Accept: Stalingrad – new album

The successor to their noteworthy comeback album released in 2010, Germany's heavy metallers', ACCEPT, thirteenth full-length entitled ‘Stalingrad’ is being unleashed upon Europe today, April 6th, 2012, while the group's North American fans will have to bite their nails in envy until April 10th, 2012 – all due to Nuclear Blast Records. ‘Stalingrad’ was recorded with British producer and long-time ACCEPT fan Andy Sneap. Listen to the album's title-track below, and download the tune free of charge here, courtesy Nuclear Blast:

“ ‘Stalingrad’ ain’t no product of light entertainment or a work of staid rockers coined by the leniency of the old age. This record presses out the air of your lungs, makes you break out in sweat and thrusts its clenched fist right into your face. The world's best riff-smithy is put into perfect contradistinction to the classically influenced solos penned by Wolf [Hoffman, guitarist]. Apart from the mighty chorals and the incomparable guitar ballet, this consonance of antagonisms embodies the most important “patent of heavy metal“ ACCEPT can claim for themselves. With ‘Stalingrad’ it’s not only the future that belongs to one of the world's most important classical heavy metal bands, but also the stages of each and every big festival! ACCEPT that!” [directs the press release:]

ACCEPT: Stalingrad – courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records

One of the top metal bands of the early 1980s, ACCEPT's beginnings can be traced back to 1968. Vocalist Udo Dirkschneider, guitarists Wolf Hoffmann and Jörg Fischer, bassist Peter Baltes and drummer Frank Friedrich recorded ACCEPT's debut self-titled album in 1978 and released it the following year. With new drummer, Stefan Kaufmann, the group entered the studio with producer Dirk Steffens, with whom they recorded ACCEPT's second full-length 1980's ‘I’m A Rebel’, as well as 1981's ‘Breaker’ and 1982's ‘Restless And Wild’. The band's best known and highest-selling album (selling about two million copies worldwide), ‘Balls To The Wall’, came next in 1983:

“Following hot upon the heels of their creative breakthrough, ‘Restless And Wild’, you'd also be hard pressed to find a more sexually charged record in any musical genre. Its hysterically nonsensical lyrics notwithstanding, the legendary title track remains an irresistible, fist-pumping masterpiece that came to epitomize the modern, slow-marching metal anthem as it became known. And when paired with second single ‘London Leatherboys’, it arguably constitutes the most blatantly homoerotic couplet in the history of heavy metal (eat your heart out, Rob Halford),” [advised Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic – read the rest here]

With Dieter Dierks-produced album, 1985's ‘Metal Heart’, ACCEPT impressed American public once again, with it entering Billboard Top 200 at number 94. Their self-produced album ‘Russian Roulette’ followed in 1986, and ‘Eat The Heart’, recorded with vocalist David Reece, came next in 1989. After issuing a live album ‘Staying A Life’, recorded in 1985 and released in 1990, the group ceased to function until their reunion with singer Udo Dirkschneider. ‘Objection Overruled’ was issued in 1993 and ‘Death Row’, the last ACCEPT album to feature drummer Stefan Kaufmann, followed in 1994. Their last recording with Dirkschneider, 1996's ‘Predator’, was to feature (current LYNYRD SKYNYRD) drummer Michael Cartellone. But a brief resurrection in 2005, ACCEPT was put on hold until 2009, when the band reunited with new vocalist Mark Tornillo and new drummer Stefan Schwarzmann. They recorded their highest carting album to date, 2010's ‘Blood Of The Nations’, with producer Andy Sneap:

“Tough and heavy is a straight-to-the-point description of such tunes as the ass-kicking album-opener ‘Beat The Bastards’, as well as ‘Teutonic Terror’ and the heavy duty title track. Producer Andy Sneap (known for working with the heaviest of heavy metal bands) successfully brings ACCEPT sonically back to the metallic roar of their glory days throughout ‘Blood Of The Nations’, resulting in an impressive return of Germany's second best-known heavy metal export of all time,” [commented Greg Prato, AllMusic – read the rest here:]

ACCEPT: Teutonic Terror – courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records

ACCEPT: The Abyss – courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records

ACCEPT features: Mark Tornillo – vocals, Wolf Hoffmann – guitar, Herman Frank – guitar, Peter Baltes – bass and Stefan Schwarzmann - drums