Accept Koko London 8-2-18
First up was US 3 piece Night Demon who so want to be Iron Maiden.Galloping bass and guitar riffs pounding drums and even a walk on Eddie lite during one song took it just a little too far.
Accept are touring in support of the excellent The Rise Of Chaos cd their 4th cd with Mark Tornillo and it continues their re birth with a nod to the old and gives the fans exactly what they want.Old school heavy metal with riffs to die for and razor blade chanting vocals.
For a little over 2 hours we were treated to a career set list with it split between the old classics and the Tornillo albums with 5 taken from the new cd.
Here is what they played.
Die By The Sword
Stalingrad
Restless And Wild
London Leatherboys
Breaker
The Rise Of Chaos
Koolaid
No Regrets
Analog Man
Final Journey
Shadow Soldiers
Guitar solo Bolero
Neon Nights
Princess Of The Dawn
Midnight Mover
Up To The Limit
Objection Overruled
Pandemic
Fast As A Shark
Encores of
Metal Heart
Teutonic Terror
Balls To The Wall
With a crystal clear sound we were able to hear all of the classical influences in Wolf Hoffmann's superb guitar playing and he never stopped smiling and/or gurning and he was ably backed up Uwe Lelis who knows his job as number 2.
The rhythm team of Peter Baltes on bass and Christopher Williams on drums are superb with Williams driving the band to heights previously unseen and Baltes does sterling work on his background vocals too.
Out front Mark Tornillo has replaced the irreplaceable in many eyes with his vocal style a match for anything that has gone before and some of the high notes he hits are staggering.
Die By The Sword sat seamlessly with Stalingrad and Restless And Wild as an opening trio showcasing the old and the new with the audience reaction manic from the word go.
The 4 songs played back to back from The Rise Of Chaos were all greeted like long lost friends with my favourite the wonderfully worded Analog Man talking about the way music has progressed or to some regressed to us how shall I say older fans!!!
Pandemic for me has the best guitar riff of the last decade and the crowd went suitably nuts with a groove to knock down cities in it's path before Fast As A Shark rattled fillings with Williams double bass onslaught at it's core.
A 3 song encore mixed old and new with Teutonic Terror's meaty riff comfortably striding Metal Heart's classical mid section and the groove of Balls To The Wall and a mass singalong to finish a fantastic evening.
If any band wonder's if the fan's want to hear just the old classics then attend an Accept show for a band who are setting new standard's for extending and some say bettering a back catalogue with a drive and verve that put's so many to shame.
Superb.