(Not that) Restless and Fairly Mild

Accept – Blind Rage

Nuclear Blast Records – 2014

Muthas, the Teutonic Terrors Accept are back with their third album since their reformation in 2009 – Blind Rage. The previous two albums with Mark Tornillo were both great slabs of excellent traditional Metal that had all the hallmarks that fans expect of Accept.  How does this new album stack up agaist the standards set by Blood of the Nations and Stalingrad? 

Unfortunately, Blind Rage is something of a disappointment.  Interviews with the band made it sound like this album would be very heavy and aggressive – it’s titled Blind Rage after all, and the album starts off quite well with the kickass “Stampede” and the celebration of the history of Metal that is “Dying Breed.” 

It’s then that the album comes to a screeching halt with “Dark Side of My Heart.”  This track starts out with a riff borrowed from “Up To The Limit” (which is awesome) but then slides into a melancholy bore.  WTF?  This is followed by a succession of underwhelming songs – “Fall of the Empire,” “Trail of Tears,” and “Wanna Be Free.”  At this point, the listener wants to be free of boredom by listening to something else.   

Thankfully, the pace, and the song quality, pick up with “200 Years” and “Bloodbath Mastermind.”  Both cuts are very good and are up to the standard set by the other Tornillo helmed albums, but the next two songs - “The Curse” and “From The Ashes We Rise” - are plodding and just as melancholy as most of the rest of the album.  The last track, “Final Journey,” does finish off the album with a bang and is one of the best tracks on the disc.

I know the band had more time to write and record this album, and I think this lack of urgency is reflected in the overall tone of the album.  It’s a weird, gloomy album that both musically and lyrically feels depressing.  A couple of speedier tunes in the vein of “Pandemic” or “Beat The Bastards” would have really helped to propel this album and break up the slower material. 

Does anyone really want to hear several slow songs bemoaning the fate of the world and the trite pablum of “Wanna Be Free”?  I know I don’t.  This is Metal for the love of God!  Strap it on and start kicking some ass!  Sheesh.

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The Bottom Line: Accept’s new album is a something of a disappointment and is definitely the least of the Tornillo trilogy.  Not enough songs with that killer Accept viciousness help to drag Blind Rage down to the merely ordinary.  Accept fans will find some good tracks, but this album isn’t essential by any means.  At least the deluxe edition comes with a great live DVD – so we’ve got that going for us.  Which is nice.

As Always, MAKE MINE METAL!

Pounding Steel?

U.D.O. – Steelhammer

AFM Records -2013

Muthas, the Teutonic Titan Udo is back with an album of original material following last year’s Live In Sofia and the compilation of rare tracks, Celebrator.  There have been some changes in the lineup with the exit of guitarists Stefan Kaufmann and Igor Gianola.  Kaufmann’s leaving is most surprising considering that he had been with the band for years, and was in Accept with Udo.  Kaufmann was also the producer for the last few U.D.O. albums, and his leaving was potentially disastrous.  So how did Steelhammer turn out?  Did U.D.O. shit the bed or did they rise to the challenge presented by the re-energized Accept?   

Fortunately, the answer is mostly positive.  When Stefan Kaufmann left, he took that horribly shitty and sterile guitar sound with him.  I doubt the guitars on Dominator and Rev-Raptor were ever even plugged into an amp.  The production on Steelhammer is miles better than what Kaufmann had been offering up.  The songs also exhibit a new sense of urgency that seemed to be missing from the last couple of albums. Udo the man, and U.D.O. the band, are nothing if not prolific, and the quality of their output may suffer from their high rate of production.  The couple of years between albums in this case has helped the band make most of these songs razor sharp.

Right off the bat, it’s clear that U.D.O. has renewed passion and vigor, because the first two tracks are good and the third track, “Metal Machine” is excellent.  Check out the video for it below:

Unfortunately, the flow of the album screeches to a halt during the next three tracks.  “Basta Ya” is fine musically, but the song is in Spanish, and frankly, I don’t want to listen to a non-English track.  Next up is the horrific ballad “Heavy Rain.” Udo needs to stop it with these ballads as they just don’t suit his voice at all.  No thanks. Then comes “Devil’s Bite” which has incredibly annoying, cheap-ass sounding keyboard flourishes. We are talking 1982 Casio keyboard here, and that shit is not acceptable. Ever. 

The rest of the album (except for the last track) is vicious, pounding Metal that rips faces off.  Check out “Death Ride,” “Never Cross My Way,” and “Take My Medicine.”  If Udo wants to slow things down he should do more cuts like the mid-paced “Love Becomes A Lie” and not that “Heavy Rain” turd.  Oddly, the last song, “Book of Faith” has a bizarre, almost jazzy intro and should have been cut from the album as it's kind of a clunker.  

The only other criticism is that the album is simply too long at fourteen tracks, and would have benefited from some judicious pruning.  Chop out “Basta Ya,” “Heavy Rain,” “Devil’s Bite,” and “Book of Faith” and put them on one of those EPs that AFM is so fond of churning out, and the resulting album would have been ten tight tracks of excellence. 

The album cover is killer, and very evocative of the music that lurks within its steely confines. Album art and design is sadly neglected in the digital age, but it's still important.  More artists should get their shit together and offer up great artwork like that on Steelhammer. Thankfully, that stupid clown/juggalo/whateverthefuck mascot that started with Mastercutor is history. Fuck that guy.

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The Bottom Line:  U.D.O. have released their best album since 1999s Holy, with great production and many cuts of anthemic, crushing steel.  It’s great to see them finally answer the challenge presented by the last couple of Accept albums.  Buy it.