By: Richard Maw
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 04/08/2017
Label: Nuclear Blast
A
“The Rise of Chaos” is precise, prescient, presented
superbly in terms of artwork and production and, more importantly, rocks as
hard as anything I have heard this year. A tour de force.
“The Rise of Chaos” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). Die By the Sword
2). Hole in the Head
3). The Rise of Chaos
4). Koolaid
5). No Regrets
6). Analog Man
7). What’s Done is Done
8). Worlds Colliding
9). Carry the Weight
10). Race to Extinction
The Review:
Accept are back with a new-ish
line-up and ten new songs. I'll put this out there straight away: I am a big
fan of the Mark Tornillo fronted
“new” Accept.
“Blood of Nations” and “Stalingrad” were every bit as good as
the Udo-fronted band's classics from
the early eighties. “Blind Rage” was
a very big commercial success for the band, but I found it a touch measured, a
little too melodic and, well, just not quite heavy enough for my tastes
(although “Stampede” is a true
classic opener).
“Restless and Live” followed it as a very
fine live 'career best of' and really gave great value for money for the fans.
With “The Rise of Chaos”, the band
deliver ten tracks over 45 minutes or so... and each track is balls to the wall
metal!
No
ballads here, and the record itself is a balanced mix of the hardest of hard
rock (AC/DC
on steroids) and the most Germanic of metal. Opener “Die by the Sword” has all the Accept trademarks in place; sandpaper lead
vocals, Teutonic choir vocal backing, razor sharp riffing and rock solid rhythm
section. It's a fine statement of intent and the record maintains that momentum
throughout. It's a focused and often furious listen.
The
song themes range from the dark and dystopian (the title track) to a more
light-hearted, if curmudgeonly, view of the world (“Analog Man”). This is not a concept record per se, but as well as
looking back to the past for comfort it also references darker events in “Koolaid”, via the Jonestown Massacre.
For the most part, though, the record is firmly rooted in the present. The
title track is a damning indictment of where the world is in 2017 and this is
perhaps one upped by the storming “Carry
the Weight”- a fleet of foot hook fest with some very contemporary
political references. Is this the first metal album to reference Brexit?!
Maybe.
The
record is not as relentlessly dark as “Stalingrad”,
but perhaps hits a note similar to “Blood
of Nations”- but for my money this is a more intense listen. It's so
focused and so relevant to the here and the now that I think the band have a
real winner on their hands. Instead of pursuing more melodic writing, the band
have gone back to their true strengths: riffs as tough as steel and hooks as
catchy as anything else out there.
I
can't find anything to fault on this album at all; the production is superb and
state of the art, the individual performances of old and new members alike are
stunning (Wolf Hoffmann is as
flawless as ever, Peter Baltes
ditto, Mark Tornillo excels) and
while the band may have lost Hermann
Frank and Stefan Schwarzmann (a
huge shame- even if we got The German Panzer out of their departure) they
have gained Uwe Lulis and Christopher Williams on guitar and
drums respectively.
If
you happen to be a fan of old school metal in the vein of early Maiden,
Dio-Era
Sabbath,
NWOBHM's best acts, Judas Priest and so on, then Accept
will be right up your strasse, the band have managed to really breathe life
into the latter part of their career and recapture the spark and inspiration
that made them Germany's truly classic metal band in the 80's. The band are not
thrash, but have the heaviness to appeal to any fan of, say, Overkill.
They are not hard rock, but your average AC/DC nut would find much to enjoy here. “The Rise of Chaos” is precise,
prescient, presented superbly in terms of artwork and production and, more
importantly, rocks as hard as anything I have heard this year. A tour de force.
“The
Rise of Chaos” is available here
Band
info: facebook
