By unfortunate coincidence, this album featuring the New York skyline aflame, was released on 9/11/2001. The album was recalled and re-released with new cover art. I’m glad I have an original, but I never really listen to it, because it always reminds me of that day.
ACCEPT – Stalingrad (2012 Nuclear Blast, bonus track)
They said there could be no Accept without Udo! But here we are, two albums deep onto a healthy Accept rennaissance with Mark Tornillo at the mic. Wolf Hoffman and company have carried on with class. Has there ever been a metal band that so seemlessly replaced their beloved longtime original throat?
I think on Stalingrad, Tornillo’s fitting in better than ever. It seemed to my ears that they have upped the SPM (screams-per-minute) on this Accept album, and Tornillo’s never sounded better honestly. I guess that big long tour really tightened everybody up, because the whole band sounds awesome.
Stalingrad is very much a companion record to the successful comeback Blood Of The Nations. It sound like a natural succession, with perhaps a little more emphasis on melody and catchiness. The tracks are still as Teutonically heavy as before, but there seems to be just the oddest incremental increase in melody.
Strongest songs:
“Stalingrad”, “Flash To Bang Time”, “Shadow Soldiers”, “Us Against The World”, they’re all good! I also liked the 9/11 song “Never Forget”, which is a bonus track on some editions.
On a final note, I think Peter Baltes is a damn fine and underrated metal bassist. He sounds great on this album!
4.5/5stars
I slept in. For me, sleeping in meant waking up at 7:30 instead of 5:30. I didn’t have to go to work in the morning; I was working the afternoon. Instead, I had an oil change booked for my car. My dad and I headed out early, had a coffee at Mr. Lube, got the oil changed, and headed back home.
When we got home, my mom was watching the news. “An airplane just crashed into the World Trade Center!” she said.
“What, like an accident?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “They haven’t said. But it was a big plane. A passenger plane.”
The second plane collided around this time, because when we all got to the TV, both towers were burning. We just sat there, watching events unfold in shock.
I phoned up Matty K, who was working the morning shift at our store. He was cut off from the outside world, as he didn’t have TV, radio or internet at the store. I let him know what was going on. He had not heard about it yet. I kept him posted throughout the morning any time there was significant news.
I went into work at 1 in the afternoon. It was all anybody wanted to talk about, customers and staff, understandably so. Everybody was freaked out, especially when it became obvious that this was a well coordinated attack. Some were scared, some were concerned for family members traveling, but most of us were just freaked right out.
It was a weird day to work, and the store was pretty dead that afternoon as everyone stayed home to watch the news. In the end, we all just wanted to go home and do the same thing.
We couldn’t just go home and watch the news. There was a meeting scheduled that night at 9:30 pm, that store managers had to attend. None of us really wanted to be there, but it was decided not to cancel the meeting, even though our minds were anywhere else but work. Our thoughts were with the lost, the survivors, the families, and trying to make sense out of those tragic events.
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