It would be very easy for me to sit here and talk about the fact that I grew up listening to Accept and yada yada, and while it is amazing that a band that has its roots dating back to 1968 the important thing about these German metal lords is that they aren’t living in the past. In fact, their new album – The Rise Of Chaos – is one of the most poignant albums of modern times.
While other bands are floundering around it, the shallow end of the lyrical pool Accept has dived straight into the deep end with an album that is obviously completely influenced by the world that we live in today – right now in 2017. Opening track – ‘Die By The Sword’ – launches straight into it with lyrics like ‘every human has been abandoned’ – it’s strong, to the point and the epic sounds created by the guitars of Wolf Hoffmann and newcomer Uwe Luis plus the gothic sounding choir in the background make this an absolute stand out track.
From there the album, especially the lyrics, just get better and better. Title track – ‘The Rise Of Chaos’ – takes a fair swipe at the new world order, ‘Koolaid’ warns its listeners not to drink the kool-aid that we all offered today without questioning things, ‘Carry The Weight’ gets profound and political as it touches on tax breaks for big business and Brexit while the closing track, ‘Race To Extinction’, warns us all that the animals and environments that we destroy today will never be there in the future. The other track that I love here is ‘Analog Man’ where Mark Tornillo declares “I’m an old school son of a bitch in a digital world” while talking about the frustrations of modern day society – yep I can relate to everything that he is singing about. The lyrics of this album are very much the words of someone with a lot of wisdom…, and everybody should be made listen to it.
Style-wise this is good old-fashioned Accept at its best. ‘Hole In The Dead’ sums up the Accept sound brilliantly while the screaming guitars and catchy choruses of ‘No Regrets,’ ‘What’s Done Is Done’ and ‘Worlds Colliding’ have you instantly falling in love with each track with the bonus of being able to sing along after just one listen. Throughout the album, though we hear some of the finest vocal work that Tornillo has done in his career, to the point that on ‘Analog Man’ it feels like Axl Rose has stepped into the studio.
It is hard to believe that fifty years into a band’s career they deliver one of their finest pieces of work but that is exactly what has happened with Accept and Rise Of Chaos.
