Accept-Balls to the wall, 1984
By the time this album came out Accept were a veteran band. Yet although they were fairly well known in Europe, they were not that big in the states. Beavis and Butthead once said something like "Accept should take on Krokus in a battle of the bands that suck". I may not defend Krokus on that one, but I will stand up and proclaim that Accept had some solid releases and this might be the best of the bunch. Accept's earlier albums showed a more 70's hard rock sound, but something happen in the early 80's. My belief is someone is that the band or someone connected to the band heard Judas Priest around 81 and said "Hey, that's what this band should be doing". So the band changed their image and sound to fit in more with the growing metal scene. Most of the songs are medium paced but fairly heavy, maybe almost on the heaviness level of Dio. Udo Dirkschneider's voice is hard for some people to take due to being a bit guttural. Yet is has sure grown me over the years and I think his vocals actually really add to the overall sound. The band's female manager wrote the band's lyrics which now helps explain some of the lyrics in the title track and London Leatherboys. However it wasn't known at the time that she had written the lyrics and there were rumors that the band was gay. The band achieved some success with this album and and Metal Heart in 1985, but they never quite made it big and Russian Roulette struggled in 86 and then Udo left the band. Balls to the wall still sounds sharp today. A few songs go on a little too long and there are places where the guitar should have been turned up a bit, but overall a good piece of 80's metal. My favorite songs are Lovechild, Losing more then you ever had, Fight it back and Losers and winners. Although Losers and winners has some of the most unusual lyrics you will ever hear in an 80's metal song.
posted by Metal Mark at
12:58 AM
5 Comments:
This album is at the center of what may be my first real metal memory.
I was walking to school one morning--I won't say which grade--and I stumbled along a cassette just off the curb in the road. As a budding young music fan, I naturally picked it up and discovered ... Accept, Balls to the Wall.
The tape was quite damaged, perhaps explaining why someone threw it out their window into the street. I assumed that Udo's vocals were like that due to the degraded nature of the tape; years later I discovered that he sounds pretty much the same either way.
-- david
fredcq-My guess is they thought "No one can understand what Udo is saying anyhow so it doesn't matter what the lyrics are."
Accept's guitarist Wolf Hoffman ended up marrying their tour manager after the band broke up. I think they are still married.
Krokus did really SUCK atomic donkey balls.
Phoenix-That's true about Krokus. Using a flower as the basis for your band name is not a good idea even if you do change the first letter of the spelling.
Oh...the Beavis and Butthead quote that I always remember about this song/video was during a point where they showed a close-up of the singer...and he kind of did look like a little troll or something...Butthead just laughed and goes, "Look at his face" and Beavis said, "Yeah, his face sucks"...followed by much "huh huh huhuhuhuhuh" and "hm hm yeah hm hm hm yeah". My brother and I still use that exchange often.
I also loved when they were watching Kix's "Cool Kids", they said something like "if these are the cool kids I'd hate to see the uncool kids". Then there was a part where a group of guys came walking up over the horizon and Beavis said, "It's Krokus coming to kick their ass" and Butthead said, "It's Night of the Living Bands Who Suck".
I watched waaaaaaaay too much of that show for my own good. Hard not to love it though.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home