Adele

I've got nothing bad to say about Adele. I'm not a mad man. It seems like everybody loves Adele. I've been shopping in Safeway and an Adele song comes on- everybody sings along. The people working there, the people shopping there. Teenagers and old people. Black, white, and everyone else. In era when nobody buys albums anymore, a stunning number of people got hers. It's the rare case of a top artist consciously and deliberately pulling her catalog from streaming services and making us buy a hard copy (Taylor Swift also comes to mind). And, yes, I did buy it - as a holiday gift for my wife in 2015. My goodness, with those omnipresent commercials I had to. Those Target commercials that kept popping up, ironically enough, on Hulu and YouTube, during the holidays really got to me. She's just like ripping out my heart while making eye-contact, and she's just looking at me, and it's just like- yes,fine! yes- please take my money and give me your record of these songs, please! I will pay actual MONEY for your PHYSICAL MEDIA. (One advertisement was with lead single "Hello," but the one for "A Million Years Ago" is the real killer.) It's an outrageous and widespread phenomenon, so clearly she is doing something very right. I suppose it's having raw talent, and the ability to tap into strong emotions through those talents. And that talent is almost all in her singing. It's not like she is famous for her dance moves or guitar solos. It's all about that voice. She does mostly write the songs (on guitar, she says), and I guess she plays some instruments sometimes, but just to hear this lady sing is an amazing experience. People pay good money to experience that live. As well they should. At one point the BBC says that her "melodies exude warmth, her singing is occasionally stunning and...she has tracks that make Lily Allen and Kate Nash sound every bit as ordinary as they are." Such a burn! It's sad but true, but Lily Allen and Kate Nash have other things going for them. And one need not always listen to serious or "good" music.

Adele only has three albums so far. They are all great- each slightly better than the previous one.  It's kinda crazy that she gets discovered and her record is put out by XL Recordings, who I had previously thought of as putting out (mostly?) house music and early techno.

She puts on 19 when she is only 19, so that's part of the impressiveness. It's the most stark of her albums, but it was a big hit with critics and the public, especially at home in Britain. "Chasing Pavements" is the standout track (and Grammy winner), but "Hometown Glory" started her career. I like the Dylan cover, "Make you Feel My Love," which erases the relevancy of Billy Joel's cover of the same song. "Right as Rain" will also be a good song for all time.

Apparently we have Sarah Palin to thank for Adele breaking into the American music scene. Her album wasn't doing much here until she appeared on the same SNL episode that Palin appeared on. It was their highest rated episode in years, and Adele's sales starting skyrocketing here after that, topping the iTunes chart (remember when that was important!) the next day. She cleans up at the Grammys that year.

Her second album, aptly titled 21, comes out and is an even bigger deal. Something like 31 million people bought this record! Besides earning the longest running #1 album on the charts by a female artist EVER, she also becomes the first woman in history to have three simultaneous Top 10 singles, and the first woman to have two albums in the Top 5 at the same time. OK! They keep throwing Grammys at her. I hadn't realized that Rick Rubin did some production here, but on the deeper cuts. I think of it as the album on which she discovered the drums that were occasionally sorely missing from the first album. And they really kick on numbers like "Rolling in the Deep" and especially "Rumour Has It." "Someone Like You" is the killer - and, again, it will probably remain so for eternity. "Set Fire to the Rain" was also another international Number 1, but it never registered with me as much as the other three. There are still plenty of the down-tempo contemplative numbers that largely made up her first album. Apparently they call her "blue-eyed soul," and we can perhaps tackle another time whether or not that's a racist term; Daryl Hall thinks so. The first albums are "soul" music in the sense that they deal primarily with heartbreak, suffering, and loss, while contemplating music's ability to transcend with hope; something about her emphatic phrasing too.  The second album is more folksy while still soulful, but the rocking bits help. It also sounds like the blues too me occasionally, but whatever you want to call it. "The album's success has been attributed to its cross-cultural appeal." It's also just pop falling into the chasm that is The Monogenre. The Singularity is always getting closer, of course...

