Okay, so let’s be brutally frank and honest about this album right from the beginning. There will be some fans who feel Accept just haven’t been the same since the release of their iconic ‘Balls To The Wall’ album in 1983, and it has all been downhill since then, while there are many others who feel the departure of Udo Dirkschneider was what finally finished the band. Tell that to the 80,000 fans at Wacken, on a night when Accept showed that more than ever they are relevant, brutal, dynamic and a force to be reckoned with. There have been a few bands who have made a mockery of their age and longevity by recently releasing possibly the finest album in their canon, but here is there is simply no doubt. This really is the best thing Accept have released, ever. True, a live album will always be something of a greatest hits compilation combined with new songs, but the way new and old sit happily side by side, all imbued with power and strength is nothing short of remarkable.

Wolf Hoffmann has been there since the very beginning, 1976, and is showing no sign at all of slowing down and is the mainstay of what must have been an incredibly sight to behold, as well as hear. The reason is that this set is broken into three distinct parts. The first of these finds the band crunching as if their lives depend on it, and opener “Die By The Sword” shows the new stuff is just as powerful as one could ever hope for by from the Teutonic masters, which in turn is followed by “Restless and Wild” which has lost none of its panache over the years. The second section finds Wolf as the only Accept member on stage, as he is joined by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra playing selections from his ‘Headbangers Symphony’ album where he re-arranged classical pieces to feature electric guitar. Unlike Uli Jon Roth, who switched the violin out for electric guitar and played the melody on a different instrument for what it was written, Wolf has a far more dramatic approach. Here the orchestra accentuates Wolf, and vice versa, really blending the two forms of metal and symphonic together in a way which is incredibly powerful. If that wasn’t enough, the orchestra hang around for the third section, which finds all the band back again in full flow, and the orchestra providing even more bombast. The final number of the night is an eight minute plus “Balls To The Wall”, which feels much bigger, more real, than any version of it I have heard before.

This is a wonderful album, brilliant on so many levels, and one of the best live albums of the last decade. If you ever wondered what Accept were like, or perhaps thought they were no longer going, then take it from me, now is the time to (re)discover them, as this is simply superb.

Rating: 10/10

Links:
https://acceptworldwide.com/
https://www.nuclearblast.de/en/