Label: Napalm Records
Release date: April 26, 2024
Production: Andy Sneap
Album length: 48.13 min.
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 8.0/10
Accept are one hell of a heavy metal band. Revelation of the century? No. Just a fact. “Humanoid” is their seventeenth studio album overall, and in vibe, energy and production it sits closest to the expression of the previous five studio records. There’s definitely a traceable link back to the eighties, but we shouldn’t let that fool us, because the magic with Dirkschneider remains an absolute one-off and one of the crown jewels of metal’s flourishing eighties era.
Let’s leave that aside. Wolf Hoffmann, the last ‘survivor’ of every era of this long-lived Teutonic metal band, founded in 1976 in Solingen, Germany, still in the lineup of today’s Accept, simply knows the drill far too well, and knows how to pull it off. The mastermind, visionary, chief songwriter and, first and foremost, superb guitarist managed, in the three years since the very good predecessor “Too Mean To Die” (2021, RockLine review), to piece together yet again enough sharp, direct, searing, full-on-assault guitar phrases for a new monolithic studio album that doesn’t budge an inch from the recipe and formula Hoffmann clings to faithfully and very skillfully even in his mature years. It’s of course a stylistic summary of this iconic band’s eighties legacy, even if the expressive energy of today’s Accept is, as said, noticeably different. On this album too, Hoffmann remains the main trump card of the band’s instant stylistic recognizability, its one-of-a-kind (leaving aside the still-kicking ‘daughter’ outfit called U.D.O., where, to be honest, there’s more Accept DNA today than in Accept themselves). It’s there in his songwriting style and, of course, in that cherry on top his solos deliver, the thing that makes him instantly recognizable. This time around, too, neo-classical flourishes stare right out of them. On the new album the solos are sprinkled with them. The first such flourish shows up right in the solo of the opening forge-hammer maneuver, the furious Diving Into Sun.
Anyway, “Humanoid” follows the stylistic format of the previous five albums. Accept once again serve up some extremely deftly woven compositions that grab you instantly with their mix of direct destructiveness and musical hunger. There are certainly differences in the level of inspiration from song to song. Straight Up Jack can be heard right away as a first-class tribute to AC/DC, with Tornillo’s raspy, screechy vocal approach pouring oil on the fire. The album’s highlights are the relentlessly jagged, rolling closer Southside Of Hell (meaning the album ends with a highly vibrant slap in the face, which is great), the absolute title track, a dark tale of total dehumanization, and the fun follow-up with the single Frankenstein. The thoroughly devastating The Reckoning chases the magic of Tornillo’s excellent earlier creations like Pandemic or Teutonic Terror. Nobody Gets Out Alive, which veers almost into rock’n’roll (in the verse), and the balladic Ravages of Time have things standing exactly where they should. In Man Up, Diving Into Sun and the wickedly hooligan mischief of Unbreakable, we get the choruses decked out with those famous manly harmonies (crowd shouts), which have always been an Accept trademark. Mind Games, a mid-tempo track that brings a welcome change of atmosphere, counts as one of the most interesting and polished compositions on the new album, complete with superb solutions in the mid-eight passage.
“Humanoid” is a dark, occult, even apocalyptic and at times wickedly toothy album. So it carries all the ingredients of a proper classic heavy metal record, and within the all-too-familiar Accept format there’s hardly anything to add or take away. In terms of ideas and inspiration there’s nothing to reproach it for, and it holds at least the level of its predecessor “Too Mean To Die”. There are no weak moments, and from the first minute to the last the album keeps up a high level of dynamic unfolding.
“Humanoid” is yet another very, very good accomplishment from Accept in their mature era, with Wolf Hoffmann holding the conductor’s baton. It will completely satisfy and delight all the true followers of the band, who have no trouble bridging the band’s expression between the Udo and Tornillo eras. So even with a new studio album, Accept remain a self-made institution of heavy metal, and it’s clear that on the upcoming tour the new songs will sit phenomenally next to the classics from the band’s iron era. Unbreakable is among the first that belong straight on stage. This is an album that gives fans of the band exactly what they want and expect. So no artistic change, just a new yet equally first-rate ‘playing around’ with the band’s one-of-a-kind creative musical formula, which Hoffmann has and commands with his left pinkie.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Diving Into Sin
2. Humanoid
3. Frankenstein
4. Man Up
5. The Reckoning
6. Nobody Gets Out Alive
7. Ravages Of Time
8. Unbreakable
9. Mind Games
10. Straight Up Jack
11. Southside Of Hell
Lineup:
Wolf Hoffmann – guitar
Mark Tornillo – vocals
Uwe Lulis – guitar
Christopher Williams – drums
Martin Motnik – bass