"Skyfall" is the excellent theme song she contributed to the James Bond movie of the same name. It charts well and gets her another Grammy. I don't know how we are supposed to hear it though. Buy a damn single?! It inexplicably appears on neither her album nor the movie's soundtrack album. So let's watch the official video:

In 2012 she gets Arts of of the Year and Album of the Year from Billboard

Finally, she kicks it up yet another notch for her third and most recent album 25. Guess how old she was when it came out. It sells so many albums it floats the whole Billboard charts, erasing a previous year's decline in album sales, and makes tons of journalist write about how CDs aren't dead... yet. Whereas the previous was her break-up record, she calls this one her "make-up album." It's funny because, she made it when she was 25 and this is the album where's singing about getting old. The lyrics are like The Avett Brothers, all responsible, deep adulthood, while yearning for the days of youth. Oh, Adele - hang in there! It's the fasting selling album in UK history. It is the most produced of her albums. She said it was a chiefly inspired by Madonna's Ray of Light; it's not that electronica-y, but where it is it benefits from the more modern sounds, which blend seamlessly and effectively with her timeless voice. One story goes that she heard a Taylor Swift song on the radio and said, "Can I have a song like that?" She got Tay's producer, Max Martin, and the results are "Send my Love," which slickened up her sounds with pop-music beats and such. Hey, if it gets Adele played on pop radio (it does) and headlining festivals (it did) then I'm all for it. "River Lea" is a another strong track, even if it's not a single. "Water Under the Bridge" is great too. As is "When We Were Young." This a truly great album with ton of excellent songs. Of course, the multi-award winning "Hello" dominated the singles charts and the public consciousness during this period. When the video was released a million people every hour were watching it on YouTube, breaking more records, even Tay's for "Bad Blood." She performs live at Radio City Music Hall, which is recorded and broadcast by NBC right around Christmas, so everyone watched it - my entire family included. She closes out her tour, and trilogy of albums, with Finale shows at Wembley Arena. Those picking up on the theme should not be surprised to learn that the events broke all previous attendance records.

So we are left to wonder- what is it about this woman that make her 10, 50, 100 times more successfully than other contemporary musical acts? Surely, it can't be just her voice. It might have something to do with her humble begging and demeanor. An (at least) acceptable backstory is absolutely essential for cross-over mainstream gargantuan success of this magnitude. To people in the UK she defines pop culture. She might have one of the greatest voices in the world today, but she doesn't seem too full of her self; she's always very down-to-earth in her performances, and she's not afraid of making a mistake either. Hasn't she restarted a performance mid-way on more than one televised occasion? It makes her seem human, rather than super-human, despite her stunning abilities. Add in her extensive philanthropy plus occasional nods to feminism, the LGTBQ+ community, and her working-class roots, it becomes increasingly clear that Adele is entirely deserving of all the attention she gets from nearly everyone.

Acid Horse

Good band name!

This band is a one-off. Literally. They seem to have just created this one song. It's the only one I ever heard, at least, and as far as I can tell the only thing they ever released, as a single in 1989. I heard it on that Wax Trax records box set. There's something kinda cool about a band, a project really, only releasing one song ever. The song is good, sure, but does it justify the existence of the band? Considering the inclusion of both Industrial music heavyweights Al Jourgenson and Chris Connelly it's easy to see how it would be difficult to live up to expectations.

I like how Wikipedia refers to the track's "serious, yet slightly comical tone - a trademark of many Ministry side projects" and compares them to another Ministry side project, PTP. AllMusic reveals more: that the single had two completely different versions of the song; one is in the style of Ministry and the other more like Cabaret Voltaire, which also shares members with this band.

So here's the version I heard, which sounds like a tamer Ministry:

And here's the  b-side remix, which as the YouTube image suggests might also be available on anther Wax Trax collection :

Now you've heard the band's entire discography chronologically too!

To see how they fit into the whole Wax Trax family tree, including previous blog selection 1000 Homo DJs, here's a hand drawn diagram that I made when I purchased the box set from a little record store in downtown Lake Charles,LA in 1994. (Although, based on what I've learned, Acid Horse is missing a link to Ministry.)

