For anyone wanting their first taste of Accept, this is a great starting point.

As a massive Accept fan, I find it rather strange that from their most creative period in the early 80's, it was 1983's 'Balls To The Wall' that finally broke them in the USA, being their only Gold disc to date in that territory and the title track becoming their anthem. The deliberate controversy regarding the homoerotic themes of the cover and several song lyrics certainly helped bring the band to the public's attention, but for me, the previous albums 'Restless And Wild' and 'Breaker' had by far a higher quality of songs, a fact that is rather self-evident in that the title track 'Balls To The Wall' is the only song from the album that has consistently remained in the band's live repertoire.

Produced by legendary knob-twiddler and former Accept member Michael Wagener, the quality of the sound is undeniable, but apart from the languid tempo title track and the upbeat swagger of 'London Leatherboys', the album is full of throwaway songs, none of which linger in the memory even after repeated plays. Not here do we find the equivalent of classics such as 'Fast As A Shark', 'Neon Nights', 'Restless And Wild' and 'Princess Of The Dawn' which graced their previous release, and though 'Balls To The Wall' itself became one of the band's signature songs, it frustrated me that the template became one for future Accept, and even UDO solo band songs, to follow in the future.

For me, Accept were a far more potent creature when they were ramping up the pace, throwing out amazing riffs with abandon and going for the jugular. For prime examples of this, just check out the bonus live disc, a truncated version of 1990's 'Staying A Life', which contains more metal classics than you can shake a stick at, though for sure I would have left in 'Neon Nights' and 'Burning' for some of the other, lesser renowned songs.

Bottom line, for anyone wanting their first taste of Accept, this is a great starting point, although mainly for the live CD. The album 'Balls To The Wall' for me is a creative disappointment though, and I would far rather recommend picking up 'Breaker' and 'Restless And Wild' to see what all the fuss was about the band back in those halcyon 80's days.

Bruce Mee