Oregon Music News

Accept made a stop in Portland on Wednesday April 27th at Peter’s Room to a jam packed house of appreciative fanatics. It has years since Accept played in the area they are touring behind Blood of the Nations their strongest effort since their classic Metal Heart album. There’s a new face in Accept and that is singer Mark Tornillo who took over for Udo Dirkscheider who essentially quit the band.

In what proved to be a ballsy move and a show of confidence in the material from their critically acclaimed album Blood of the Nations; Accept opened with two new cuts “Teutonic Terror,” and “Bucket Full of Hate.” The reaction was extremely favorable by the enthusiastic audience. With Tornillo on board Accept has new life. Wolf Hoffmann and Company are playing at a high level, maybe even better than they ever have. The guitar team of Herman Frank and Wolf Hoffmann bombarded the audience with a hail rapid fire riffs, while the energetic, showman Peter Baltes and Stefan Schwarzmann locked in and held down the fort. The bare chested, gravelly voiced Mark Tornillo amazed with his ability to tackle classics like; “Breaker,” “Son of a Bitch,” “Metal Heart,’ “Princess of the Dawn,” “Fast as a Shark,” and their signature track “Balls to the Wall.” Live photography by Jon T. Cruz.

Accept’s last attempt at replacing Udo Dirkschneider wasn’t well received. In fact, I’ll go a step further and call it disastrous. American David Reece was a fine singer but frankly he didn’t fit the band. For the album Eat the Heat the band should have called itself something else other than Accept. If you’re a long-time fan you knew this already, this is a quick recap.

It took awhile for the band to reunite with Udo Dirkschneider but they released three studio albums upon his return from 1993-1996 before they went their separate ways yet again. A few years ago they once again reunited to perform at a number of festivals abroad and when it came time for the band to make a commitment to do some new music together Udo balked at the idea. He instead elected to continue with his own band U.D.O. Fast forward to 2009 when bassist Peter Baltes and Hoffmann reunited to jam one day and they were introduced to singer Mark Tornillo. Accept knew replacing Udo Dirkschneider would be no easy feat as they found with the David Reece experiment. It wouldn’t be an understatement that making another dire move filling their vacant singer

Mark Tornillo and Wolf Hoffmann face off.

slot would end the band for good. Enter former T.T. Quick singer Mark Tornillo, who was snatched from obscurity after the jam session to fit the bill. Tornillo sounds like a cross between Bon Scott and Udo Dirkschneider… so he can tackle the classic stuff without question.

Blood of the Nations stays true to Accept’s traditional metal sound with its power riffs, blistering solos, bombastic grooves and the monster gang background vocals which have been a trademark for the band since its inception. I applaud Accept for releasing two unforgettable tracks to reintroduce the band to the world “The Abyss,” and “Teutonic Terror” are simply brilliant. And if you thought this was a label ploy to release the two best tracks to get the fans to buy an album full of filler- think again. As a whole Blood of the Nations is an unyielding album from beginning to end. Other notable tracks include; “Kill the Pain,” and “Pandemic.”

A show of force.

Mark Tornillo fits like a glove… if only they had found him when Udo Dirkschneider left in 1988. There isn’t a track on here that the album could have done without, it flows well and can honestly say that once you hear this album you’ll wish Accept would play live it in its entirety and then ended the show with a handful of classics… it’s that good. Blood of the Nations turned up on many an album of the year list in 2010. Blood of the Nations is a fresh start with a new singer at the helm that is true to the band’s legacy.