Adam Payne

I feel bad because this guy probably got in my music library because he is a friend of a friend, or something. Someone thought enough of him to think that I might like it, so it hurts to have to spurn that effort. He might be from the Massachusetts area, or he might be from Georgia. There might be multiple guys named Adam Payne around, so I'll try to be specific about what I listened to. It's unclear if he's still active. He's got a definite early-2000s feel about him. I have to be honest - I'm not a fan.

To be even more honest, the first album I listened to was awful fucken music. Just Me, as the title suggests, is just him and guitar. In his defense, I am always far more interested in a full band sound than this sort of thing, but singer-songwriters on their own need to really impress with both their singing and their songwriting. And that just doesn't happen here. I just don't find the voice salient. I was already cursing his name before the end of the first song, which--at six minutes--felt like it was a week long. By the end of listening to the second song I was  yelling, and before the album ended I was screaming at him: "Oh! Come on! Shut up!" The emotive over-singing was unendurable. Every forced rhyming couplet was irritating, predictable, and trite. For example, he rhymed "calculating" with "waiting" and "hating" and "manipulating" in consecutive lines. When he rhymed "girl" with, "just like the Duke of Earl" I literally screamed. The lyrical themes were hackneyed and brought no original insights to tired topics. The song writing, like the vocal style, was aimless and redundant. I literally thought the track was skipping multiple times, but no- that's just a thing he does. Musically, there is nothing impressive either. He doesn't do much to that acoustic guitar. For me, the album was a completely disappointing failure.

Then there was a single song "Chiclets in My Pocket," which was at least better in that it had some interesting electronica elements, but it was still irritating, especially the rapping, and commits all the same sins of the earlier work.

Then I listened to an EP of sorts called Organ, that was actually fine. It's not great, but the instrumentation is a million times better than the raw solo stuff. The band jams well and even gets a little spacey. It showed a lot of potential and made me realize there's probably other material out there that wouldn't disappoint me in the same ways that the solo record did. Just those three things were streaming though. It's not really enough.

A Facebook profile says his influences are "Alcohol, Women, and Bacon," and I just wanted to puke about that. However, that might actually be the other Adam Payne because this one, at least, seems to be actively associated with multiple worthy causes. That confusion has got to hurt both of their chances at success though.

I'm sure he has talent that others might appreciate more. Nonetheless, I never want to hear any of this ever again.

The Acid Gallery

This relatively obscure band does not even make it to Wikipedia. Even Discogs only reference their one single. According to the guy responsible for posting the YouTube video of their only single playing(!), The Acid Gallery began life in the mid 1960s as The Epics, but changed their name in 1967, better reflecting the psychedelic scene of the time. However, their sound is more British Invasion pop than psychedelic space out. As their brief biography at AllMusic points out, they never met the expectations set-up by their daring name. If only the band evoked some sort of organized display of LSD freak-outs! Alas they do freak-out, but ever so gingerly, on their one and only extant song, "Dance Around the Maypole." There's some evidence of at least a b-side ("Right Toe Blues"), but nothing else makes it to the streaming music catalogs of the 21st century.  It also gets another rock history footnote for having been written and produced by Roy Wood, from The Move and co-founder of both ELO and Wizzard; both he and Jeff Lynne contributed backing vocals to "Dance Around the Maypole." People might recall the song from Nuggets (actually it's on Nuggets II: Original Artifacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964-1969); even buried on disc 4 and clocking in at less than 3 minutes, it distinguishes itself. (Or maybe I've just heard it more than other songs on the collection because it made my Summer Playlist.) It's a delightful number that, after just a single listen, can easily lodge the cheery chorus into my mind for a full day.

 

Acheron

I'm assuming these guys got their name from the Greek underworld's "River of Woe," and not from Outer Planes in D&D or from the land of dark wizards that predated Hyborea in the Conan stories of Robert E. Howard. Sadly, they never toured with Styx.

This is a death/black metal band from Florida, then Pittsburgh. I don't use that slash lightly. I understand that death and black metal are two different things, and I think I've got a good grasp on the differences: death metal refers to the musical style (super fast and brutal with CookieMonster-style vocals), but black metal refers to the subject matter (usually Satanic, or chaotic evil at best). This band gives us both in varying degrees. 

