Album/EP

Accept - The Rise Of Chaos (Album Review)

Gareth Williams

Senior Writer/Ranga

/10

Jul 31, 2017

7 min read

ACCEPT - The Rise Of Chaos
Released: August 4^th, 2017

ACCEPT online:
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When you think German metal powerhouses there’s few more powerful than ACCEPT. It’s hard to imagine but the band has been around in one form or another since 1968 – that’s a lot of metal. Although it took until 1983 for the band to break out, with the classic (in every sense of the word) Balls To The Wall. Indeed it must be said, they like so many metal bands had their greatest success in the 80’s. The trick that has eluded so many ways to continue the success and remain relevant into the 90’s and 2000’s. With the seemingly revolving door of members and forgettable releases, fans were left wondering if we needed to just accept the band was over. Enter Mark Tornillo, the pint sized vocal powerhouse signed up to fill the metaphorically big boots of Udo Dirkschneider. With the release of Blood Of Nations in 2010 fans rejoiced, ACCEPT was back and kicking arse!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE9L7Pk78D8&w=640&h=360]

The German metal machine has continued to release quality albums since with Stalingrad and Blind Rage in 2012 and 2014 respectively. And here we are now, in 2017 with The Rise Of Chaos.

So how does it stack up?

One thing I’ve come to accept is these guys will never stray too far from their heavy metal comfort zone. That’s by no means a bad thing. The opening track ‘Die By The Sword’ is a perfect example of this. It’s a straight up, in-your-face metal song. Christopher Williams galloping drums lead the charge, throw in some blistering guitar work courtesy of the legendary Wolf Hoffman and new kid Uwe Lulis along with a rousing chorus-of-the-dammed it all comes together. The second track ‘Hole In The Head’ follows in a similar vein with bass player Peter Balts teaming with Williams’ drums to create an infectious driving groove.

This album, along with the three previous releases were all mastered, mixed and produced by the guru Andy Sneap. With that, it comes as no surprise they have a very familiar sound and feel to the production. Sneap has done some amazing work with the likes of Megadeth, Testament and Exodus, to name but a few. You know what they say; variety is the spice of life. So a little more variety between ACCEPT albums would have been nice. That said, a lack of variety hasn’t hurt AC/DC’s career in the slightest.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XqlQWaqFKY&w=640&h=360]

If you’re a fan you’ll probably like this album, it has ACCEPT stamped all over it. Rousing choruses, Tornillo’s guttural growl vocals, it’s headbanging, foot stomping metal. No surprises, what you see is what you get – I guess there are some things you should just accept.