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

Accept had released their debut album in 1979, at a time where in retrospect they were unprepared for what the process required, and for what was necessary when it came to the writing process for a new album. In later years, guitarist Wolf Hoffmann recalled that their self-titled debut album was just a collection of songs that the band had been playing from their early years, all written without a focus on the job at hand. He was quoted as such: "We were just playing songs that we had always played. It was material that had gathered up over the first few months and years of our existence and it was a mixture of all kinds of stuff." Lead vocalist Udo Dirkschneider also expressed his dissatisfaction with the group's first effort when looking back on it some years later. The release of the album however gave them the opportunity to expand their horizons, and initially it gave them exposure outside of their native Germany into countries such as Belgium, France and The Netherlands for the first time.
Coming into the follow up album, the same line up that had toured the first album came back into the studio for their second attempt. Overall the band was looking to make a significant change from the first album. With a year of touring under their belt, they not only had the solidity of their playing to express, but also new songs written with the purpose of the new album in mind. Dirk Steffens was brought in as producer of the album, the first of three consecutive Accept albums he would be at the helm of. With this in mind, the band was looking for a more commercial sound in order to gain a stronger foothold both in Germany and then throughout Europe. This leads to a varied collection of tracks that does set it apart from their debut album but due to the differentiation between the styles of the songs, perhaps doesn’t quite establish exactly what sound Accept wanted to be known for.
The album was recorded in the back half of 1979, but wasn’t released until almost six months after the recording sessions had been completed. None of this set the band up on a solid platform, and with 1980 already becoming a stand out year for album releases in the hard to heavy genre, “I’m a Rebel” had some work to do if it wanted to compete on that level internationally.

Early on in their career, Accept had a sound that at its best mixed in tangible similarities of a cross between Judas Priest and AC/DC, which wasn’t such a bad thing when you trying to find your 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 45 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 is that they aren’t. However, listening to this album like other albums of the age, such as by Praying Mantis and Angel Witch and the like will give you the best tools with which to enjoy it. The main point of difference is that those two bands were comfortable within their music at that time, whereas with Accept, here was a band still trying to discover itself musically.
The opening track on the album plays into this whole perception about Accept’s early sound. “I’m a Rebel” is written by Alex Young, elder brother AC/DC’s Young brothers, and was actually recorded by AC/DC in 1976 with a possibility of it being released on their next album. This didn’t eventuate, and when producer Steffens decreed that the album needed a radio hit, he turned to Alex who produced this song. This is as good an explanation as any for when you hear the opening track, because it sounds like and AC/DC song, which at least does get the album away on a good footing.
Beyond the opening, this album has a better idea of where it wants to head, and is better than the debut as a result. The hard rock tracks all provide a solid base for the album. Along with the title track, the second song “Save Us”, along with “Thunder and Lightning” and “China Lady” provide the best that the band can deliver. Udo Dirkschneider’s vocals hit those heights that make his unique voice one that is as distinctive today as it was back in the day. He is having a great time on these tracks, and you can tell that this is the style that he was interested in following. The guitars of Wolf Hoffmann and Jorg Fischer are just as prominent, and their solo spots along with their harmony pieces are excellent and pick the songs up. Stefan Kaufmann’s drumming is also hard hitting here and great in the mix. “Thunder and Lightning” has a steady beat throughout that fits the theme, while “China Lady” has a grittier theme to it and is more than just a foot-tapping tune.
“I Wanna Be No Hero” mirrors the opening track by trying to be a more commercially appealing song, which doesn’t make it a bad song, but the difference in how hard it sounds like the band is playing is noticeable. Here there sounds like there is a desire to sit comfortably in the rock riff as written, where the other songs mentioned sound like they are being PLAYED rather than strummed. The closing track “Do It” fits this narrative as well though not to the same degree. Again, it is fine as a hard rock song but it lacks the ambition to be more than is.
That leaves the two rock ballad tracks, both of which contain lead vocals not from Udo but from bass guitarist Peter Baltes. And again this is where the album loses focus. These two tracks are mixed in with the attempted commercial hard rock tracks and the harder rock focused tracks that seem, to me at least, to be the best of the album. But the rock ballads are as you would expect. “No Time to Lose” actually sounds like a Rainbow song in places, and Baltes vocals are very much in the Graham Bonnet style. This is an almost paint-by-numbers tradition of this style of song, one where Baltes’ bass guitar also seems much higher in the mix than on other songs. What is even more strange, this song is solely written by producer Dirk Steffens, so there is no doubt at all what he was trying to do with this song on this album. It isn’t terrible but it also isn’t very good. The other rock ballad track is “The King”, this one credited to all of the band along with Steffens. It heads in all the same directions as “No Time to Lose”, and it feels like both tracks would fit more comfortably on a Foreigner album than an Accept album. It’s a strange path to follow, but as has already been noted, the band was still trying to find its own sound at this point of its career, rather than following the path that had been laid by others.

Though I listened to bits and pieces of Accept through the years, mainly from their more well known albums from the 1980’s, it was not until the turn of the century that I began to collate the albums of the Accept discography and truly discover what they had to offer. And it is an interesting study, especially when you go through them in chronological order, and decipher the changes and growing maturity of their sound from album to album. The first album is okay but really nothing special, a fact that the band itself has acknowledged in the past. But this album, well now that’s a different story.
But let’s say this from the start. “I’m a Rebel” is not a brilliant album. It is not even one of the best ten albums that Accept has released over the years. But it has a quaintness about it that I have always liked. It is a solid album with solid hard rock songs, if you ignore the two exceptions. And that is where the crux of it lies for me. Take those two songs out, and it is a far better album. Of course, it would then only be six songs and 25 minutes long, which is more of an EP. But Accept beyond this was built around the solid rhythm and hard to heavy sound of the guitars, and Udo’s vocals. Not utilising them does harm this album. And it is obviously a lesson that the band learned after this album, because they continued to make steady progress through the next decade in refining what became their sound.
I’ve had this out for the past couple of days again, and given its relatively short length have given it seven spins in total, and yes it still has its charms. Like I said it isn’t a world beater, but not every album is. In fact, very few are. This, on the other hand is an enjoyable hard rock album that is easy to listen to, and then put back on the shelves until next time. It is worth a listen to anyone who enjoys the history of heavy music, firstly to hear just where the band was at this point of their career, and then take in how they progressed from that point. It will not blow your mind, but it isn’t all bad either.