The main guy from this band was originally in a Florida death metal band called Nocotumus. He has steered Acheron through many, many line-up changes, and he's also in the proliferate American death metal band, Incantatio. He's really a member of the Church of Satan, although he maybe actually broken up with them to do his own thing. He once said, "My hatred for religion and my Satanic lifestyle is[sic] the main influence of Acheron. The demented deeds of many religions are poisoning the world we live in." Hard to argue with that! So this guy's not fooling around, as his song lyrics and general imagery indicate. If you want to see them fight with a televangelist on the radio check out these 55 mins.  Trying to find out what "The Enochian Key" referred to sent me down a google-rabbit-hole of 16th-century spiritualists and magic. They seems to have a millennialist, apocalyptic bent too, particularly on 2009's The Final Conflict: Last Days of God. Their imagery is simultaneously horrifying and cartoonish. The cover of Those Who Have Risen, for example, manages to be both absurdly amateurish and the stuff of nightmares:

Only four of their dozen or so album were available streaming online, but they seem to offer an appropriate sampling. At least their compilation of early demos that they put out in 2001 was available to give an idea of how the band started off sounding like. Can it be called a demo if the recording is so rough that it's impossible to understand the words or discern the different parts? I mean, I've put some raw stuff out into the word, but this stuff is ridiculously under-produced and messy. Then again maybe it sounds best like that. Although all dark and brutal, the early demos vary some in terms of both quality and style. Only very occasionally does the Satanic mask slip a little, and it seems like kids who really liked the first Nirvana album thrashing around in the garage...but they actually predate that, so whoever influenced Nirvana: like an evil Pixies? Maybe The Melvins? Such later-day influences seem to be confirmed when later in their long career the band ventures into sounds and styles reminiscent of Pantera or Hatebreed, although in actuality they probably eat bands like that for breakfast. Every now and then they drop in some organ or synths, maybe a gong or bells. They are occasional spoken word interludes too. All that helps break-up what might otherwise be unendurable brutality.  

After a brief split-up they return in 2014 with Kult des Hasses. It's not less brutal, but somehow a bit more mainstream - or at least mainstream for underground metal. They remain consistently dark and aggressive. In some ways, the beefed up production makes it an even heavier album. Some call it their best, but undoubtedly others appreciated the rawer earlier stuff more. It still gets crazy fast at points. 

While I can usually get into seeing any band like this live, I'm not really familiar with this particular niche of the diverse metal scene and can't identify any of the "Related Artists" associated with this band. The only song I knew before listening to their discography here and now was the great song "Evil Dead," which appears on the death and black metal compilation A Tribute To Hell: Satanic Rites.  Despite the slow opening and lengthy guitar solo, this number chugs along at an excellent fast pace. Without the guttural grunting for vocals it probably could have appealed to a broader metal audience, but whatever - it works great. Turns out that's a Death cover song. Yea, they do sound like Death sometimes! Plus: Florida; that's apparently where this stuff comes from.  

This pretty much sums it up:

It would appear they know what they are doing- and do it well. Recommended for any fans of extreme music. Explicitly anti-Christians to the front of the line. 

Ace of Base

I was surprised (and a little embarrassed) by how much I enjoyed listening to this 90s pop band! Comparisons to ABBA are inevitable, since they are both Swedish pop-rock bands with quirky song writing and pairs of blonde boys and girls. If having a song called "Angel Eyes" doesn't tip the hand a little then consider also "C'est la vie," for example. With their international success you might even think that Ace of Base is the second greatest selling Swedish band of all time; if you think that, however, you forgot about Roxette. These guys are #3. It's a sleazy producer guy and his two sisters, plus some other vaguely douchey guy. As always seems to be the case with such bands, when the guys sing a line it is usually unfortunate but somehow required; it's best when they stick to pure vocoder, but even then it occasionally drifts into some disturbing demon voice. Sometimes their songs sound like we got to play happy hardcore on the radio. Sometimes it's like they're playing a club song on the radio, except it was never actually played in the club, except now it is because it was on the radio. At least there is occasional keytar. The keyboards are great throughout. Of course they influenced fellow Swedish pop artist Robyn, but there are spoken highly of by American pop stars like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, going for that pre-9/11 90s fun feel. Indie synth rockers Yeasayer have also cited them as an influence, which makes me feel a little better.

