The last time there was a new studio album from German headbangers
Accept, it was 1996, and heavy metal was quite possibly at an all-time low -- completely ignored by MTV (Headbanger's Ball was off the air), and forget about radio. But the album in question, Predator, did include longtime members
Udo Dirkschneider, guitarist
Wolf Hoffman, and bassist
Peter Baltes. Fast forward ten years, and vintage metal was in a much healthier and happier state, with bands from the '80s experiencing an undeniable resurgence in popularity. So what better time for
Accept to dust off their Flying V's and rock once more? Only one catch --
Udo declined the reunion this time around. Undeterred, Hoffman and
Baltes decided to soldier on, re-enlisting former
Accept guitarist
Herman Frank (who left the group in 1984), drummer
Stefan Schwarzmann, and former
T.T. Quick singer
Mark Tornillo. The "new look
Accept" issued their first studio album in 14 years in 2010,
Blood of the Nations, and musically, the group has created an album that certainly measures up well to their early- and mid-'80s glory days. Vocally, hearing anyone besides
Udo in
Accept will take some time to get used to -- especially for long-time fans -- but hang in there, and you'll discover that
Tornillo is certainly a worthy replacement. "Tough and heavy" is a straight-to-the-point description of such tunes as the ass-kicking album-opener "Beat the Bastards," as well as "Teutonic Terror" and the heavy duty title track. Producer
Andy Sneap (known for working with the heaviest of heavy metal bands) successfully brings
Accept sonically back to the metallic roar of their glory days throughout
Blood of the Nations, resulting in an impressive return of Germany's second best-known heavy metal export of all time. ~ Greg Prato