Year Of Metal #049: Accept - Accept
Another European jaunt, this time stopping off in Germany, which feels like maybe the fourth or fifth biggest producer of metal, especially when you’re talking about this kind of old school gear. They seem to have a pretty good reputation, or at least get a nod of recognition from plenty of acts who’ve come after them, which is a fringe benefit of releasing your self titled debut in 1979.
I was charmed by this one, I’ll admit it. It’s not my cup of tea, and at times it’s genuinely really bad, but you can’t stay mad at this kind of guileless continental action. They open on a strong note for sure, with the galloping “Lady Lou”. It’s a tight, hard rocking sound, the guitar triplets doing most of the rhythmic work while the drums sort of flap around. It’s a solid chorus and a decent song all told.
Guitarist Wolf Hoffmann is the MVP across the whole album; he’s got the freedom of Gustav-Coppel Park throughout, and he decorates tracks with the touch of an artist. He’s got such a lovely tone on his solos, too. “Take Him In My Heart” is a downright awful song, not far off tuneless in parts, but when Hoffman revs up at the midpoint, he just soars. He’s never flashy, though I’m reading he’d eventually take his playing down more technical paths. It’s always melodically focussed, never looking to steal the show. He’s great on the enjoyably overwrought ballad “Seawinds” too, playing a nice harmonised solo in keeping with the nautical bent of the track.
By the back half of the album, there really are some piss poor cuts. “That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll” is the most egregious in that it sounds, from the off, downright amateur. The drumming is manic, the guitars splat and thud, everything’s mixed at exactly the same level to create a terrible sonic sludge. On Spotify it has more than 42,000 fewer plays than the next least-listened to song; you can only assume people are sitting through the first five seconds and saying “no, fuck this”.
Even the worst tunes aren’t charmless, though. “Helldriver” is a bananas song, and not in a good way, but it’s never boring. The first verse has the lyrics “Your body looks perfect, your face like a rat / You are a loser, only shit in your head,” and the backing vocals are insanely off key. Hoffman’s got a bit bored by this point and is just dive bombing his guitar like Tom Morello, which does little for the tune but adds to the sense of chaos.
From cursory investigation I get the sense that Accept get a lot better as the years go on, with their fifth album seeming to be the one that gets the plaudits. On the strength of this record, I can certainly believe they have room to grow, but on its weaknesses, I don’t think I’m going to come back for more. Pretty fun, though!