The first thing they ever really did was try to push this song and ridiculous video, featuring fake trumpet playing and the lead singer's signature expressive hand moves. Their debut album from 1993, actually an amalgamation of their earlier work repackaged for the non-European market, is one of the greatest selling debuts of all time; in America it's called The Sign, but at home it was Happy Nation. Despite being hastily recorded in response to the success of "Wheel of Fortune" and their other pre-album single, "All That She Wants," apparently it is the first debut album to produce three #1 hit songs. So it was pretty huge at the time, although they haven't really demonstrated the staying power that such mammoth success might indicate. I'm not sure about that ridiculous, honking saxophone sample, but otherwise their opening track and first single "All That She Wants (Is Another Baby)," besides raising everyone's eyebrows thinking she was talking about breeding rather than coupling (a little bit lost in translation there, depending on who you ask), contains all their signature elements that they would continue to mine effectively over the course of four albums: interesting transitions between minor and major chords, clear and catchy melodies, great keyboards lines, and--somehow--a reggae beat. In re-listening to the album, I was struck by how many of these Swedish pop songs are built over a breezy islands rhythm. According to an interview,  this came about simply because a reggae band practiced in the rehearsal studio next to theirs, and ideas (and sounds) would bleed over due to everybody practicing at high volumes. But, dammit it works! (The same interview reveals their name comes from Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" sounding cool and being easing to pronounce; they blame their hometown's predilection for heavy metal over techno on their early inability to break through.). Their whole first album is pop solid gold. I knew going into this that super-hit "The Sign" is one of my favorite pop songs ever, but I was impressed by how good the lesser known tracks are here. If you love the hits, also "Don't Turn Around" (originally recorded by Tina Turner), the rest of the album will not disappoint. I don't recall fourth single "Living in Danger" getting much airplay, but it's not any worse or better than the big hits. Despite never having heard most of these not-on-the-radio songs before (my younger brother owned the CD back in the day, but I never did), the album is virtually free of fluff and filler. That's confirmed by the fact that the last thing they put out in 2015 is a b-sides and demos collection that conveniently collects all the lesser tracks that were wisely kept off the original albums, keeping those brief four albums all consistently tight and solid. The hints of primitive early techno give it an air of authenticity, but things get cleaned up significantly by the later albums, which shimmer and shine with crystalline production, perhaps reflecting rave culture's move out of the warehouses and into swanky clubs. I like to think of these guys as influenced by underground music rather than exploiting it, even as they dominate the pop charts, although that might be wishful thinking. It is reminiscent of when Madonna first starting to get deep into electronic music on Ray of Light: trendy and opportunistic, yes, but satisfyingly executed.

The second album The Bridge is good, but just not as stellar as the first one. Like the debut, it is a rushed response to unexpected stardom, but that's fine. Even the most mundane deep cuts are made more listenable by interesting little electronic sounds peppered liberally throughout. The complete abandonment of the reggae sound was a bit of a disappointment. On this album they went for more of the ballads and bedroom rockers, though they might call it more sophisticated song-writing. I guess "Lucky Love" is a cute single, but a little too cute. The real killer track is "Beautiful Life." The batshit crazy video has just enough sexiness to keep everyone's attention, but the record label sure didn't like it. As with "The Sign," "Beautiful Life" is seriously one of my favorite songs ever. Instead of reggae they are throwing some gospel vocals at us. I had heard about how they wrote the song after a friend committed suicide, and I thought it was such a beautiful and effective response - and the mix of positive imagery and haunting chords is great, even as dance-club pop candy. The somewhat harrowing song "Ravine" speaks to the time a deranged fan broke into one of the singer's homes, holding her and her parents at knife-point; there's a happy ending. Despite the later singles failing to chart (some blame bad promoting), this is the one album of theirs on which all four members contribute song writing, so that's nice. I missed the reggae; it seems crazy to do a whole album without a single song in your own previous signature style.

They headlined with 2 Unlimited in Chile in 1996 because of course they did! Makes perfect sense.

