After five albums where their music had become stronger and more accessible with each release, the band decided to make a move that they hoped would push them into even bigger markets, in particular the US. To do so, for their new album, they hired producer Dieter Dierks to come on board and helm the album. The band had used Dierks Studio before to record albums, but until this time Dierks himself had been unavailable to produce. This was mainly due to the fact that he was almost always busy with the Scorpions, with whom he had been producer since very early in the career. With his help, Scorpions had not only traversed to the top of the charts but were conquering the US at the time on the back of their album “Love at First Sting”. With his name being mentioned as one of the reasons the Scorpions had been able to morph into such success over the previous five years, it made sense for Accept to bring him on board and look to incorporate that into their own music. And on the back of this, alongside the AC/DC influence that had been a part of their early work, Accept also now had a small but important Scorpions influence upon their work. Wolf Hoffman recalled in an interview on his website that Dierks was very demanding in the studio. "We would do some pieces several dozen times trying to capture what he had in his mind for a specific section," and adding "Each song we tried different combinations of guitars, mic'ing and even strings!”
What the band was looking for was a more commercial sounding album without losing the inbuilt qualities that they had come through their first five albums with. The challenge was to write good strong songs that had an ability to break the market wide open for them. They had at least set themselves up to give themselves the best chance of doing that.
It is no real surprise that you can hear that Scorpions influence again seeping into Accept's music, this time not necessarily from following in their fellow Germans footsteps, but in a stylistic way in the recording studio. Not hugely, and not overpoweringly, but there are nuances there to be picked up on. With the band trying to push for a change in the direction of this album to a more commercial side of metal, in order to try and crack the American market, that Scorpions sound would perhaps have been an integral factor being considered. If that is the case, it is quite minimal. They may have changed the songs styles such that the guitars do not have such crunching heavy riffs, but everything else seems to be in order.
I love how the first time my daughter, who was learning to play the piano at the time, heard the opening title track "Metal Heart" which kicks off the album, she immediately recognised the theme of "Fur Elise" in the riff and solo of the song, and made mention of it. There is also a touch of Tchaikovsky in the opening of the song. It's a nice insert, and because that tune is so recognisable it does draw in the interest of those who may not necessarily be Accept fans and at least induces them to have a listen. It is a slow creeping start, but it comes to the party by the middle of the track. "Midnight Mover" then does have a softening chorus, sounding like it is looking to be the radio song that it was released as a single for. It is really only the chorus that changes in its style for this purpose. The rest of the song is pure Accept. In this instance at least it sounds as though there was no intent to make this more commercial friendly, that this is just a progression.
In the main, the songs are probably even faster here on this album than on “Balls to the Wall”, which for most fans makes them more endearing to their heavy metal roots rather than trying to unshackle them. "Up to the Limit" shows this off perfectly, rushing along at speed with squealing guitars and Udo's distinctive vocals. This is one of the best songs on the album and really showcases the way the band has improved over the past three albums to this point. This is followed by “Wrong is Right” which carries on in the same direction. While the opening two songs on the album have their commercially crafted moments, the next two tracks are indicative of the best that Accept has to offer. Wolf Hoffmann and Jorg Fischer here trade duelling solos in Judas Preist-esque fashion, and the song is a triumph.
"Screaming for a Love-Bite" is a song where the case could be made for a change in direction. It sounds like a single from the moment the song starts, and it was subsequently released as the second single from the album, after "Midnight Mover". This is looking for a market, trying to hook in people through its repeated chorus line, and with Udo’s vocals coming back from his trademark screech and finding a melody in the chorus that doesn’t offer the same power as in previous songs. The song is okay when you listen to it in the context of the album proper, but its weakness comparatively both musically and vocally, along with the over repeated lyrics to close out the first side of the album does hold it back.
“Too High to Get it Right” opens up side two of the album, and as a song it is a solid one, the kind of track that you expect to back up the best songs on the album by being the enjoyable fill ins between them. But...the gang backing vocals repeating the track’s name over and over again is overplayed, too much to really enjoy the track as it is. Again, it’s fine but just overdone in the process. A couple of the songs here also seem to have choruses that are reminiscent of their AC/DC early album songs, looking for that anthemic quality so the listener will chant along and be all the more memorable. "Dogs on Leads" is an example of this, and while the song overall is good, in exactly the same way that the other band does, sometimes it can just grate a little too much. There is also a familiar ring of the drum and rhythm of the song “Balls to the Wall” here that is a little distracting. "Living For Tonite" also possesses that almost-anthemic quality and still is an enjoyable track. Sandwiched between them is “Teach Us to Survive” which plays off the solid rock tones of the other two songs. However, "Bound to Fail" is a great closing track and finishes off the album perfectly. Udo is in great form and the bass line from Peter Baltes suits the track perfectly. And the song leads out to its conclusion with a Queen-like guitar solo from Hoffman to finish the album in style.
“Metal Heart” has a lot to like about it. The production is slicker, the songs are strong, the musicianship is top class. Udo’s vocals, even if you aren’t a fan of his gravelly disposition, are in top form, and show an increasing variety in their tone and range.
I didn’t come in to Accept the band until the 2000’s. Like everyone in existence I knew “Balls to the Wall” the song and probably heard a handful of other through the years, but it wasn’t until my decision to go back and chase down artists that I hadn’t heard in the mid-2000's, especially those of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, that I began to go through their catalogue. And as I had decided to listen to them all in the order they were released, I had already discovered and enjoyed “Breaker” and “Restless and Wild” and “Balls to the Wall” by the time I came to “Metal Heart”. And having admired the progression the band was making from one album to the next, I found that this was just as enjoyable. Yes, there is a slight change in the way the songs are written and pushed compared to those three previous albums, but it too me isn’t something that jumps out at you and creates a conundrum in listening to it. There are a lot of songs here I really like. The opening four tracks are all strong and enjoyable for being a new kind of hard and heavy metal style for Accept, while the second side of the album sticks true to what came before when it comes to tempo and rhythm.
I still like this album a lot, and yet there is something that just deprives it of something that - for me at least - doesn't allow it to jump into a higher category in regards to ranking against other bands of the age. And it may well just be as simple as this fact. Because if I had discovered this album in my teenage years when it was released, it would probably be a classic to my ears. The fact that I didn't find Accept until much later means their albums don't have that starry eyed love that other albums from that era have for me, because I actually had them at the time and I have grown up with them. I didn’t grow up with this album or the others that preceded it I have only discovered them in a much more recent period, and so they didn’t get played to death at that time when I was gorging myself on the band and the albums of the era. Take me back to 1986 and hand me this album, and right now I could well be spending another 20 minutes praising its qualities. Because I think they are there. I’m just unable to put aside what I feel may be a few inadequacies that I may have blinded eyes to when it comes to other bands and albums that I did have in 1986.
I recently purchased this on CD on eBay because I didn’t own it, and I really wanted to. And it sounds awesome listening to this in the Metal Cavern. It is still a very good album, that perhaps once again has even raised itself in my esteem having heard it once again for the first time in a while. And it is true that I probably prefer the latter career albums of Accept with Mark Tornillo on vocals because they have more aggression in their music and vocals. But this for me is still a worthy listen. It is probably also true that it is the last of the four album stretch that was such a huge part of the classic era of the band.
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