Accept
September 7, 2017
Saban Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
German heavy metal legends Accept released their fifteenth studio album The Rise of Chaos on August 4th, 2017. Since the 1980’s, Accept has been a driving force in the metal world achieving success and being a big part of the German heavy metal scene that started in the early 1980’s. The band has had many lineup changes and since the band’s inception, the only remaining original members are guitarist Wolf Hoffmann and bassist Peter Baltes. Accept announced a European tour in support for the new album, but first they made a quick stop at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, California for a special kickoff show. Accept would make this show even louder as they would play a whopping 21 songs making for a loud two-hour performance.
Accept came out to loud cheers from the fans as they started the show with the first track from the new album, Die by the Sword. Accept is known for their loud and heavy performances and this show was no different. Loud guitars and drums would make sure you can not only hear the music, but feel the music. Stalingrad was the next song and was off the band’s 2012 album of the same name. Now that Accept had gotten a couple of new tracks out of the way, it was time to bring out the classics. Restless and Wild was next and is one of the band’s staple songs performed live. Another classic track performed was London Leatherboys from the band’s 1983 Gold Certified album, Balls to the Wall.
For the whole performance, the band members had nothing but smiles showing that they were having lots of fun performing on stage for the fans as well as showing that there was no bad blood between the band members. Accept did a great job of delivering a solid set consisting of old material as well as new material. Accept would play newer tracks such as Koolaid, Final Journey, Analog Man, and Shadow Soldiers. Not forgetting their old school sound, Accept also played many of the classic hits such as Neon Nights, Princess of the Dawn, Midnight Mover, and Up to the Limit. To end the show, Accept played one of the band’s most important songs, Fast as a Shark. This song is believed to have been a gateway creating two sub-genres of metal which we now know as power metal and speed metal due to the twin lead guitar solos as well as the consistent double bass drumming throughout the song. Fans reacted positively to the song as horns were raised and many fans were also seen singing along to the song. Accept finished up the song and left the stage.
The stage remained dark and fans stayed hoping for more live music. Surely enough, Accept came back out for a few encores. The first encore was one of the band’s most popular songs, Metal Heart. It perfectly describes how metal heads feel at times when listening to metal music as their body and soul become one with metal. Teutonic Terror was the second encore and is one of the band’s newer songs that fans have grown to love. For the show’s grand finale, Accept played their most famous song, Balls to the Wall. The band has the band’s classic signature heavy metal sound and always has fans singing along, raising their horns, and head banging the whole night. Accept finished up the show and interacted with the fans for a bit before leaving the stage for the final time. Accept still delivers amazing music and great performances and they are not to be missed by fans of metal music.
Review by: Misael Ruiz