Then, after finally taking a breather, their third album is practically an oldies pastiche through a pop prism. Their apt cover of Bananarama's "Cruel Summer" gets them back on the pop charts again. "Always Have, Always Will" is delightful but jarring as it foreshadows The Pippettes almost a decade away. Somehow that's the (again, slightly ridiculous) video that feature some keytar action. It's also a bit weird that at this point one of the the sisters takes over lead vocals from the other sister, who literally has her face blurred out on the album cover as she takes on a more background role. There she is lurking in the shadows

De Capo (2002) represents a return to form, as the title suggests. Sadly, it didn't perform well on the charts, but I loved all these largely nameless, forgotten songs. The production is better than on the debut album, but the song writing was not strong enough to match its success, at least in terms of popular singles. The album is good overall though. "Wonderful Life" is a wonderful song - the airy space in the drawn-out vocal delivery on the chorus is dreamy. "The Juvenile" is a weird and awesome pseudo-epic with lush strings- originally it was going to be a James Bond movie theme.

Then they go on hiatus for awhile. They get to together as a trio to perform a full concert for the first time in 10 years in 2007. Then the other sister leaves too for a solo career and such. It admittedly looks unseemly, but then in 2010 the two guys re-launch the band with two new (ahem- younger) singing ladies. That band is different though; it is "Ace.of.Base." OK?

I wanted to hate the album they made, but it's so slick and good. The production is better than ever and the sounds are all good fun.  Another song I left this experience loving is "Vision in Blue." It's a true hidden gem - apparently so much so that it got its own sub-par fan-made video. I had to google the lyrics because although the title is "Vision in Blue" the refrain of the chorus is "My Koh Phangan x6," which I also had to google to discover is an island off the coast of Thailand renowned for its Full Moon Party. Why am I just learning about this now?! I guess it would be like saying, "You're my Coney Island." The song is great and helps carry an album with no real discernible highlights, but white people partying at exclusive resorts in Asia is the perfect image for the album's vibe. Lead single "All For You" is good enough, and the video does what it is supposed to do, though I'm not sure people care as much anymore.  The album reminds me a bit of Cher's foray into electronica, although this album came out 10 years later.  There are a bunch of random good songs on the album, but they abandon the whole revamp idea and instead settle for releasing Hidden Gems in 2012 as their swan song. To be honest, a lot of those songs are pretty good too. The band seemed to dissolve after that, while still teasing reunion possibilities.

But what a minute....blonde haired, blue eyed Europeans...singing about their Happy Nation....I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but....

Yep - (some of their interpretations are way off and take the source with a big grain of salt, but) they're probably actually freaking Nazis!
** EDIT ** OK, a lot of that stuff was crazy theories...except for the part where the one guy definitely really was in an actual Nazi hardcore band.

Damn it. Doesn't that make it two in a row?

I heard they suck live.

Accept

I knew very little about this band going into this listening. Of course I vaguely knew "Balls to the Wall," but that's about it. I recall Beavis and Butthead had some legit criticisms of that song.  And in the context of their full catalog I found that song, and the album it appears on, not particularly impressive. That was a bad sign, when a band's most famous song fails to make an impression. Their first few early albums are actually incredibly diverse and somewhat interesting, ping-ponging back and forth between proto-metal reminiscent of Motorhead and more poppy and accessible stuff, even venturing into disco territory at times.

Comparisons to the previous band are inevitably. The have about half as many albums as AC/DC, but share some values. In fact. "I'm a Rebel," the title track from their second album, was actually written for and possibly even recorded by AC/DC. The differences between the two bands effectively illustrate the differences between hard rock and heavy metal, with AC/DC rocking more often in blues progressions while Accept is more likely to rely on minor power chords and riffs. They opened for AC/DC during a 2010 revival.

They can also sound like Judas Priest at times, and in fact toured with them after 1981's Breaker. The albums is notable for being featured in the 1982 movie Nacht der Wolfe. My German's a little rusty, but I think that means Night of the Wolf.

