ACCEPT - Too Mean to Die review

 

ACCEPT - Too Mean to Die

Nuclear Blast

Before getting into this one I need to mention that it took a while for me to warm up to the Mark Tornillo era of ACCEPT. You see I'm what you call an old ACCEPT with Udo fan. I think their greatest material is from their third album Breaker to their sixth one Metal Heart. After that it's pretty much OK or shit and they've tried other singers before.

So back in 2010 when Blood of the Nations came out I didn't go in for all the hype. It wasn't until a friend of mine at a show asked me if I picked it up yet. I told him no as well as my reasoning that a new and improved ACCEPT was not on my wish list. But he convinced me to check em out using examples like Brian Johnson taking over vocals in AC/DC and Dio in SABBATH.

So a year afterwards I was in a Record/CD store and saw Blood of the Nations in the rack marked down at $9.99. I said fuck it and brought it home. The end result was yeah I liked it a lot. It was my old 80's heavy metal brought forth to the modern age. Also Wolf Hoffmann is amazing and has always been the heart of ACCEPT plus Mark Tornillo is a damm good vocalist. He didn't just step into Udo's place but he made it his own. And yeah I've picked up every ACCEPT album since.

So here we are with the fifth full length of the new ACCEPT era. Actually this is the band's sixteenth full length overall. Once again there's been line-up changes. Wolf Hoffmann is now the last man standing from the original line-up. Enter new bassist Martin Motnik as well as new and third guitarist Philip Shouse. Yeah ACCEPT is pulling a MAIDEN thing by now having three guitarists.

With that all said Too Mean To Die has some good and average moments to it. The first side of this is strong with a powerful opener in "Zombie Apocalypse". That's followed by the title track which is pretty good. "Overnight Sensation" is a melodic rocker and then there's my favorite cut on here "No Ones Master". Personally I think it has some of the most important and relevant to the day lyrics. And there's "The Undertaker" which adds some moody aspect to the album.

The latter half of the album is weaker but not shitty. "Sucks To Be You" is a decent AC/DC style rocker. "How Do We Sleep?" is another social conscience number. The rest is decent and the closer, "Samson & Delilah", is an instrumental. Overall I see Too Mean to Die as keeping with the whole program which started on Blood of the Nations. Although I believe the term "if it ain't broke don't fix it" prevails with modern day ACCEPT. Ya gotta ask yourself how much longer can this formula go on before we see repetition on a grand scale like ah AC/DC. Otherwise another great release by ACCEPT.

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LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVRR6Now28M