Review: Accept, "Stalingrad"

Accept’s 2010 album Blood of the Nations, one of my favorite records of that year, served as sort of an introduction to the new incarnation of the band and featured some departures from what I expected going in. Stalingrad, on the other hand, takes a small step back toward the band’s history with a sound that’s more along the lines of their classic material.

Album opener “Hung, Drawn and Quartered” announces the intention quickly with aggressive riffing, a big gang vocal chorus and singer Mark Tornillo delivering some of the lines in a more Udo-esque snarl. It’s a great way to start the record, but the energy doesn’t hang around the way it did on Blood of the Nations. I’m not sure if the band felt fans wanted more of the old sound on this one or what, but the regression is, at times, a little disappointing, especially given how awesome the last record was.

Best of 2010: Top 10

1. White Wizzard – Over the Top. I keep returning to this record over and over. It came out early in the year, but I’ve listened to it regularly. It’s great old-school traditional metal, with just a little cheese, and it brings back happy memories of better times.
2. Overkill – Ironbound. Is it possible for a band that’s been around this long to release their best record ever? I don’t know if Ironbound is their best, but it’s definitely on par with any of their classic material.

Heavy inspiration

Hopefully, you’ll forgive me for a little sappiness on Christmas. Since I’ve done the metal Christmas song bit a couple of times, I thought I’d try something a little different this year. Instead, I’m going for inspirational hard rock and metal tunes. I’m not talking about religious tunes (as some of the choices will clearly show) or, necessarily, songs that will inspire others. These are simply songs that have inspired or moved me for some particular reason over the years. Feel free to discuss your own in the comments section, if you wish.

“Believe,” Savatage. In my mind, this is one of the finest rock songs ever written – period. It’s amazing. It’s moving. And no matter my mood, it’s a song that always makes me feel better and more hopeful. It’s far from the only Savatage song that I find inspiring (at least half this list could have been from the band), but it’s far and away the most inspiring.

Review: Accept, "Blood of the Nations"

For those familiar with my musical tastes, it might come as a bit of a surprise that I was never a big fan of Accept. Oh, I’ve got a copy of Restless and Wild and Balls to the Wall, but for some reason I never really connected with the band. When it was announced that they had found a new singer and were recording a new album, it barely made a blip on my radar. That is, until I got Blood of the Nations in my hands.

This record rocks, plain and simple. The sound will be very familiar to fans of Accept’s classic material, yet it doesn’t sound dated or hokey. It’s everything that I want in a traditional metal album – heavy, melodic and catchy as hell.

Review: Armour, "Armour"

It seems that a lot of the albums I’ve gotten early this year have a heavy 1980s influence to them. Most have been surprisingly very good, a couple have been awful and then there’s the middle ground, where the full-length debut from Finland’s Armour falls.

There’s some fairly solid early-to-mid 1980s hard rock here, falling a little more toward the commercial end of the spectrum. The bands that come to mind when listening to the record are acts like Krokus and Fastway.

Review: UDO - "Mastercutor"

I never was a big Accept fan, largely because the vocals of Udo Dirkschneider grated on my nerves. So it should go without saying that I didn’t give much thought to Udo’s solo albums at all after the first one or two. I still find Dirkschneider’s vocals one step this side of nails on a chalkboard, but I also have to admit to actually enjoy this record. It reminds me a little of Rob Halford’s Resurrection, solid, driving traditional metal that sounds more than a little like Judas Priest.

Let’s just skip the silly game show intro and get right into the title track, a catchy tune that reminds me a lot of Priest’s “Night Crawler,” at least on the verse. That’s followed up with “The Wrong Side of Midnight,” featuring the same kind of head-bobbing riff as the Accept classic “Balls to the Wall,” though the choral “aiaiaiaiaiai” bits get a little old. In fact the biggest strength of this record is not Udo’s voice, it’s guitarists Stefan Kaufmann and Igor Gianola boldly riffing like it’s 1984, with a slightly better guitar sound. Though they still do maintain that slightly mechanical sound that Accept had, particularly on songs like “The Instigator.” There’s not an old school metal fan out there that can’t listen to the main riffs of “We Do – For You” (despite its lyrical challenges) or “Master of Disaster” without bobbing a head.

Then there are some things that a guy like Udo should never try. Chief among those things is a ballad. Here he tries two. “One Lone Voice” is OK. It’s got a really cool chorus melody with a just slightly distorted vocal that sounds almost a little goth metal-ish to me, but the verse vocals are flat and lifeless. The other, “Tears of a Clown,” is really, really bad. As annoying as Dirkschneider’s vocals are when he’s doing his best Halford imitation, just wait until you hear him trying to be a crooner.

The other thing he shouldn’t try is disco. No, there’s no outright dance track here, but the last song on the record, “Crash Bang Crash,” might as well have a mirror ball spinning as it starts. The song gets better, but it’s hard to get past the goofy opening and chorus.

To be honest, those are the only two real missteps on the record, though. The other 10 tracks are about as solid as any fan of traditional metal could want. They’re crunchy, they’re catchy, and despite my personal aversion to Udo’s nasally snarls, I can’t deny the pure old school appeal of these songs. I can’t really say how Mastercutor stacks up against Udo’s catalog because I’m not familiar enough with his other work. But it’s certainly in the same league as his early work in Accept.

Get "Mastercutor."