Accept are still going strong on their third reunion, which has lasted since 2009 with former T.T. Quick-frontman Mark Tornillo as the lead vocalist. Too Mean To Die is the fifth album with him, and just like the other four it entered the German charts in the top ten (nearly hitting the top spot, but eventually settling at #2), confirming their enduring popularity with the metal crowds.
Perhaps this year more than any other it was important to see the album do well. Bassist Peter Baltes left the band after 42 years as a member in November 2018, leaving guitarist Wolf Hoffmann as the sole original member since the early days of the band. Baltes would be replaced by former Uli Jon Roth sideman Martin Motnik, and Philip Shouse also joined as the band’s third guitarist, converting Accept to a sextet. Uwe Luiis (guitar) and Christopher Williams (drums) completes the line-up, both having joined in 2015. This makes “new” vocalist Mark Tornillo the second longest running member in the line-up, so it’s safe to say that there have been some fluctuations in recent years.
One thing that has not changed much is however the style and consistency of the music. Too Mean To Die is Accept’s sixteenth studio album, and it continues the consistent streak of quality that the Tornillo era has established. Zombie Apocalypse starts the album with solid riffage and an energetic performance. “They’re walking by day, they stumble at night / Wandering blindly with no end in sight” Tornillo snarls, in what turns out to be a humorous lyric about people who have their face stuck in their mobile phones no matter where they go or what they do.
The title track Too Mean To Die is a good mantra for the band after the many personnel changes for the past six years. Wolf Hoffman seem to be as dedicated to the cause as ever, and it is especially impressive that the quality (and frequency) of their output doesn’t seem to be suffering. The song is aggressive and quick, and with lyrics like “I’m a man on a mission, You’ll never get me, And I’m the man with the vision” could easily describe Wolf Hoffmann who has kept the band going through thick and thin.
Accept is particularly known for their particular type of low-tuned gang vocals. The make themselves known on Overnight Sensation, which is a very comfortable mid-tempo track with great melodic sensibilities. No One’s Master adds a touch more speed as the band take a swipe at media and how they often seem to whip up fear in people.
The first single from the album was The Undertaker, which is a different type of song from the band. The song builds from a quiet intro into a moody, low-key verse, with Tornillo singing an ominous tale about the undertaker as a death-like figure, who eventually comes for us all. The song builds wonderfully, with the Accept band vocals as an ominous choir in the choruses. This is a great track, and especially a wonderful pick as a first single. I felt on the last two albums they decided to come out the gate with very fast and heavy tracks almost as if to make a point, but aggression and speed alone does not always a great track make. With The Undertaker, they have put that to the side and created a brooding, anthemic metal masterpiece which is one of the strongest tracks on offer.
Such is the power of The Undertaker that it almost feels a bit ‘business as usual’ when we get into the next track Sucks To Be You, which is unfair to say. In fact, the song follows a long tradition of sorts on Accept albums where they have a Spinal Tap-ish track pouring their ire at someone, going back to the utterly humorous and over-the-top Son of a Bitch from Breaker (1981). This track admittedly feels a little bit angrier than normal. It contains a solid metal riff placed to a mid-tempo riff that gives plenty of opportunity to add punch to lyrics like “You’re a perpetual liar / You think that you’re the messiah” and “Born to be a loser / Boasting’s all you do / You know it all but you just don’t have a clue.” Who is the song about? I’m sure you have an idea, but if not, looking at the full set of lyrics will leave no doubt.
As the name could allude to, Symphony of Pain contains a lot of references from classic music (including a whole section from Beethoven’s Fifth), which has always suited metal quite well. The band spark particularly well here, with Tornillo delivering blood-curdling screams in the choruses.
The Best Is Yet To Come is a more melodic offer, taking the shape of an anthemic metal ballad with a melancholic flair. How Do We Sleep is an interestingly introspective track about stepping up and being the change you want to see in the world. Not My Problem is as pedal-to-the-metal as you can get. This trio of tracks, placed back-to-back as they are, all underline the album’s diversity. It does not end there though.
The album ends with the instrumental Samson And Delilah, taken from the classic opera by Camille Saint-Saëns first performed in 1877. Accept’s version is a majestic track with a lovely, almost hypnotic groove. The music is filled with Arabic-sounding textures, bringing up images of windswept desert sands. Rather than being a vehicle for a long guitar solo, the band take their time establishing a lovely tempo where the guitars eventually come in and carry melody lines that flow with the song. When this song has established its momentum, it truly sounds epic. Not your typical ending to a metal album, but that just makes the results that much more satisfying.
Andy Sneap is the producer on this record. Too Mean To Die has his trademark style: very clear-sounding yet in-your-face. The album packs a punch. The band is captured perfectly and in sonic clarity. Sneap is somewhat of a go-to producer for many metal bands (Saxon, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Kreator, Arch Enemy, Testament, and Opeth, to name a few), but in later years he will be best known as a touring guitar player with Judas Priest after Glenn Tipton had to stand down from live work due to Parkinson’s disease.
Accept has delivered an album with Too Mean To Die that fans of both the classic and newer version of Accept will find quite a lot to like in. It’s still balls to the wall, man.
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