I’ve noticed a lot of people highlighting some vinyl-era albums that influenced their taste in music. Most of these albums seem to be from the 1970s and 1980s, so I thought I would do something a little different. I’m going to choose some bands from this era that are still releasing new albums and highlight some I feel their fans from the past might have missed when they were released and would enjoy them today. Of course, this list is subjective to my tastes, but I’ll be as objective as possible relating to the band’s sound, quality of song writing, and whether or not the band still has great chemistry together.
First up, ACCEPT. I’ve been a fan of the German band since 1981 when Jon Drenning played me a cassette of the songs “Breaker” and “Son of a Bitch”. This line-up included long time vocalist Udo Dirkschneider, guitarist Wolf Hoffman and bassist Peter Baltes. They recorded great metal albums throughout the 80s and some good ones in the 90s. Hoffman and Baltes are the only members to have played on every release from the band.
Now, their newer albums include “Blood of the Nations” (2010), “Stalingrad” (2012), “Blind Rage” (2014) and “The Rise of Chaos” (2017). However, there’s one caveat with these releases because Dirkschneider is not included. He quit the band in 2009 for good according to him. So, the band recruited former (and 80s) band T.T. Quick’s singer Mark Tornillo. Dirkschneider has a truly unique voice so replacing him and retaining the band’s sound is difficult. I think Tornillo was a fantastic choice because he not only does a great job on the newer material, he can do justice to the classic songs live as well.
On all 4 of these newer releases, the band definitely retains their sound with great production and mixes. The song writing is top notch with many songs sounding like they could be outtakes from the band’s best albums in the 80s and they definitely have the chemistry right. My favourite of the 4 is “Blind Rage” because it’s a stormer from start to finish. Please go check out these newer albums if you haven’t, you might discover a lost gem to get your metal heart going again.
https://amzn.to/3dyDWXz The Blood of Nations
https://amzn.to/35IGjEt Stalingrad
https://amzn.to/2YLvkIN Blind Rage
https://amzn.to/2Lf55mg The Rise of Chaos