By the time they reconvened to record 1986's
Russian Roulette
, creative differences were beginning to tear German
metal
stars
Accept
apart at the seams. While guitarist
Wolf Hoffman
wanted to continue pursuing the commercial
formula first explored with the previous year's
Metal Heart
, vocalist
Udo Dirkschneider
defended a return to the harder-edged approach that had characterized the band's uncompromising breakout releases
Restless and Wild
and
Balls to the Wall
. Their fourth album in as many years,
also found the once-unstoppable quintet physically exhausted and creatively tapped out, and the inevitable result was a disappointing and unfocused album. Its first few songs (including the all-out
thrash
of
"T.V. War"
and the chugging riff and gang choruses of
"Monster Man"
) are promising enough, but the more melodic experiments that follow (
"It's Hard to Find a Way,"
the God-awful
"Man Enough to Cry"
) sound terribly forced and contrived. At over seven minutes, the incredibly grim anti-religion diatribe
"Heaven Is Hell"
might have been an epic in the classic
tradition were it not such a shameless remake of their 1984 smash
"Balls to the Wall."
In fact, any tricks they forgot to repeat here are used instead in the similarly derivative title track -- simply mind-boggling. The pounding intensity of
"Aiming High"
and the familiarly chugging riffery of
"Another Second to Be"
offer the disc's last real bright spots, and with unsatisfying filler like
"Walking in the Shadow"
"Stand Tight"
rounding out the set,
failed to win any new fans here, or retain many old ones either. [
BMG Berlin
's 2004 reissue includes bonus live versions of
"Metal Heart"
"Screaming for a Love-Bite."
] ~ Ed Rivadavia