I could talk about how awesome Accept were in 1983. How they were one of the most important bands in all of early 80s metal. Just a level down from Maiden & Priest, really. BUT, where would be the fun in that. I already did that with Breaker & Restless & Wild which both made my top tens for 1981 & 1982 respectively. <Well at least they should have! I'm too lazy to check just this second, sprawled on my couch & slug-in’ it out.>
So instead let’s just cut to the chase - Balls To The Wall absolutely, positively NEEDS to be in my top ten for '83 metal. In fact, any '83 Metal chart bereft of Accepts’ BEST album you better believe is getting da old stink eye from yours truly. < And you should see it! I've been practicing in the mirror like a Kardashian!> Ok. So now that we got the obvious <Accept Rules!> out and in the open, let's fast-forward just a tiny bit...
... to the late 80s. Where we now find Accept already picking up the empties to a party that should have just been getting started. Let’s get into their shell shocked skulls when they find out they were unfashionable. They knew how good they were and yet here they were has-beens just as things should have been getting started. Considered commercial just because they were not underground. Or obscenely fast. Or Maiden. Dumped. Cast aside by the cool kids for Thrash. Metal was evolving just too quickly at the time for early 80s metal bands such as Accept, Anvil, & Saxon to keep up. They were expiration dated!
So they were desperate. How else to explain what they would do? Go Hair Metal <Not that there's anything wrong with that!>. And we all know that UDO, the very VOICE & SOUL of the band, cannot sing Hair metal. So they did the unthinkable. They said "goodbye!" to UDO! <Not UDO!> Perhaps the single most important ingredient at making Accept... well, Accept!!! And thus sadly ended one of the greatest runs of any 80s Metal band.
The Verdict: A Classic! And Accept's BEST record. That's right! Even better than Restless & Wild! <It is known!>l. Just don’t sleep on the two records that followed it - Metal Heart (which contains my absolute favorite Accept song - " Teach Us To Survive". Just picture Mr. Bungle taking the Dead Kennedys in the long grass and you got it!) and Russian Roulette! And sadly, stay away <Far Away!> rom 1989's Eat The Heat. Unless you want to see what desperation and dashed dreams can do to even the best of us!
Was the start of them turning into an AC/DC clone and it isn't even their best album. Has a lot going for it, but you'd have to be insane to think its better than R&W.
Was the start of them turning into an AC/DC clone and it isn't even their best album. Has a lot going for it, but you'd have to be insane to think its better than R&W.
Why do u think I like UDO so much! He was the 2nd coming of Bon Scott! There's a couple of clunkers on R&W. I think Breaker is pretty awesome too!
Accept sounds influenced by 70s AC/DC on Balls To The Wall, but far & away, the band they sound most like is... ACCEPT. Few metal bands had such a distinctive sound. No one was mistaking Accept for AC/DC in the mid-80s.
THIS recent single from 2019, on the other hand, is COMPLETE AC/DC worship. Won't argue that! < I can't even sniff 80s Accept in 'dere...>
Was the start of them turning into an AC/DC clone and it isn't even their best album. Has a lot going for it, but you'd have to be insane to think its better than R&W.
Ehh Not really...
Even their next Album Metal Heart had songs like "Wrong is Right." Which essentially just has the drummer beating the double bass drum into absolute submission. It wasn't until Russian Roulette when that transformation began to occur, and it has been outright reversed in recent years.
But Yes, Restless and Wild is easily their best.
Two Double Burning Flying V album cover already tells you that.
um. gowi & trex. um. "Get Ready" on Restless & Wild is GUILTY of the alleged sins of the son <this more directed at GOWI>. I skip over this track pretty much every time!
And "Flesh Rockin' Man" sounds like Priest bargain rack.
R&W may have some KILLER highs that changed metal forever - "Fast As A Shark", "Restless & Wild," and "Princess Of The Dawn" - BUT Balls To The Wall has consistency and better songwriting. <Although I agree the energy on R&W is INSANE!!! Love that ENERGY!!!>
edit: I think Accept put out three absolutely ESSENTIAL albums in the 80s that helped define '80s Metal...
The Essential
Balls To The Wall (1983)
Restless & Wild (1982)
Breaker (1981)
You just have to put yourself in the mindspace that it's not going to be as aggressive as the album they originally recorded with UDO. (You know UDO's Debut Banger, Animal House? Yep. That was supposed to be Accepts Eighth album until they dropped him.) However, as Good Hair/Aor Rock....Eat the Heat is...pretty fucking good.
They kind of remind me of when Mercyful Fate became the AOR Band Fate.
Is it Mercyful? Nah...but I can get into this in the right headspace.
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I skip over this track pretty much every time!