On 1982's Restless and Wild it finally starts to sound like fast thrash metal. "Fast as a Shark" is not even that fast by today's thrash standards, but it was speedy for 1982. Cannibal Corpse covers a song from this album, so that's a good sign. I agree with the assessments that this album is important for the development of speed metal, and I see it as more groundbreaking than its more successful and popular follow up, 1983's Balls to the Wall.

Another band we can't help but compare them to is The Scorpions - another heavy German band singing in English. In fact they borrowed a producer from The Scorpions for 1985's Metal Heart, which is a VERY 1985 sounding album. It's another of their vaguely conceptual album, this one about the techno-dystopian future of 1999, but seems too calculated with greater emphasis on melodies and hooks. That continued with the next few albums, including Eat The Heat, which confirms their desire to crack into the American pop music charts with the inclusion of a new American singer, essentially their Sammy Hagar. I realize it's kinda like listening to the Judas Priest discography and really digging those Ripper albums, but these three weird albums in the middle of the career with different singers were actually a welcome respite from music that was starting to get tedious. They still do heavier numbers, and the switch between completely different vocal and musical styles can be jarring at times. If "Stand 4 What U R" isn't the soundtrack to an 80s movie's training montage  than I don't know what it is, but it immediately precedes the far angrier "Hellhammer" on the album.

They go though various significant line-up changes through their career, but apparently many of the departures are amicable. Around 1984 a bunch of guys that used to be in Accept form the band Bad Steve...and open for Accept on a world tour. Then the former lead singer leaves for a solo project, and the band helps him write it. Then his band contributes backing vocals on the next Accept album.

They have a couple comeback albums with the old singer starting in 1993, they break-up in 1997, but then they have a weird thing where they reform in 2009 with a new singer, and somewhat updated--more distinctly metal--sound. It is then that they release three of their most popular albums ever, all these just since 2009. And this is some potentially fascist bullshit, though I must begrudgingly admit it is more consistently decent and brutal metal - though they still aren't above the occasional power ballad that peppered their earlier albums. Their fifteenth studio album The Rise of Chaos will be released this summer (2017). It was made by the same producer as those last three successful albums, but now the drummer and one of the guitar players have changed out too. In a recent interview band guitar stalwart Wolf Hoffmann connected the title to their paranoid, trigger-happy world view, with specific references to both climate change and Europe's refugee crisis. I had suspected as much after listening to their  recent albums, especially on the aptly titled Blood of the Nations, with it's racial paranoia ("Teutonic Terror" and the title track) and explicit calls for radical violence ("Beat the Bastards"). It's too much for me. These guys might be connected to the birth of trash in some ways, but they are missing out on the fun parts. I get that their politics are complex and layered (what with their conscious environmentalism and distrust of authority), but it's too much of the ole' ultra-violence- and I see too much of a contradiction in their extreme nationalism mixed with calls for revolution against our oppressors. In their defense, they are not really out front espousing these xenophobic totalitarian political views that permeate their most recent albums, other than to defend their use of militaristic imagery, but you'll find plenty of praise for them in the dark Nazi-tinged corners of the internet.

I was ready to dismiss the band outright after all that vaguely racist stuff, but their most recent live album (the last thing I heard) offers a glimmer of redemption, at least musically. As the title suggests Restless and Live revisits some of the key tracks from their seminal Restless and Wild album, although it predominately offers songs from their most recent albums. Hearing this most recent incarnation of the band rip through "Fast as a Shark" was impressive, and skipping over their clunkier numbers for the tight set-list helped enormously. When it's just the highlights it sounds more like good solid thrash. I was reminded that their occasional  allusions to classical pieces show they aren't talentless heathens; he gets the crowd to sing "Fur Elise" at one point! Whatever faults this band may have, musically or politically, they are no more cheesy than Judas Priest or Iron Maiden. They are less complex than Megadeth but more epic than Motorhead. To be very generous, it's like Slayer at their slowest, perhaps closer to Anthrax, but far more serious and less fun. They are more yelling at me than with me, so I imagine Exodus (or their fans) like this band. It's good enough music to play in the background while cleaning out the garage or something. Ultimately, I must admit that the musicianship and fans' enthusiasm on display in their live performances got me to tick the needle up a bit for them from "Hard Pass" to "Acceptable."