Accept - Osaka, 1985

November 21, 2012 4:42 PM

With their brutal, simple riffs and aggressive, fast tempos, Accept were one of the top metal bands of the early '80s, and a major influence on the development of thrash. Led by the unique vocal stylings of screeching banshee Udo Dirkschneider, the band forged an instantly recognizable sound and was notorious as one of the decade's fiercest live acts. - AllMusic
posted by Egg Shen (29 comments total)

They also appeared in Beavis and Butthead.

Yes! YES! FIRE!
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 4:52 PM on November 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

The first band I ever saw live, opening up for Kiss in 1984....
posted by 445supermag at 4:52 PM on November 21, 2012

Balls to the wall!
posted by dabug at 5:11 PM on November 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Udo is the closest sounding vocalist to the late Bon Scott that I've ever heard.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:13 PM on November 21, 2012

One of my closest friends growing up was a total headbanger. He was serious about it, and I remember him loving Accept.

He also didn't think Spinal Tap was funny - at all. Yep, he was a serious headbanger.
posted by Xoebe at 5:22 PM on November 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

It's a sad reflection on my teenage self that I wasn't into any of the Euro thrash and power bands, despite even the worst of them being better than 95% of the US/UK metal around at the time. The insidious influence of marketing and clothing somehow made me deaf, like just Beavis, to the fact that Herr Dirkschneider is a significantly better vocalist than say, James Hetfeild, ill-fitting camo gear and fingerless mesh driving gloves notwithstanding.

Of course a major part of being a teenager means thinking you're way too smart to be influenced by anything, but being a teenage metalhead, who'd proudly lived every second of his life (or at least, since getting The Black Album for Xmas) outside the world of mass-market "cool", and once even suffered through 2 hours of MTV Superrock (til 3:30am! on Sunday!) to tape the new Metal Church video just seemed to lock me one level deeper into that delusion. The more the system rejects your tastes, the more hipster and philistine you're likely to become. At least the hated enemy, the mainstream kids setting their music tastes by Top of the Pops and Radio 1, weren't bullshitting themselves about being conditioned.

This guilt is only now being gradually expunged by listening to Accept on a daily basis.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 5:44 PM on November 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

You gotta break the chains, YEAH!
posted by Renoroc at 6:01 PM on November 21, 2012

"Balls to the Wall" is the greatest heavy metal video in the history of heavy metal videos.

In fact, the "Balls to the Wall" lp is a great from start to finish. Some great metal and good songs. Nice to see Accept on the blue!
posted by punkrockrat at 6:01 PM on November 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I was one of the NYC metalheads who loved Accept back inna day! I love that balance of jaggedness and control Herr Dirkschneider brought to vocalsd. I don't do the death metal cookie-monster stuff, but Udo had it just right. Sing with edge, don't just growl.

Until it got stolen, my most recent bike was named Udo because it was olive and black. Paid $666+tax. Trufax. \m/

The video for Midnight Mover was always my favorite because the multiple-cameras technique to get that vertigoriffic spinning effect was new. Now it looks cheezy, but back in 1985 that was pretty fucking innovative. Badass jam, too.

To my aesthetic, that video is what a metal band should look like; basically all black except for the singer, no bright colors, none of that sparkly late 80s LA crap. Hate that shit.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 7:06 PM on November 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

This band is ludicrously hypnotic in my head. It's got more cheese in it than a thousand acres of dairy cows, but I CAN'T GET THEIR MUSIC OUT OF MY GODDAM BRAIN.


Curse you, Metafilter.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 7:11 PM on November 21, 2012

The synchronized hip-shaking/guitar-thrusting/head-banging in the "Balls to the Wall" video is making me somehow much less stressed out about, well, everything.
posted by skycrashesdown at 7:15 PM on November 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

Fast as a Shark

They made Scorpion look like the girl rock band they really were.
posted by Max Power at 8:15 PM on November 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Udo is the closest sounding vocalist to the late Bon Scott that I've ever heard.

A lot of German rock/metal singers seem to emulate Scott, or if you're feeling charitable, just happen to share his style. Hank Davison Band are perhaps my favourite sound-alikes, but it's hard to better Krokus in terms of xeroxing of the formula.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 8:30 PM on November 21, 2012

For sheer humor, the manga and six-part anime OAV series Bastard!! had a number of metal references, including the fact that the lead antihero was named "Dark Schneider", a deliberate reference to Udo Dirkschneider.

(there was also the hapless and yet unkillable knight Jon Bonjovina, the trapped soul of Lars ul Metallicana, a number of other reference... and the spell that unseals Dark Schneider from his prison is called 'Accept', just to bring it back around.)
posted by mephron at 8:41 PM on November 21, 2012

Don't forget the Dutchman:

http://goo.gl/Zj8xa

Pop? Yes. Metal? You tell me.

Chopsiest, comfortable & creative? Edward, hands down.

Udo's got the range, but DLR's got the costume ;-)
posted by whozyerdaddy at 8:41 PM on November 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

The synchronized hip-shaking/guitar-thrusting/head-banging in the "Balls to the Wall" video is making me somehow much less stressed out about, well, everything.

Way back when, this kind of Judas Priestery made me extremely uncomfortable as it was gave a blatant handhold to alternative rock fans to use to mock metal as unserious and undeserving of respect.

Goddamn it feels great to grow up and be free of that shit!
posted by ignignokt at 9:07 PM on November 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

Accept is freaking awesome. The Balls to the Wall video linked above is so memorable, the dwarf singer has the rest of the band stand behind him so they all look equally huge. How metal is that?

