Post by mika on Sept 6, 2010 0:07:48 GMT -5
Accept – Blood Of The Nations
Accept has come back with a vengeance! Forget the lightweight Objection Overruled album and enjoy of the new album by the metal masters. This is what Accept should have sounded in 1993. As we all know there is no Udo in this record. The new vocalist is Mark Tornillo and he doesn't need to fill Udo's shoes, he has a pair of his own.
Now I have a couple of words to say about Mark. I know that not many people will agree with me when comparing the man to Udo in 2010. I am able to say some things because I've seen Udo performing live in 2010, which is a totally different issue than Udo in 2002 – 2008. I am happy with Mark though, even though he doesn't have the same kind of power in his voice like Udo does nowadays. Don't get me wrong. Mark has a strong voice that's for sure, but when he pushes his voice to the limit, it breaks a little bit. Less would do just fine. However the man still has a many dimensional voice and I especially like when he sings with clean voice. This is the thing he does better than Udo.
Now that's enough for the serious critique toward Mark. What is good is the thing that Mark doesn't try to imitate Udo, but sings with his own style as he did as a vocalist in TT Quick. Occasionally Mark's voice reminds me of Peter Dirkschneider, sometimes he resembles Mike Howe and for example in the bonus track Time Machine his voice reminds me of Frank Knight (X-Wild). It is not important who comes to mind about his singing, but let this be some kind of proof that he has many different kind of colours in his voice.
Now I think it is time to leave Mark alone, at least for a while – and attack the new Accept record. The digipack version lasts over 70 minutes. Without hearing the record it seems to be a little bit too long time for a record. How wrong is that feeling! Ha, ha! This is a real metal opus: a gigantic one! The songs are pretty long, but that doesn't disturb me one bit – on the contrary. Now there is enough time for Wolf to play his beautiful and effective guitar solos, for example the opening track Beat The Bastards contains a guitar solo which lasts over a minute. That guitar solo is ear candy to me.
I won't make a song by song review this time. To me this record is more Accept than say Objection Overruled which also had those Accept moments there. Blood Of The Nations has more of those moments and that is a fantastic thing for an Accept fan since 1981. The record contains the ”obligatory” ballad as well. To me one part of the essence of Accept are the ballads too. Kill The Pain is a beautiful song where Mark shows what kind of a vocalist he is. He gets the fantastic feeling in his voice which sends shivers down to my spine. Partly this ballad brings to my mind the best Accept ballad Writing On The Wall.
BOTN is really a diverse record. It contains the already mentioned ballad, couple of speedy tracks, hard rock song Time Machine and atmospheric mid-tempo songs like The Abyss or Shades Of Death. The latter is a brilliant pastiche to the guitar riffs familiar to the song Slaves To Metal. Shades Of Death has a cool marching type of rhythm which brings to mind soldiers determined to destroy the enemy. Atmosphere is quite dark in this song, but what can you expect from a song which is titled Shades Of Death. The song is rhythm wise monotonic, but in a strange way it is just that what makes it a great metal anthem.
After the ballad Kill The Pain it is time for a speedy track composed by Herman Frank. I sincerely hope Herman gets more chances to show his excellent abilities on future Accept records. He has had a long career and I don't cease to wonder where he gets his energy. He doesn't only play but he also mixes and produces albums and he has a wide knowledge of music also as a producer .
The end part of the album concentrates on energetic metal. What can be more rewarding that? Nothing! Rest of the album has many classic Accept elements in the songs. Not only that, there are also modern metal ingredients in the songs inside the limits of traditional metal. You are allowed to experiment a little and thank God Accept still remains to play traditional metal. And yes, it was the right choice to choose Andy Sneap to produce the album of the year 2010. If someone comes to me and asks me a question like this: do you know what bands play traditional metal nowadays, they are so hard to find today? I would advise that person to go to a record shop and purchase a new Accept cd called Blood Of The Nations. You can't get a new record better than that in the genre of traditional metal in 2010!
Summa summarum: It is amazing that this is the first Accept record where I sincerely like all the songs. Restless and Wild had Demon's Night which I didn't like so much. BTTW had two songs which I didn't like. Death Row had also two songs I didn't like. Another thing which amazed me is that Accept made a metal opus which lasts over 70 minutes and it still doesn't have a single filler!
I am already waiting anxiously for the next Accept record and therefore I will give this Blood Of The Nations cd 9,5 points out of ten. I will be more than glad to give the full ten points to the next Accept album.
At the end of this review I want to quote Wolf from his interview to Metal Covenant: ”It was those classical composers who essentially laid the foundation for what we now call Heavy Metal”.
