sound-alike. His years of experience on the heavy metal scene have lead to him developing his own unique style. In fact there are so many moments when your jaw hits the floor with the sheer force and confidence of his singing that you almost forget that he hasn't fronted this band for years.
If
Beat The Bastards got me all excited then second track
Teutonic Terror sent me over the edge, it's a swaggering metallic beast of a song that proves that
Accept mean business. Its mid paced riff simply takes no prisoners as it demolishes everything in its path with tales of obliterating the enemy using nothing more than the power of
"Six string sabres" and the all consuming power of Germanic heavy metal. Tornillo sounds immense of this one as he uses his higher register to howl the lines like
"Saddle the horses...off with their heads".
The production on this one, as with the rest of the album, really gives it an extra edge. Handled by uber-producer Andy Sneap, (seriously Andy, is their a record out there you haven't had a hand in recently?) he gets the best out of the bands sound with ease. Indeed there is nothing but power, metal and might to be found on this record.
Just listen to the way Pete Baltes hammering bass break at the beginning to
Teutonic Terror shakes the ground with the force of its playing and tell me that heavy metal should sound any other way? Stefan's drumming backs up the bass to form a true as steel foundation, this allows the songs room to manoeuvre but always keeps them locked onto the true metal style.
Most of the tracks follow the path laid out by the first two, songs like the pounding, anthemic title track (The way that Tornillo screams
"Warriors" in the chorus of this one gives me the chills that I thought only Udo could) and the punishing
Rolling Thunder are nothing less that textbook examples of the sound that made
Accept legends in the eyes of metal fans worldwide.
There are a few slightly more experimental sections on the album, such as in the two longest tracks
The Abyss and one of my favourites
Shades Of Death.
The Abyss was previewed online before the albums release and didn't leave too much of an impression but in the context of the record it just makes more sense and fits in perfectly with its surroundings. The key moment of this track is where the flaming metal sound dies away to be replaced with acoustic guitars and some charming singing from Tornillo before he squeals
"I don't think so" and the song kicks up a gear again.
Shades of Death has that wonderful thick groove that made a song like Princess of The Dawn so addictive. The group just seem so relaxed and at ease with each others playing that its seven and a half minutes are a joy to listen to. It also introduces some subtle keyboards into the sound, which adds some extra textures to the record.
The album isn't perfect, ballad
Kill The Pain just doesn't really hit the spot for me and last track
Bucket Full of Hate may be the weakest of the out and out metal numbers on the record.
In fact the album should end on the second last track
No Shelter, which is a rapid, unrelenting attack on the big business criminals of the world. Again its Baltes bass that moves the whole thing along, allowing Hoffman and Frank's crashing chords and leads to hit will all the more intensity.
Accept have done themselves proud in producing an album which with any luck will be viewed in years to come with the same sort of reverence that their 80's material is at the moment. In fact if you hear a better reunion album this year I will be very surprised. I just hope this is no one off event and that the new look
Accept are here to stay.
Written by
Stuart Tuesday, September 7, 2010
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The German Metal legends are back!
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