Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 13/01/2017
Label: Nuclear Blast
“I like a good live album and this is a great one.
Extensive, exhaustive, as hard as iron and as sharp as a rapier, Accept take no
prisoners and attain new heights of metallic cohesiveness here. A well packaged
and great value for money release. Highly recommended.”
“Restless and Live” CD//DD track listing:
1. Stampede
2. Stalingrad
3. Hellfire
4. London Leatherboys
5. Living For Tonite
6. 200 Years
7. Demons Night
8. Dying Breed
9. Final Journey
10. From The Ashes We Rise
11. Losers And Winners
12. No Shelter
13. Shadow Soldiers
14. Midnight Mover
15. Starlight
16. Restless And Wild
17. Son Of A Bitch
18. Pandemic
19. Dark Side Of My Heart
20. The Curse
21. Flash Rockin Man
22. Bulletproof
23. Fall Of The Empire
24. Fast As A Shark
25. Metal Heart
26. Teutonic Terror
27. Balls To The Wall
The Review:
Accept are a venerable metal
institution; widely regarded as having recorded the first thrash or speed metal
track with “Fast as a Shark” way back in the very early 80s. Since that
time, of course, the band has had line-up changes, disbanded, re-formed and so
on. With American singer Mark Tornillo coming on board for “Blood
of the Nations” the band were back and, in my view, even better than
ever. In fact, “Blood of the Nations” and “Stalingrad” stand as my favourite
records, along with “Restless and Wild” and “Breaker”,
by these German legends. Yes, Udo is gone, and yes the line up for this live
feast is changed once again... but Hoffman and Baltes remain and along with
Tornillo they form the nucleus of this powerful musical cell.
Captured
on the European leg of the Blind Rage World Tour, this live record is a superb
and exhaustive document of all that is great about Accept. Quite simply, this is a
kind of cherry picked best of the band, from all eras, wrapped up in a powerful
live sound. The band are on form on every track here and the material spans the
decades seamlessly. Opening as it does with three latter days tracks (the “Blind
Rage” album highlight “Stampede” gets things off to a
flyer) and then a “Balls to the Wal”l deep cut, you know the band mean business
and that you are getting the full Accept treatment.
At
27 (!) tracks long, this is perhaps a record that will only be listened to in
part or on a long journey, but those marketing folks at Nuclear Blast know what they are
doing and they deliver two discs- both packed with classics. The DVD and Blu
Ray releases are also very well packaged and come with the live album on CD as
well. I picked up the DVD and CD for a very reasonable price- money very well
spent. As we don't have the DVD for review, and I have not had time to watch it
yet, this writing only references the CD/MP3 live album.
Well,
back to the music: it rocks, plain and simple. Metal classic after metal classic
rips out of the stereo; “Dying Breed”, “No Shelter”, “Living
for Tonite”, “Restless and Wild”, “Flash
Rockin' Man”, “Fast As A Shark”, “Teutonic
Terror”, “Metal Heart”... They are ALL here and ALL played superbly. This
band are not young men any more, but they play and sound like they are.
If
you have never checked Accept out, the best advice I can give you is
to please do so, ASAP! For those that don't know, their sound is a hybrid of Judas Priest,
the harder side of AC/DC, Iron Maiden and Motorhead. This is classic metal
in every sense of the word and played in a style that is as tough as stainless
steel. The band wisely stick to the most rocking material from “Blind
Rage” (which was in parts a little too melodic for my taste) and in
doing so, show that there is a lot of life left in this band yet. The fact that
“Blind
Rage” was a number one album in the German charts speaks volumes: this
is a band at the peak of their powers. Every band member acquits themselves
admirably, with Tornillo's tougher-than-leather vocals holding up extremely
well.
I
can't wait for the next studio record, but for now this live tour de force will
do just fine. I like a good live album and this is a great one. Extensive,
exhaustive, as hard as iron and as sharp as a rapier, Accept take no prisoners and
attain new heights of metallic cohesiveness here. A well packaged and great
value for money release. Highly recommended.
“Restless
and Live”
is available here
