ACCEPT – Metal Blast From The Past

Watching this is really going back to the teens. The main part of this DVD was once available as a home video, but strictly limited. Performing the set in Osaka, which lead to the double live album “Staying A Life”, this really is Accept at the peak of their carrier. Yeah, you guessed right, it’s the mighty Metal Heart tour, and there are simply no fillers in that set; “Metal Heart”, “Breaker”, “Screaming For A Love-Bite”, “Up To The Limit”, “Living For Tonite”, “Princess Of The Dawn” and on and on… It’s not hard to realize that Accept was and still is one of the very best Heavy Metal bands there ever was, with a couple of highly underrated players in Peter Baltes (bass) and Wolf Hoffmann (lead guitar). This is the recipe of how to break your neck, all lead by Udo Dirkschneider, whom I don’t really have to present any further.

As for the DVD itself, this is the home video as it was released about a decade ago, featuring behind the scenes material and a narrator who comes in rather inconveniently. “Breaker” is just heard in the background, which is a shame. Now I am no expert on how much material you can put on a DVD, but I would rather sacrificed the live stuff from Sofia 1993 to have the option to watch the songs without interruption from the narrator. Also, a few video clips (so-called promo videos), are baked into the live set, making the whole thing more a documentary than a live show. But it’s a highly enjoyable one, although there are clips from the show that are used in “wrong” places when the camera crew messed it up. Why bother, I get my foot and whole body shaking when I crank it up, and remember, this is for the fans. This is not to promote a band, because this classic band is no more, so it is simply a gift to the fans. And more gifts are the promo videos, 7 spanning from the entire carrier where “Death Row” is one that leaves your breath heavy.

The Sofia live stuff has a too trebled sound, and features only 3 songs from the Objection Overruled album – as well a one-guitar attack from Wolf. There’s a short “Behind the scenes” as a separate section, which doesn’t make much sense as you are fooled to believe that Jorg Fischer was a part of the 1993 comeback. There’s a photo gallery with lots of classic pics that refreshes your memory, at least mine (as I am an old fart.) There’s a biography, selected audio clips, links to several relevant websites – but most interesting; turn the disc around and slip into the CD-player, and you will find 9 obscure songs, most of them songs not available elsewhere. Demos from the Breaker era, recordings from the I’m A Rebel-session, as well as an acoustic version of “Writing On The Wall” and a Japan-only release, “Rich And Famous” – which I seem to remember also is on a European CD-single.

Anyway, as I said, this is a gift to the fans, and you know that if you’re a true follower. If not, this is a great opportunity to find out what one the absolutely greatest Heavy Metal pioneers from Germany was all about.