2014 CD Reviews - Accept - Blind Rage

ACCEPT

Blind Rage

Nuclear Blast Records - 2014

http://www.acceptworldwide.com

The Teutonic metal attack is back! Yes, Accept has returned with their latest album Blind Rage and much like their past two releases, they leave nothing to chance as they go full throttle and blast their way to some of their finest work to date.

The album opens with the song "Stampede," which served as the first taste of the disc in which listeners got prior to the official release of the album. The song is a killer rock track that is just the start of a musical onslaught which barely slows down throughout the album's 12 cuts. Producer Andy Sneap once again manned the control board and does another masterful job in creating furious soundscapes for the band to ply their skills upon. The solo on this track from guitarist Wolf Hoffmann is superb and the big muscular backing vocals in the chorus give the song just that much more heft. You can see the official video below.

And that is just the first track. Things get even better from there! Singer Mark Tornillo has long since made the vocalist spot his own and his easily identifiable gravel scream is in fine form here. But they did mix things up a bit with his vocal work. While there is plenty of screaming heavy metal vocals, you also find that he adds a touch of dramatic shading to the vocals on songs like "Fall of the Empire" and "Trail of Tears". They invariably combine with his more familiar sound, but the change serves each song well.

"Fall of the Empire" and the song "From The Ashes We Rise" are metallic anthems versus being just straight rockers. The latter track features a brief slow intro and a rather husky and bluesy vocal turn from Tornillo in the beginning. I liked the chorus for the song as well - "We've been knocked down...we'll get up / From the Ashes We Rise / We've been kicked around...sure enough / We will survive / We've been shot down...we'll get up / From the Ashes We Rise / Life is so hard...so just get tough / We will survive".

Not satisfied with just churning out ball busting rockers, the band touches on a variety of topics lyrically. The aforementioned "Trail of Tears" goes back into American history and the forced march of the Cherokee nation. Tornillo is particularly vicious with the line aimed at the government at the time of the event when he says "who are the savages now?" There's a particularly powerful attacking scream at the end of the track that will rattle your brain.

"Wanna Be Free" creates a cold, chilling atmosphere as it begins, with the first verse taking on the world of human trafficking:

"Young girl in a darkened room, crying all alone

Forced upon by her captors, so far from her home

While in another country, a rich man counts his take

He cares not for the lives he ruins"

While the song throughout sounds great, it gets a little too preachy for me when the lyrics turn towards poverty and drug abuse. I had a bit of a problem with the line in the chorus that says "Break down the barricades, open prison gates". I think that sentiment is just a bit naive because like it or not, there are people who belong in prison. Of course I may be either reading too much into the lyric but as I currently understand, I can't agree with that particular statement.

The furious pacing of "Bloodbath Mastermind" is slightly undone by a weak chorus. Alternatively, the song "Last of a Dying Breed" could have turned into a groan inducing salute to other rock and metal bands, but Accept does quite an adept job at avoiding cheesy lyrics and instead manages to craft an ode to their predecessors and contemporaries that is worthy of the bands that they name drop. Some of the bands mentioned or alluded to include Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Motorhead, Judas Priest, Saxon, Black Sabbath and Rainbow. There are more but I don't want to spoil all the fun for you. The song works both coming from the band and as something metal fans themselves could be saying/thinking about their musical heroes.

I don't know what brought about the song but the chorus shows the admiration the band holds when it sings "Here's to...the Rocking Warriors / Here's to...Our heroes and friends / And those who've gone before us / We're loyal straight to the end / They're the last of a dying breed / And we salute you / The last of a dying breed.

By the way, the packaging for the disc is outstanding both with the cover art and the inside work as well. There is a hidden track on the CD called "Thrown to the Wolves". The uptempo track is listed on the Wikipedia page for the album as being the bonus track on the Japanese version of the album. Also, there is a bonus DVD with the album containing the entire 22 song set from a concert the band performed in Chile back in 2013.

The contemplative lyrics on "The Curse" came off stunningly well right from the start as Mark Tornillo asks "Why are the world's biggest sinners / Always saints when they are gone".

If the Discovery Channel ever does one of those "What the planet will be like when the human race dies out" programs again, they could use Accept's "200 Years" as the thematic music for the show. The band doesn't forget to bring the furious pacing to the song, but the lyrics could work as a most scathing version of a travelogue to the Apocalypse.

Accept's last two albums, Blood of the Nations and Stalingrad, were my choices for album of the year when they were released. Since their return to the stage, the band has been on a creative high that no one could have predicted. With Blind Rage, the challenge of equaling the standing of the last two discs was met with ease. It could be argued that they might even have surpassed themselves here.

Accept has once again shown their strength and Blind Rage is one of the finest albums of the year. 'Nuff Said!