Accept has come back with a vengeance! Forget the lightweight Objection Overruled album and enjoy of the new album by the metal masters. This is what Accept should have sounded in 1993. As we all know there is no Udo in this record. The new vocalist is Mark Tornillo and he doesn't need to fill Udo's shoes, he has a pair of his own.
Now I have a couple of words to say about Mark. I know that not many people will agree with me when comparing the man to Udo in 2010. I am able to say some things because I've seen Udo performing live in 2010, which is a totally different issue than Udo in 2002 – 2008. I am happy with Mark though, even though he doesn't have the same kind of power in his voice like Udo does nowadays. Don't get me wrong. Mark has a strong voice that's for sure, but when he pushes his voice to the limit, it breaks a little bit. Less would do just fine. However the man still has a many dimensional voice and I especially like when he sings with clean voice. This is the thing he does better than Udo.
Now that's enough for the serious critique toward Mark. What is good is the thing that Mark doesn't try to imitate Udo, but sings with his own style as he did as a vocalist in TT Quick. Occasionally Mark's voice reminds me of Peter Dirkschneider, sometimes he resembles Mike Howe and for example in the bonus track Time Machine his voice reminds me of Frank Knight (X-Wild). It is not important who comes to mind about his singing, but let this be some kind of proof that he has many different kind of colours in his voice.
Now I think it is time to leave Mark alone, at least for a while – and attack the new Accept record. The digipack version lasts over 70 minutes. Without hearing the record it seems to be a little bit too long time for a record. How wrong is that feeling! Ha, ha! This is a real metal opus: a gigantic one! The songs are pretty long, but that doesn't disturb me one bit – on the contrary. Now there is enough time for Wolf to play his beautiful and effective guitar solos, for example the opening track Beat The Bastards contains a guitar solo which lasts over a minute. That guitar solo is ear candy to me.
I won't make a song by song review this time. To me this record is more Accept than say Objection Overruled which also had those Accept moments there. Blood Of The Nations has more of those moments and that is a fantastic thing for an Accept fan since 1981. The record contains the ”obligatory” ballad as well. To me one part of the essence of Accept are the ballads too. Kill The Pain is a beautiful song where Mark shows what kind of a vocalist he is. He gets the fantastic feeling in his voice which sends shivers down to my spine. Partly this ballad brings to my mind the best Accept ballad Writing On The Wall.
BOTN is really a diverse record. It contains the already mentioned ballad, couple of speedy tracks, hard rock song Time Machine and atmospheric mid-tempo songs like The Abyss or Shades Of Death. The latter is a brilliant pastiche to the guitar riffs familiar to the song Slaves To Metal. Shades Of Death has a cool marching type of rhythm which brings to mind soldiers determined to destroy the enemy. Atmosphere is quite dark in this song, but what can you expect from a song which is titled Shades Of Death. The song is rhythm wise monotonic, but in a strange way it is just that what makes it a great metal anthem.
After the ballad Kill The Pain it is time for a speedy track composed by Herman Frank. I sincerely hope Herman gets more chances to show his excellent abilities on future Accept records. He has had a long career and I don't cease to wonder where he gets his energy. He doesn't only play but he also mixes and produces albums and he has a wide knowledge of music also as a producer .
The end part of the album concentrates on energetic metal. What can be more rewarding that? Nothing! Rest of the album has many classic Accept elements in the songs. Not only that, there are also modern metal ingredients in the songs inside the limits of traditional metal. You are allowed to experiment a little and thank God Accept still remains to play traditional metal. And yes, it was the right choice to choose Andy Sneap to produce the album of the year 2010. If someone comes to me and asks me a question like this: do you know what bands play traditional metal nowadays, they are so hard to find today? I would advise that person to go to a record shop and purchase a new Accept cd called Blood Of The Nations. You can't get a new record better than that in the genre of traditional metal in 2010!
Summa summarum: It is amazing that this is the first Accept record where I sincerely like all the songs. Restless and Wild had Demon's Night which I didn't like so much. BTTW had two songs which I didn't like. Death Row had also two songs I didn't like. Another thing which amazed me is that Accept made a metal opus which lasts over 70 minutes and it still doesn't have a single filler!
I am already waiting anxiously for the next Accept record and therefore I will give this Blood Of The Nations cd 9,5 points out of ten. I will be more than glad to give the full ten points to the next Accept album.
At the end of this review I want to quote Wolf from his interview to Metal Covenant: ”It was those classical composers who essentially laid the foundation for what we now call Heavy Metal”.
Some thoughts of mine about it:
More a Wolf solo stuff than an ACCEPT song. Reminds me of Wolf's Classical album a lot - and as we know some parts of this tune are borrowed from Concerto Mondiale.
