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Review: Accept - Blind Rage
Accept
www.acceptworldwide.com
Blind Rage

Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Year released: 2014
Duration: 58:34
Tracks: 11
Genre: Heavy Metal

Rating:
4.25/5


Review online: August 13, 2014
Reviewed by: MetalMike
Readers' Rating
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Rated 4.27/5 (85.45%) (33 Votes)
Review

It is hard to believe that I eagerly await new Accept albums in 2014 the same way I did nearly 30 years ago when Metal Heart came out. I called the record store every day for weeks until it showed up then drove through a snowstorm to get it on the first day. I never said I was any smarter back then than I am today, but I digress.

Blind Rage is the third full-length from the resuscitated and Mark Tornillo-fronted Accept and I have to say that, along with Blood of the Nations and Stalingrad, it completes a trio of releases that is as strong as the string of albums from Restless and Wild through Balls to the Wall and ending with Metal Heart that the band released during their heyday of the early 80s. Blind Rage continues to see the band embracing the powerful, heavy songwriting that has characterized all of their recent albums and presenting us with no-holds-barred ass-kicking Heavy Metal. Songs like the speedy "Stampede" and "Trail of Tears" are full of arena-ready bombast that should have you strumming the air guitar or moving your feet in time with the double-kick bass drums. Mid-tempo anthems like "Bloodbath Mastermind" and "From the Ashes We Rise" have throw-your-fist-in-the-air riffs and shout-along choruses that should get the fans jumping. Accept have also acknowledged their past more fully on Blind Rage than either of the preceding albums. The opening riff on "Dark Side of My Heart" is classic "Metal Heart" while the shouted, Germanic backing vocals on "200 Years" will have you digging out Balls to the Wall and cranking up "London Leatherboys" (after finishing Blind Rage, of course). They even go in for a little socio-political commentary, a la "T.V. War" on "Wanna Be Free." The band is in top form; Tornillo is the perfect replacement for Udo Dirkschneider, as I've said before, Wolf Hoffman and Herman Frank pair their guitar work seamlessly and spectacularly and the rythym section of Peter Baltes and Stefan Schwarzmann hold everything together with a rock-solid foundation.

Blind Rage is a must-have for Accept fans and, truly, all Traditional Heavy Metal fans. It is all things that are good about the style and nothing that isn't. What makes it all the more impressive is how damn good this band is today, so many years after they were damn good the first time. Highly recommended.

More about Accept...
Review: Balls to the Wall (reviewed by Pierre Bégin)
Review: Blood of the Nations (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Humanoid (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Metal Blast From The Past (reviewed by Pierre Bégin)
Review: Metal Heart (reviewed by Christian Renner)
Review: Restless and Wild (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Stalingrad (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Staying A Life (reviewed by Pierre Bégin)
Review: The Rise of Chaos (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: The Rise of Chaos (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Too Mean to Die (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Interview with Wolf Hoffmann (Guitars) on October 16, 2010 (Interviewed by MetalMike)
Interview with guitarist Wolf Hoffmann on June 15, 2015 (Interviewed by Luxi Lahtinen)
Interview with guitarist Wolf Hoffmann on July 22, 2017 (Interviewed by Luxi Lahtinen)
Interview with guitarist Wolf Hoffmann on February 16, 2023 (Interviewed by Luxi Lahtinen)
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