Oh No, Udo-n't

Udo-n’t Know What You Are Missing

Two heavy metal superpowers have released albums this month. Iron Maiden’s fifteenth album, The Final Frontier is barely out of the shrink-wrap yet I find myself more excited about Accept’s latest effort. Whilst the 2 sample tracks Maiden were released to a very mixed reaction, Accept’s first single, Teutonic Terror was met with outbreaks of mass-orgasm. One town in North Germany was, in fact, washed away by a torrent of semen minutes after the premier of the video.

Anyway, Udo was too busy launching toys from his shiny, metallic pram to patch things up with Wolf Hoffman so Mark Tornillo of TT Quick has been brought in to replace him. Now, you may be asking “Who?” & that’s a fair question. TT Quick’s biggest claim to fame is probably that Helstar once supported them yet Tornillo’s voice is perfect for Accept’s brand of old school metal. Whilst he lacks the unhinged/full-on mental delivery of the legendary Dirkschneider he is, dare I say, more consistent.

Kicking of in suitably efficient, Germanic style, Beat The Bastards sounds like Motorhead being fronted Biff Byford. The Abyss starts out as a mid-tempo, rather standard Accept affair before someone accidentally inserts a soppy Guns ‘n’ Roses-esque interlude about how the world used to be pretty good. Thankfully, the duo of Hoffman & Frank stomp all over the sentimentality with some scorching guitar work, much like a pair of Gestapo officers going through a Jewish apartment block circa 1942.

They successfully out-Manowar Manowar’s latest efforts with the title track which features gang vocals reminiscent of classic era stuff like Aiming High & it has the words “metal anthem” written all over it. There are a couple of weaker tracks; Kill The Pain leaves me limper than Halford in a titty bar, Pandemic fails to capitalise on it’s initial momentum but there’s not a single turd in this heavy metal hamper. With only one song above the 7 minute mark, Accept avoid overindulging themselves. Closing with the brilliantly named Bucket Full Of Hate* Accept have, for the first time in over 20 years, released an album that has all the hallmarks of a classic.

Finding a new vocalist seems to have been only half the problem for Accept. What makes this album so brilliant is the hiring of Andy Sneap to handle production. He made the band sit back & reassess their back-catalogue before recording. The end result is a proper Accept album; the one we’ve been waiting for. It would have been great to see Hoffman & Udo back together but Blood Of The Nations is the strongest album they’ve released since 85′s classic Metal Heart.

Tornillo’s voice has only added to their trademark sound & whilst Sneap’s masterful touch is evident throughout, this album couldn’t be any more German without invading Poland. Then again, anything else would have been unacceptable.

* Dethklok must be kicking themselves for not coming up with that one

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About The Author

Ewen
A misanthropic cretin only capable of hate & compulsive masturbation. Follow or abuse him on Twitter or Last.fm. When he's not listening to obscure 80s thrash, he likes power ballads & torture porn.