Although featuring primarily German musicians, Accept are in every respect the anti-Krautrock. Theirs is a polished, accomplished, turbo-charged but utterly orthodox approach – a track like Trail Of Tears tears up the heavy metal road well travelled a million times at breakneck speed.
First formed in 1976, before disbanding then re-forming with New Jersey vocalist Mark Tornillo, they reliably observe all the pomp and circumstance of metal protocol, from opener Stampede through to Final Journey, which certainly prompts reminders of Europe’s The Final Countdown.
Albeit couched in the portentous terms of lyrical metal-ese, Accept do have a political conscience which does them credit, bringing subject matter to the genre it would previously never have entertained. The best example is Wanna Be Free, a heartfelt, if slightly clunky plea for an end to human trafficking across the globe, while 200 Years gloomily envisages the extinction of mankind thanks to its current folly, with ‘no one left to blame’. Even the album’s title is on the money when it comes to taking the current geopolitical temperature.
