964. Accept / I'm a Rebel. 1980. 2.5/5

Mixing a sound that sounds like a cross between Judas Priest and AC/DC, Accept are back with their second album, trying to find their feet in a crowded music marketplace, and establish the identity that they eventually found so well.

Anyone who comes into this for the first time in the modern age, some 35+ years after the album was released, is going to find it somewhat difficult to assuage how this is the same band that they may now be aware of. The answer of course they it isn’t. But listening to this album is like listening to other albums of the age, such as Praying Mantis and Angel Witch and the like. The only difference is that those two bands were comfortable in their music, where if you listen to this you can only imagine that here was a band still trying to discover itself musically.
If you mix the harder rock tracks in you can see a pattern for the future beginning to emerge. Title track “I’m a Rebel” and “Save Us” showcase those Udo Dirkschneider vocals with the guitars of Wolf Hoffman and Jörg Fischer to make pleasant and foot tapping hard rock songs which are more than satisfactory. “Thunder and Lightning” and “China Lady” do the same, perhaps a little repetitively with “China Lady” than is necessary with the vocals, but the soloing towards the end makes up for this over indulgence. “I Wanna Be No Hero” and the closing track “Do It” are serviceable enough songs.
Then there is the change up. “No Time to Lose” is a real rock ballad in the way of the 70’s/80’s fashion, replete with the ‘oooooh wooooo” behind the lead vocals. Peter Baltes takes on the lead vocals here, as this song is completely out of kilter with what Udo would have offered in the role. No surprises for guessing that the other ballad on the album is “The King”, which also features Baltes on vocals. There’s nothing overly inspiring here. This album appears to go towards a more commercial bent that their debut release, perhaps simply because they felt it was necessary to gain some notoriety. I guess if these songs had taken the public’s ear, then we have had a very different history of the band to follow. For so many reasons, not the least that these are average songs, it is a blessing it wasn’t to be.

So, as an album, I’ve no doubt that this would have been better if discovered in 1980 rather than 2017. Having had it only for a few years myself I can accept its flaws as a product of its time and in the birth of the band. The turning point for Accept came over the following few albums, which shine much brighter than this one.

Rating:  “Twilight zone is getting dark, lighted by the sparks”.   2.5/5