Warthur The big question hanging over this album was whether Accept could really be Accept without the legendary Udo Dirkschneider on lead vocals. The brief Eat the Heat era had, previously to this, been the band's only stint without Udo, and they brought him back into the fold after that. 14 years after their last studio album, and some 5 years after they'd reunited briefly with Udo to play some concerts, the question remained: could Accept turn out a good set of new songs, and could they find a vocalist capable of handling them once Udo ruled himself out?

Blood of the Nations answers an emphatic "yes" to both questions; whilst it isn't a groundbreaking classic on the level of their best 1980s output, I think it is certainly no embarrassment when set next to them, and new meat Marc Tornillo gives a deliciously strong and emphatic vocal performance. Musically speaking, the band resist any temptation to chase after current trends, simply going for giving a well-produced update of their classic general sound. The end result is, as far as comeback albums go, pretty decent, though I feel like it's a bit overlong and whilst it's a reasonable enough companion piece to classic-era Accept, it doesn't feel all that essential.

Kingcrimsonprog Blood Of The Nations is the twelfth studio album by the legendary German Metal band Accept, and their first since reforming and hiring Mark Tornillo, formerly of TT Quick, on lead vocals.

Despite it being the band’s twelfth record, it has all the energy and power of a brand new band’s debut and would serve as a fine introduction to the legendary band for any new fan and could either inspire you to check out the back catalogue, or along with its follow-up record ‘Stalingrad,’ serve as half of an absolutely perfect discography from the theoretical new band. Additionally, for existing fans it has proven to be a damned fine comeback album, getting a lot of rave reviews and positive fan reaction.

Stylistically speaking there really isn’t any better way to describe the material other than as true Heavy Metal, plain and simple. Even if it does risk making you sound a bit like a music snob. Its that part of the Metal spectrum that forms the basis for the early types of Power, Thrash and Progressive Metal without actually leaning especially heavily into the defining characteristics that separate each subgenre from plain old Metal itself, although at the same time occasionally its more powerful, thrashier and even a little proggier than some of the early albums in each of those respective genres before they found their niche.

Regardless of the style however, it is just a remarkably well written and enjoyable Metal album that has a satisfying production job, courtesy of Andy Sneap, as well as a lot of virtuosic displays of musicianship and great vocals all around that can recall Lemmy at one moment, Halford at another and then former Accept singer Udo the next moment.

Crunchy riffs, impressive solos and memorable vocal patterns are what this album is all about, and it delivers them in enough permutations of speed, softness, fun and seriousness to both keep the listener engaged and leave them satisfied at the album’s conclusion. It has a both a fairly instant appeal as well as definitely being a ‘grower’ of a record that rewards repeat listening relatively well, and I highly recommend checking it out.

UMUR "Blood of the Nations" is the 12th full-length studio album by German heavy metal act Accept. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in August 2010. It´s the band´s first album release since "Predator" from 1996. It´s also the first Accept album to feature lead vocalist Mark Tornillo (TT Quick) who has replaced Udo Dirkschneider. "Blood of the Nations" is produced by Andy Sneap and recorded in two sessions (November 2009 and January 2010) at Andy Sneap´s Backstage Studio in England.

The music on the album is traditional heavy metal and sounds unmistakably like Accept. It may have been 14 years since their last album release, but they haven´t lost any bite or conviction in those years. New frontman Mark Tornillo effortlessly takes up the heavy heritage of Udo Dirkschneider and adds his own mark in the process. A perfect choice for a new frontman. He has got the right ballsy attitude and raw voice to fill the vocal spot in Accept. The band are as always very well playing. All tracks are quality heavy metal compositions and while there are a couple of more standard quality tracks on the 12 track album, it´s hard not the bang your head like a madman to tunes like "Beat the Bastards", "Locked and Loaded" or the title track.

The material on the album don´t feature many surprises but if you enjoy heavy pounding traditional metal with raw vocals and some blistering solo work, you´re in for a treat. Add to that a powerful sound production that brings out the best in the music and you got yourself a quality release. A 3.5 - 4 (75%) star rating is deserved.

Time Signature Teutonic terror...

Genre: heavy metal

Accept without Udo Dirkschneider? Does that really work? Well, it worked okay on "Eat The Heat" from 1989 which had American singer Dave Reece on vocals. Dave Reece was a fine singer, but his voice was perhaps a bit too typical for heavy metal singers at the time. New frontman Tornillo's voice is more in the same screechy department as that of Udo Dirkschneider or Brian Johnson of AC/DC without sounding exactly like those two famous "schreechers".

This certainly retains the "Acceptness" that was perhaps lacking on "Eat The Heat" - Tornillo also has a very powerful voice that allows him to really scream his head off, which suits the music very well (this is heavy metal after all; belting is more than welcome).

Musically, "Blood of Nations" contains solic good old fashioned heavy metal tunes, although some of them, like "Beat The Bastards" and "Locked And Loaded" are almost on the verge of being power metal tracks (then again, a lot of power metal is really just souped up traditional metal). There is some really wicked riffage on this album, and stand out tracks to me are "Teutonic Terror" (effing great title - I'll use it as a band name for one of my projects!), "The Abyss", "Blood of Nations", and "Rollin' Thunder".

Actually, this is traditional metal as Accept do best, and, provided that you can accept Accept without Udo Dirkschneider, this should be a hit with fans of the band, and fans of traditional metal in general will probably also love it.