Germany's Accept are one of the true Legends of Heavy Metal and this DVD captures the bands early years to some success. Released as a dual disc, one side features a concert and video film that is chock full of footage from a concert in Osaka Japan (1985) as well as a number of the bands videos from that time as well. The concert was their first in Japan and seems taken at around the time of the Metal Heart album and a couple of the performances leave you with this impression. Accept were one of those bands that you either loved or hated and this was primarily based on singer Udo Dirkschneiders unique voice, his gravelly tone a far cry from some of the screaming vocals coming from Priest and Maiden during this time in Metal history. The live portion of the film originally comes to us as the concert CD and VHS "Staying A Life" and the only omission from the release are a few songs and the guitar solo by Wolf Hoffman. Inter laced between the live footage are the bands video films which by today's standards are a bit clichι. However, it was great to be able to see Metal bands doing videos back then, and everyone seemed to do them no matter what kind of music they played. A bonus couple of live performances are provided as well in "Live Sophia '93" filmed 8 years after the main program on the release. The three songs are "Starlight", "Slaves To Metal", and "Objection Overruled". The lineup which included Dirkschneider, Wolf Hoffman, and Stefan Kaufmann was not to be taken lightly against any of their Metal peers. You can feel the impact they had on their audiences in the concert films as the response during choruses was just over powering.
CD Side: The CD side of the dual disc features a nice number of unreleased audio tracks which are bound to appease all Accept fans. Included are: Rich And Famous, Rocking For The Sun, Morning Sun, Run If You Can, Down And Out, Down And Out, Can't Stand The Night, Breaker, Burning, and Writing On The Wall.
There is not much in the way of a booklet with the packaging, but the menus on the DVD offer you some functionality. You are able to view the video clips, biography, discography and behind the scenes footage. It's very comprehensive and should be afforded some more interest as a result of the detail placed on it. At the time of their zenith I was only a casual listener, but I look back on the albums I owned fondly. Accept offered a level of difference to what Metal was at the time and what it was to become. This DVD allows you to experience it once again, and not only see how good the band was live but to recapture the power of some of their songs. Tracks such as "Restless And Wild", "Fast As A Shark" and "Balls To The Wall" are classics of Metal's song library and sound as fresh today as when they came out. "Fast As A Shark" (1982) was one of the key songs in the soon to be labeled Speed Metal genre. It's time for you to feel your Metal Heart beating strong with the music of Accept once again.
Track Listing DVD
- Metal Heart
- Breaker
- Screaming For A Love-Bite
- Up To The Limit
- Living For Tonite
- Princess Of The Dawn
- Restless And Wild
- Son Of A Bitch
- London Leatherboys
- Fast As A Shark
- Balls To The Wall
- Outro (Bound to Fail)
- I'm A Rebel video
- Balls To The Wall video
- Midnight Mover video
- Generation Clash video
- Protectors Of Terror video
- Slaves To Metal video
- Death Row video