Artist: Accept
Label: Epic Records
Released: 1983
Rating: 5/5
If Black Sabbath and Judas Priest are the godfathers of metal, then Accept are its godparents. Few bands had such a huge influence on the music of the day, and at the same time, more or less content with the status of grey eminence, stayed behind the scenes of rock history. Part of the blame probably lies with vocalist Udo Dirkschneider, whose ear-splitting voice and not exactly enviable physique didn’t quite fit the rock star prototype, and with the dark lyrics, which kept the band from ever landing decent air play on MTV and the radio. They conquered America around the same time as their countrymen Scorpions did with Love at first sting, but then hid in the shadow of the calculated, perfectly timed Crazy world, and along with most of the long-haired guys in tight pants, sadly sank into oblivion when grunge arrived. Still, Balls to the wall sold around two million copies worldwide, and to this day it’s a cult, foundational album that no real metal collection is complete without.
The record was cut in Cologne with Dieter Dierks, an old Scorpions associate, and for the mix Accept, just like on the previous album Restless and wild, called in the legendary Michael Wagener, who made his name with masterpieces like Metallica’s Master of puppets, Dokken’s Under lock and key and Skid row’s debut. Balls to the wall tops its predecessor not only in sound but in the lyrics too, which were taken on by their then manager, now guitarist Wolf Hoffmann’s wife, who under the pseudonym Deaffy stirs up controversy around London leatherboys (whose riff is a copy of Priest’s Killing machine) and Love child. Of course, the crowns of the album are the mastodon riff that opens the title track, which effectively backs up its ominous Sabbath-style vibe with gang vocals and political undertones, and the melodramatic Losing more than you’ve ever had, whose intro recalls the epic Princess of the Dawn. Like most Accept albums, this one is largely defined by Hoffmann’s Flying V, merciless and sharp both in the solos and in the rhythms, which range from progressive ideas like those on Head over Heals all the way to testosterone-fueled outbursts that carry on the tradition of Fast as a shark, which many consider the first speed metal track in history. The album closes with the acoustic Winter dreams, which, unlike the band’s other ballads, isn’t gloomy but distinctly moody, and whose soothing, impressionistic touches are fairly uncharacteristic of Accept’s lyricism.
Balls to the wall is a more mature, more thought-out version of Restless and wild, the fourth album, on which Accept shaped their trademark style and tasted international fame for the first time. Since the band landed a label pretty quickly in the late seventies, the music on the first three albums is rather muddled, and, if we wanted to dodge harsher criticism, we’d call it a kind of exploring and groping around, since right up to Breaker and the song Midnight Highway, Accept have no ideas worth mentioning. After Breaker, the other guitarist Jorg Fischer left for a few years, so all the related studio work on Restless was done by Wolf Hoffmann, and on tour the band got help from Herman Frank, who also worked on Balls. But Accept’s mastermind is first and foremost Hoffmann, the author of the lion’s share of the music and one of the most underrated guitarists in rock history. Like most German masters, he drew inspiration from Uli Roth and the Schenker brothers, and the classical influences are noticeable too, which we can hear on Metal Heart and, much later, as the main theme of his solo album Classical, recorded in Nashville with his longtime friend Wagener. Hoffmann’s riffs are mightier than Iommi’s, since besides the darkness they’re often adorned with a well-dosed melodicity, and his solos are compositional masterpieces that make sense from start to finish, built not just on licks and patterns but above all on a sharp sense of harmony. Head over heals and Winter dreams are two great examples. Balls is thus a carefully structured rock masterpiece, seasoned with phenomenal guitar bits and embellishments that are never intrusive and always in the right place, plus the group vocals typical of today’s adrenaline-pumping power metal. The weakest point of the album is certainly the lead vocal, which only works in the context of the eighties and nowadays, as an element that gets mocked, lands tragicomically among the criticisms of that era. With its sky-high register it most resembles a cross between Brian Johnson and King Diamond or, at best, Rob Halford with severe chronic bronchitis. But just as it’s impossible to imagine Accept without Hoffmann, it’s equally impossible without Dirkschneider, which was confirmed above all by the rather unsuccessful collaboration with David Reece on Eat the heat, which closed their golden era.
So Balls to the wall isn’t just some relic from the past but a quintessential metal album that you could never slap the unpopular hair or glam label on, and whose echoes can still be heard today from the far north, home of new defenders of the faith Hammerfall and Lordi. The label BMG responded to that, releasing in 2002 a remastered edition that, besides Balls, also included three of their biggest hits, Metal heart, Russian Roulette and Eat the heat, with bonus tracks, while the older catalog was handled by SPV/Steamhammer in 2005.
Lineup
Udo Dirkschneider – vocals
Wolf Hoffmann – guitar
Hermann Frank – guitar
Peter Baltes – bass
Stefan Kaufmann – drums
Production
Accept
Track list
1. Balls To The Wall
2. London Leatherboys
3. Fight It Back
4. Head Over Heals
5. Losing More Than You’ve Ever Had
6. Love Child
7. Turn Me On
8. Losers And Winners
9. Guardian Of The Night
10. Winter Dreams
11. Up To The Limit (live) – bonus
12. Head Over Heels (live) – bonus
Album length: 56.12
