This year has already been an amazing year for rock and metal music fans. So when we got the word that Accept would be releasing a new album this year it was a nice extra piece added to an already rockin year of tunes. Their latest album Blind Rage, third album with Mark Tornillo on vocals, has hit and hits hard. From the opening track “Stampede” on through the album is just pure metal that only Accept can bring to the world.
As I listened to the album for the first time I noticed something that I hadn’t noticed in a long time on an album. I knew that Blind Rage was a new album, especially since my first listen was a week before it’s official release. But despite being a new album it felt like it was an album I’ve known for years. I found myself tapping my foot to “Dying Breed” on first listen without missing a beat. Something I’ve only done previously with albums that I either listened to repeatedly for days on end or albums I’ve grown up listening to. Having to remind myself as I listened to it that despite how familiar it felt that it was new made me realize that Accept has an instant classic album on their hands and so do we as fans.
I feel like I’m taken back in time to the mid to late 1980s with the guitar riffs that Wolf Hoffman and Herman Frank lay down on this album on tracks like “Wanna Be Free”, which starts acoustically and then cranks up the volume, and “Dark Side Of My Heart”, which sounds easily that it could’ve come from earlier in Accept‘s catalog.
The same can be said for Mark Tornillo‘s vocals. If you weren’t sold on him in Accept with the first two albums he did with Accept you will be with Blind Rage. To pick out one track to highlight his vocals on this album wouldn’t be fair to Mark as every song on this album he nails and big.
It doesn’t matter if you are a long time Accept fan, recent fan, or just joining the world of rock and metal you should have Blind Rage in your music library. It’s an instant classic for the world of rock and metal.