Accept - Balls to the Wall - Remastered
Yet another installment in Sony Music's "Metal Masters" series, it's good to see them reissuing an album that really does not fit the profile of your typical major label cash cow roster. Accept was one of the very first underground Metal bands to receive huge commercial success in the United States in the 1980's, not to mention the one of the first to be signed by a major label. Accept had gotten their feet wet in the US with an abundance of underground radio airplay, stamping out albums like "Midnight Highway," and their self titled release; all selling a very good amount regardless of the these records being hard to find and usually only being available as imports at the time.

But what differentiated Accept from many other Metal bands at the time was that their image was the same yet different, you had a band full of typical longhaired metal guys fronted by a hefty frontman who we all know as Udo (Dirkschneider), who had short hair, and looked more like a military Drill Sergeant rather than one of Metal's most notable frontman. But the sound was not too far fetched to what any Metalhead back in the day would expect. I mean although they were a German band, they seemed to fit in well with the whole NWBHM sound, they captured the whole gritty New York Metal sound, while embracing the beginnings to the whole European Power Metal sound, striking a chord with everyone, aligning their sound with the like of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.

First up, the album itself is filled with Udo's ripping vocals which are a cross between Bon Scott and Saxon's Biff Byford, but being yet more grainy, brought forth will full blown emotion. The fretwork of both Hermann Frank and Wolf Hoffman, whose styles play out ranging from simplistic bar chord riffs to precision filled technical arpeggios, giving perfect balance to Accept's overall sound. You might think that the title cut would be a little risqué for many American radio stations at the time, well it was, but with an overload of requests, and the album's sales reaching beyond modest sales with very little airplay, radio had no choice but to air this "tongue-in-cheek" political anthem, causing it this cut to receive huge airplay on college radio as well as regular rotation on MTV. The title cut remains an anthem; I mean listen to the powerful chorus, you can't deny it.

But the album's stature does not end there, no, no, no, it just begins; with heavy centered cuts like "Fight it Back," "Turn Me On," and "Losers and Winners" providing the powerful anthem structure for the record, keeping the stature of their raw earlier work present. Its cuts like "Losing More Than You Ever Had," " Winterdreams," and "Guardians of the Night" which is a more eased back dark songs, border-lining on ballad structure, prove that the pace was set for many Metal bands to come. The song structure on this record keeps a balance between eased back darker key cuts and full-blown Metal opuses, keeping this record as diverse as any record out there. The live tracks, of course, showcase the bands prominence as live band.

For years this album was available on CD as a "two-for," in America also containing "Restless and Wild" along with this record (although available separately on LP and Cassette), which the two go together perfectly, in fact that is how many American fans who remember these two albums, back to back. Nowadays with rights being swapped around and so forth, the albums are available separately (not good for the pennywise). "Restless and Wild" along with the rest of their catalog is available on Breaker/Nuclear Blast, with remastered sound and digipak packaging, but lack the bonus tracks, oh well we can't have everything, but the music is there and always will be. This is defiantly a record that is to be reckoned with, and remains to this day, one of the most powerful and influential albums with one of the most recognizable Metal anthems. I will add that a few years ago I was playing this CD in a used record store that I worked at and I had the title cut cranked up, and you could see these conservative people looking around with a shocked look on their face, but I had to stop playing it due to the fact that someone wanted to buy it (and that is the only reason I stopped playing it), just goes to show Metal Rules!

Written by Hashman
Wednesday, September 3, 2003
Show all reviews by Hashman

Ratings

Hashman: 9/10

Members: 7.75/10 - Average of 2 ratings.



Member ratings

Profile pictureSteen (Staff)

Rating: 7.5/10
A classic which sounds occasionally dated but holds up remarkably well. Udo's powerful cro... · Read more ·
Profile picturenotrap

Rating: 8/10
I bought the Remastered version this mouth. Highlights: Love Child - in my opinion the... · Read more ·

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RevelationZ Comments


Comment by Mav (Anonymous) - Thursday, September 4, 2003

Yupp, Udo rules!!!


Accept top 4)


  1. Metal Heart

  2. Balls to the wall

  3. Restless and wild

  4. Breaker





Comment by gizmo (Member) - Thursday, November 13, 2008
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Comments: 140
Ratings: 4
The one the only and the best metal band ever ;0) This album must have a 10 or 666 for the best album of all time

Turn me on was the track that got me into real metal instead of what i listened to at that time like DAD, Alice Cooper, Gunas and roses and the likes. When i first heard Turn me on, London leatherboys and Balls to the wall i began to really enjoy metal for what it was and never stopped.

BTW Hashman an album called Midnight Highway?! Never heard of that don´t you mean Breaker where the song Midnight Highway is on? I would be so sad if you tell me that theres an Accept album out there I don´t own.

Russian roulette and Metal heart are very close to Balls to wall IMO and Objection overruled is a great comeback album. That would be my top 4.
A close fifth is Eat the heat unfortunately not with UDO on vocals, if he had been on that record it would be an unbelievable are record. An very underestimated album, not that David reeese is bad singer, but to fill out the fat german shoes noone could do that.

Posted by gizmo
Thursday, November 13, 2008

Review by notrap (Member) - Friday, September 11, 2009
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Comments: 55
Ratings: 66
I bought the Remastered version this mouth.

Highlights:
Love Child - in my opinion the best song of the band and still in my personal top 50.
Balls to the Wall
Losing More than You ever Had - The "middle" is amazing

A very nice record

Rating: 8/10

Posted by notrap
Friday, September 11, 2009

Comment by endofus (Member) - Wednesday, January 6, 2010
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Comments: 4
Ratings: 0
This album is very good, and very heavy, a must have for any metal head.


Posted by endofus
Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Review by Steen (Staff) - Monday, March 28, 2011
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Comments: 518
A classic which sounds occasionally dated but holds up remarkably well. Udo's powerful croak runs wild in an unrestrained and rampant way that is both enjoyable but also sporadically flaky. There's a joyful innocence to the album, the lighthearted and sometimes quite hilarious lyrics included, but it also lacks some depth. When it works it's brilliant though. A song like Turn me on has an intense and powerful build up, perfectly released in its chorus. The guitar riffs are mean enough to overshadow any shortcomings and nearly every song is strong enough to still make an impression today.

Rating: 7.5/10

Posted by Steen (Staff)
Monday, March 28, 2011










Review by Hashman
None

Released by
Portrait/Epic/Legacy - 2001

Tracklisting
1- Balls to the Wall
2- London Leatherboys
3- Fight it Back
4- Head over Heals
5- Losing More than You ever Had
6- Love Child
7- Turn Me On
8- Losers and Winners
9- Guardian of the Night
10- Winterdreams
Bonus Tracks
11- Head Over Heals (live)
12- Love Child (live)


Originally Released in 1984 on CBS/Portrait


Style
Heavy Metal

Related links
Visit the band page

Accept - Official Website

Other articles
Russian Roulette - (Tommy)

Objection Overruled - (Tommy)

Restless & Wild - (Nina)

Blood Of The Nations - (Stuart)

Balls To The Wall (2002 Remaster) - (Steen)

Russian Roulette (2002 Remaster) - (Steen)

Blood Of The Nations - (Steen)

Blood of the Nations - (Steen)



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Ratings
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2 - Terrible
3 - Bad
4 - Below average
5 - Average
6 - Good
7 - Very good
8 - Outstanding
9 - Genius
10 - Masterpiece
666 - Unrated

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