Take Two

Performer: Accept
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: In late 1984, if you checked just about any headbanger's record collection (and back then it was a record collection -- this was before CD's took over), it would be a safe bet that at least one release from two bands would be found -- Quiet Riot and Accept. While the former enjoyed mass MTV and chart success with their blockbuster debut, Metal Health (the first ever "heavy metal album" to top the U.S. charts), the latter was more a cult classic among metalheads on the strength of such releases as Restless and Wild and Balls to the Wall. And it's this era that the Sony budget-priced series Take Two focuses on -- with five standouts from each group. While most of their material isn't of the thrash metal variety, Accept is often credited as helping give life to the genre from a single song, the manic "Fast as a Shark" (fun metal factoid: this was the song that Charlie Benante played for Scott Ian at the drummer's tryout for Anthrax), which is highlighted here. And you can't go wrong with the title track from 1984's aforementioned Balls to the Wall, easily one of the darkest metal tracks of the "party hearty" era. The Quiet Riot portion is just as strong -- despite the absence of one of their most renowned songs, the anthemic title track from 1983's Metal Health -- as evidenced by their monster hit "Cum on Feel the Noize," and a track re-recorded from their early "Randy Rhoads era," "Slick Black Cadillac." While this obviously won't be a definitive compilation for either band, it is indeed a superb sampler for the new fan. ~ Greg Prato

Forming in Germany in 1971, Accept is lauded as one of the originators of the German heavy metal movement. Led by razorblade-gargling vocalist Udo Dirkschneider and guitar god Wolf Hoffmann, Accept took the melodic elements of fellow countrymen Scorpions and infused them with the back alley menace of AC/DC. This led to a string of Billboard Top 200 charting albums and the band's signature song in 1983, "Balls to the Wall." Since the late '80s, the members of Accept launched successful solo careers, but every now and again, they reunite to give the world another dose of streetwise aggression.

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