Also wrecking balls.

I have friends who still listen to this shit earnestly on cassettes.
posted by lkc at 10:42 PM on November 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, never really got into Accept back in the days; my allegiance was with NWOBHM (Maiden/Motorhead), New York style thrash and hardcore (Anthrax/S.O.D./M.O.D./Mucky Pup/Biohazard/Sick of it All) and pure thrash (Slayer/Sepultura). Metallica even in the eighties was entry level metal, most German metal bands until Death Metal hit were a bit, ummm, cheezy shall we say?

Still got a fondness for Helloween though and, well, it was Halloween recently.
posted by MartinWisse at 10:45 PM on November 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Mark Tornillo took over for Dirkschneider recently. Most would howl in indignation, but you know what? It's not too bad. Beat the Bastards and Rolling Thunder are both pretty solid traditional metal tunes. These elder statesmen of metal still astonish me with their dogged perseverance. Lemmy is sixty-six for crying out loud! Still kicking ass! Every time I think I've outgrown metal, something like this post comes up and I feel like an angry teenager all over again. Thanks.
posted by Ephelump Jockey at 12:01 AM on November 22, 2012

I was completely oblivious to these guys back in the day, but looking at the videos they have stolen my heart. People, watch them - the band is tight as can be, they so much enjoy being with each other on stage, the frontman(?) is the exact antithesis of Jim Morrison and yet is also the opposite of not confident and... the drummer not only just drives the whole thing, has a magnificent kit, but also apears to crash some fairly nice radio contolled model planes.

My only exposure is this post, and I may have been taken in by some careful editing, but I think I could have been happy as the bass player in this band.
posted by skyscraper at 2:50 AM on November 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm not familiar with Judas Priest's entire catalogue. But if they - or any other metal band of the time - were willing to be as frank in their homoeroticism as "London Leatherboys", I'm not aware of it.
posted by Egg Shen at 6:21 AM on November 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Rob Halford has been out for years and he's still the fucking GOD OF METAL!

Yes, the whole leather & spikes thing originated in the London gay underground Rob was part of at the time.

Know what? METAL HEADS DON'T FUCKING CARE AS LONG AS THE METAL IS AWESOME!

I remember in 7th grade back around the era of Screaming For Vengeance, one of the older kids was saying to me in the locker room "You know, my cousin is in the entertainment industry, and that guy in Judas Priest is gay."

"LALALALALALALALA CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!!"

But I take it as a real tribute to how far we've come as metal fans. Because if you tell most metalheads "Rob Halford is gonna suck a room-full-of-cocks before he comes out on stage..." the response is mostly gonna be "If that's what it takes to hit those fucking high notes... ROCK ON!"

\m/ \m/
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 12:15 PM on November 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

This is were I become Metal Hipster, but I never listened to Balls to the Wall or anything after. Restless and Wild and Breaker though were huge in my world. Fast as a Shark was pivotal moment for many of my young metal crowd.
posted by bongo_x at 12:45 PM on November 22, 2012

Thanks for the post. For you remaining Metal Heads, here's the whole album of Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East.

Few things sound this good on an '81 Toshiba 10 D cell, beat box. (Stereo w/dual cassette.)
posted by snsranch at 7:02 PM on November 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

A lot of German rock/metal singers seem to emulate Scott, or if you're feeling charitable, just happen to share his style.

Yes, but Accept's first hit actually WAS an AC/DC song that was an unreleased leftover from the Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap sessions. It was written by the late Alex Young (aka George Alexander, of Grapefruit), the oldest brother of AC/DC's Malcolm & Angus. The story I've heard is that he requested in his will that the AC/DC recording not be issued.

(For those keeping score at home, he's also the older brother of AC/DC producer and Easybeats guitarist George, and the father of Stevie, guitarist for NWOBHM also-rans The Starfighters.)
posted by snottydick at 8:36 AM on November 26, 2012

I can’t believe I didn’t know that about "I’m a Rebel" being such an obsessive reader of liner notes when I was younger. Then again, I didn’t love that song. It does explain why it seems so out of character.
posted by bongo_x at 11:48 AM on November 26, 2012

Lemmy is sixty-six for crying out loud! Still kicking ass!

Mr. Pötatöhead Lemmy Kilmister
posted by homunculus at 12:23 PM on November 27, 2012

I'm not familiar with Judas Priest's entire catalogue. But if they - or any other metal band of the time - were willing to be as frank in their homoeroticism as "London Leatherboys", I'm not aware of it.

Well, now that Rob Halford is out and proud, certain song and album titles can be read in new ways...

Hellbent For Leather
Leather Rebel
Rock Hard Ride Free
Grinder
Hard As Iron

In terms of visual presentation, Manowar is a close runner-up, but the sleeve art for Balls To The Wall, and particularly the the poster insert is about as homoerotic as metal of that era could be.
posted by snottydick at 1:26 PM on November 27, 2012

On a related note, I remember watching Rob Halford fill in for Ozzy at a Black Sabbath gig in Philadelphia (technically Camden).

Some dude behind me yelled, "Get that faggot off the stage! We want Ozzy!" A pack of linebacker-sized "motorcycle enthusiasts" in Judas Priest shirts were standing right next to him.

If he said anything after that, it was probably along the lines of "ouch" and "help" and "please stop punching me."
posted by snottydick at 1:31 PM on November 27, 2012