Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Urban Bolta
Location: Arena / Vienna / Austria
Concert date: 01/31/2011
Attendance: 800
Ticket price: 32€
When a band as legendary as Accept heads out on its first proper European tour in a decade and a half, it’s without a doubt a big deal. Accept are the most traditional of all the bands of the German heavy metal school, which exploded in the mid-eighties and gave birth to a slew of new bands that still help shape the European heavy and power metal scene today. But while the careers of bands like Helloween, Rage or Running Wild were still in diapers, Accept were already selling millions of records both at home and across the Atlantic, and by paving the way for German and European heavy metal with their innovative sound, they earned the title of living legends over the years.
On the current tour, Accept are supporting last year’s album “Blood of the Nations” (review here), which proved that even old farts can still sweep the competition away with style. TT Quick frontman Mark Tornillo took the helm, since the band’s icon, the charismatic old uncle Udo Dirkschneider, didn’t want to be part of the reunion lineup. The exact reasons for Dirkschneider’s move remain shrouded in mystery, and the official explanation is that after twenty years of a career with U.D.O., the former face of the band didn’t want to push his own band onto the back burner, though I personally think the reason lies in Udo’s calculating streak, since he didn’t want to get burned by a possibly failed comeback of his original band.
Slovenian fans of the band have plenty of dates on the current Accept tour to choose from. Among other places, they played (or still will play) Milan, Budapest, Munich and Zlin, and I decided to hop over to Vienna’s Arena, heading there with a trio of Croatian hard & heavy diehards of many years.
Before Accept took the stage, Steelwing got their five minutes of fame. They’re yet another in the line of Swedish heavy metal revivalists, who are popping up like mushrooms after rain in that Scandinavian country. Their name is obviously well regarded at their label, since after just one full-length album the Swedes are already, for the second time in a short while (after Blind Guardian), playing as the opening act on the tour of one of the big metal bands. Steelwing cultivate a melodic heavy metal style, though the galloping rhythms and riff construction remind a bit too much of Maiden’s “Piece of Mind” era. Vocally, frontman Riley did great, and unlike Dickinson, he also hits the highest “Halford” vocal lines, though not with anywhere near that intensity and charisma. If the guys polish their musical talent even more and bring more of their own identity into their sound, we’ll surely hear more of Steelwing.
Accept started spoiling the packed, though not sold-out, Arena with their newest material, with the songs Teutonic Terror and Bucket Full of Hate serving as an opening greeting, before Mark Tornillo slipped into Udo’s boots and kicked off an evening full of classic Accept anthems with Starlight. Ever since it was announced that he’d become a full-fledged member of the band, Tornillo has had to fend off the distrustful glances of Udo’s sworn fans, and his best defense is attack! Tornillo proved to be an extremely charismatic frontman with an innate feel for steering the flow of a concert. At fifty, the guy is still a real factory of juicy screaming that doesn’t let up even after an intense two hours on stage. And why would it? The throaty registers are no big challenge for him, and Accept never stood out for vocal acrobatics anyway, so they went looking for a singer with a dirty edge, which Tornillo never fails to deliver. Tornillo tackled the folk-hero classics like Neon Nights and Metal Heart with uncompromising determination, bringing a dash of his own intellect to the vocals without the obligatory glance back at his predecessor’s legacy. A lot of the work was done by his charismatic persona, which wraps the audience around its finger, convinces them he’s right, and spits them out at the end still in a trance of delight! Yes, Mark Tornillo is exactly the right man Accept were looking for!
The guitar duo of Wolf Hoffmann and Herman Frank was impressive. In the first half of the eighties they made only two albums together, yet the cleverness of the riffs on them compares easily with the Downing/Tipton pair (Judas Priest). Together with bassist Peter Baltes, the guitar trio was the center of the stage action, and in the instrumental parts they came together and, shoulder to shoulder, laid riffs into our ears. The central guitar figure was of course Hoffmann, who attacked the crushers Restless and Wild and Losers and Winners, as well as the slightly slower Princess of the Down, with an energetic, heartfelt approach, and the sophisticated solos laid over Frank’s rhythm were all there too. The crowd swallowed song after song with mouths wide open, the long-since familiar ones and the newest cuts alike. The best proof of the warm reception of the “Blood of the Nations” album among the target audience is Pandemic, an onslaught of a song that Accept boldly slotted into the encore between the speed metal Fast as a Shark and Balls to the Wall, during which the Arena was practically torn apart.
The legendary Germans built their setlist as a “best of” survey of their career, so the sizable presence of “Restless and Wild” (1982), “Balls to the Wall” (1983) and “Metal Heart” (1985) classics isn’t the least bit surprising. Given the band’s loooong absence from the stage (not counting a short festival tour in 2005), the setlist was totally expected and welcome. I was especially happy about Midnight Mover, which they regularly rotate with Ahead of the Pack/London Leatherboys or even with Slaves To Metal. On any further tours, though, Accept will have to work in some rarer, long-forgotten gems, or else going to their shows will turn into a boring routine for the band’s regular supporters.
In 2011, Accept run like a well-oiled, tightly rehearsed machine! A full two-hour blast with no pointless solo spots or banter smashed the “Helloween lump” in my throat, which had built up watching the recent Helloween shows in Zagreb and Ljubljana. The sound crew added their part too, squeezing the most out of the proverbially acoustically hopeless Arena and working a real miracle with the sound. The two guitars were clearly separated, and the experience was that much better for it. The new old live attraction Accept is breathing with full lungs again! See you in Munich in a few days!
Photos: Zlatko “Lawless” Vlašić
Setlist
ACCEPT: 1. Teutonic Terror 2. Bucket Full of Hate 3. Starlight 4. Love Child 5. Breaker 6. New World Comin’ 7. Restless and Wild 8. Son of a Bitch 9. Midnight Mover 10. Metal Heart 11. Neon Nights 12. Bulletproof 13. Losers and Winners 14. Aiming High 15. Princess of the Dawn 16. Up to the Limit 17. No Shelter 18. Burning —————– 19. Fast as a Shark 20. Pandemic 21. Balls to the Wall STEELWING: 1. The Illusion 2. Headhunter 3. The Nightwatcher 4. Stone Of Allusion 5. Sentinel Hill 6. Clash of the Two Tribes 7. Roadkill (…Or Be Killed)
Photo Gallery
