Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Accept
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2017
Running time: approx. 305 minutes
Rating: 4/5
Finally. The first proper live document from the veterans of Teutonic metal, the hard-as-nails German school. Solingen’s Accept! After the 2009 reactivation, the arrival of the band’s new »lead throat,« American Marc Tornillo, and three newly released studio albums (a fourth is on the horizon this year). Since the reactivation, Accept have become regulars again at Balingen’s Bang Your Head!! festival, set in the idyllic rural surroundings of the Black Forest in the heart of the German state of Baden-Wüttenberg. They played there in 2011 promoting »Blood of the Nations« (2010), again in 2013 for »Stalingrad« (2012), and most recently in 2015 for »Blind Rage« (2014). That same year they also played, among other places, the Metaldays festival in Tolmin and the (sadly now defunct) See Rock festival in Graz.
Funny thing is, the band didn’t hold together for this live document with Herman Frank and Stefan Schwarzmann in the lineup. The two left at the end of 2014 and recorded and released the first Panzer album with Schmier. Accept made all three comeback albums with them, after all. So everything on this live document features new drummer Christopher Williams and the legendary (and finally reactivated) German guitarist Uwe Lulis, who’s co-responsible for the most impressive guitar lines of the Grave Digger years, back when he served there.
The first disc is the DVD! It captures Accept’s whole set from the Bang Your Head!! festival in Balingen, played on July 18, 2015. What to say? It confirms yet again that bands like this simply have to be seen live in Germany. German “loyal till the grave” fans, mostly middle-aged, between 30 and 45 and 46 and 65, with a heavy dose of men within spitting distance of Abraham or a year or so past him, packed over 15,000 people in front of the stage of the famous festival that day. That energy between the band and the German crowd, going strong now for well over four decades, remains exceptional and hard to put into words. The interaction, the reactions, all those positive vibes… Accept are masters of ruling huge stages. Their show has been a clear, polished-to-the-last-detail stage treat for years. It’s obvious who moves where on stage, how they move, who the main soloist is, and so on. The boss of the solos is of course Wolf Hoffmann, who barely lets Lulis up to the front of the stage a couple of times. The same happened to the otherwise superb Herman Frank, who is at least an equal of Hoffmann, if not the better guitarist, and that’s probably exactly why Frank gradually lost patience with being in Accept.
The band plays brilliantly, though. You wouldn’t expect anything else from legends. A word about the vocalist, too. Tornillo sits a bit lower than the famous screaming of Udo Dirkschneider. When carrying the power into the chorus, he can lack a little precision up high (Dying Breed), but that doesn’t bother in the slightest. Even though his voice has a bit less of an expressive stamp, and isn’t as convincing in extreme wails as Udo still is today, Tornillo’s expression carries a rich harvest of charisma and an identity all its own. Exactly what Accept need. A worthy replacement for Udo Dirkschneider, who mustn’t sound too much like him. He can remind you of him, but not too much. And he has to build his own charisma on top of that. And Tornillo pulls that off successfully. He shows it right away in, say, the execution of the classic London Leatherboys. The backing harmonies come off downright fun. That narrow “O” in the words “London” and “Boys,” with the closing “S” that wants to turn into a “Z,” nobody can get out of their mouth like a real German. A few awkward moments also show up in the vocal execution on the chorus of Loosers and Winners.
The footage was shot with multiple cameras, and at almost a hundred minutes of playing time it’s over in the blink of an eye. The setlist is balanced with a bold mix of tracks from the last three albums and the cult classics that can’t be missing from any real Accept show. Execution: perfect.
The extra CDs are interesting too. They hold a total of 27 songs. The Balingen show offers (only) eighteen of them in one piece. What does that mean? That the recordings added on the two audio CDs come from gigs at various European venues. They’re also all from 2015, of course. Interestingly, some songs that are on the DVD won’t necessarily turn up on both CDs, and vice versa. For example, the recording from Bang Your Head!!! is missing Hellfire, while it’s included on one of the two CDs. Meanwhile, neither audio disc has the cult classic Princess Of The Dawn, which you can of course find on the DVD.. Yep. In that sense, this album is a must-buy for everyone who came face to face with Accept at a show anywhere in 2015. That includes all of you and us who went to Metaldays in Tolmin that year.
This is the live document we’ve been waiting on from Accept, long and feverishly. A document that pays off that wait in every way. The band shows outstanding live form in their golden years! There’s still plenty of dynamite left in the stockpile. A new album is already on the horizon, and a new tour too. This live document is the perfect companion for the wait until the new studio album drops. And of course. See you in Zagreb on March 13, 2017, at the band’s show.
To finish, let me pull a little provocation out of my sleeve, a special after-dinner treat for you to chew on, a tasty comparison of who’s better these days at playing Accept material. Dirkschneider or Accept?
Accept – Fast As A Shark (official video insert, July 18, 2015, Bang Your Head!!! festival):
Line-up
Marc Tornillo – vocals
Wolff Hoffmann – guitar, backing vocals
Uwe Lulis – guitar, backing vocals
Peter Baltes – guitar, backing vocals
Christopher Williams – drums, backing vocals
Production
Accept
Track list
Blu-ray / DVD:
01. Stampede
02. Stalingrad
03. London Leatherboys
04. Restless And Wild
05. Dying Breed
06. Final Journey
07. Shadow Soldiers
08. Losers And Winners
09. 200 Years
10. Midnight Mover
11. No Shelter
12. Princess Of The Dawn
13. Dark Side Of My Heart
14. Pandemic
15. Fast As A Shark
16. Metal Heart
17. Teutonic Terror
18. Balls To The Wall
CD1:
01. Stampede
02. Stalingrad
03. Hellfire
04. London Leatherboys
05. Living For Tonite
06. 200 Years
07. Demon’s Night
08. Dying Breed
09. Final Journey
10. From The Ashes We Rise
11. Losers And Winners
12. No Shelter
13. Shadow Soldiers
14. Midnight Mover
CD2:
01. Starlight
02. Restless And Wild
03. Son Of A Bitch
04. Pandemic
05. Dark Side Of My Heart
06. The Curse
07. Flash Rockin’ Man
08. Bulletproof
09. Fall Of The Empire
10. Fast As A Shark
11. Metal Heart
12. Teutonic Terror
13. Balls to the Wall
