Jul 142 min read

Accept - 'Humanoid'

Classic Accept have delivered in their own powerfully inimitable way; more please!

There was a time when the thought of Accept without the banshee-like howl of Udo Dirkscheider was tantamount to treason, akin to Marillion without Fish, Sabbath without Ozzy, or AC/ DC without the late Bon Scott. However, since recruiting erstwhile TT Quick man Mark Tornillo in 2009 for the watershed ‘Blood Of The Nations’ album, not only have the band endured, they’ve actually gone from strength to strength.

Tornillo is now second only to band founder Wolf Hoffmann in terms of the length of his tenure in the band, and is just as much (if not more) an integral part of their ferocious Metal assault as his predecessor ever was... at least to these ears. ‘Humanoid’ is his sixth studio album with the band in fifteen years, and if “thinking man’s Heavy Metal” with plenty of attitude, and more than the odd soupçon of angst-fuelled melody is your thing, then re-string those squash racquets and dust off your neck brace, because it kicks ass big style!

The cornerstone of the Accept sound has always been that searing twin guitar attack, and this album is no exception, with the aforementioned Hoffman and Uwe Lulis laying down a deadly barrage of fire. But it’s the underlying songs and those visceral melodies that always separated Accept from the herd, and this is the closest they’ve gotten to emulating that ‘Breaker’ through to ‘Metal Heart’ sound since ‘Blood...’

Opener ‘Diving Into Sin’ starts with a brooding, slow-burning, Eastern-tinged motif until the snarling riffs drag it into classic, up-tempo Accept territory – Tornillo’s upper register screams on the chorus have “classic Accept” stamped all over them, and the subtle, yet noticeable classical theme (something Accept do a lot, yet rarely get credit for) adds the sort of swagger few of their contemporaries can muster.

The rabid title-track follows, and once again the fingerprints of prime- time eighties Accept leap out and demand your unequivocal attention, before ‘Frankenstein’ saunters into view with its unmistakable ‘Restless & Wild’ gait. Push deeper into the album and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that they maintain that same assured quality throughout; witness the strafing ‘The Reckoning’, smouldering ‘Ravages Of Time’ (a step towards Scorpions territory a la ‘Lady Starlight’), the rumbling ‘Straight Up Jack’ and punchy ‘Nobody Gets Out Alive’ (very ‘Up To The Limit’).

Classic Accept have delivered in their own powerfully inimitable way; more please!