ACCEPT / U.D.O. - Discography

I am intrigued to scope out some UDO

The man has a distinctive voice

ACCEPT - EAT THE HEAT (1989)






U.S RELEASE

1. X-T-C
2. Prisoner
3. Love Sensation
4. Chain Reaction
5. D-Train
6. Generation Clash
7. Turn The Wheel
8. Mistreated
9. Stand 4 What U R
10. Hellhammer
11. Break The Ice






EURO RELEASE

1. X-T-C
2. Generation Clash
3. Chain Reaction
4. Love Sensation
5. Turn The Wheel
6. Hellhammer
7. Prisoner
8. I Can’t Believe In You
9. Mistreated
10. Stand 4 What U R
11. Break The Ice
12. D-Train



In 1989, the boys from Accept made a come-back of sorts that resulted in the auditory abortion known as "Eat The Heat".


I won't spend alot of time reviewing this album because I'm pretty convinced of my opinion of it. Accept really lost their way in 1989 and decided to switch gears and make a REALLY commercial metal album. Thank goodness UDO left because this album would be even worse with him on it...and that's not a dig on UDO by any means.

With the new direction, the band needed a new frontman. Enter David Reece from American band Bangalore Choir. I think David Reece gets a bad rap for this album, but his performance is stellar. In fact, the whole band plays well, but there is nothing original on this album. This album sounds very forced to me. The power and emotion that filled the band's earlier albums is replaced with a souless, overproduced sound that has nothing unique to offer to the listener. In fact, I can't even think of a song that I like enough to name. Nothing that makes me want to listen to it more than once. After the CD stops spinning, I don't remember what I was listening to for the last 40 minutes.

This album is typical second or third tier American commercial metal. It sounds like the band is TRYING to sound heavy. Accept never had to do that in the past, they were naturally heavy. The signature guitar sound of Wolf Hoffman is gone and replaced with a cookie cutter generic sound. To top it off, the drums sound VERY mechanical. Almost like a drum machine.

If the album wasn't bad enough, the commercial metal boat had already sailed away by the time Accept wanted to board. This may have worked 2 years earlier, but by the time 1989 rolled around, this kind of metal was kind of old hat in the U.S.

Possibly the band were taking a page from the playbook of fellow German band, Victory, by deciding to dilute their sound to appeal to a wider audience. Victory did it well, Accept....not so much. Just listen to Victory's "Culture Killed The Native" and you'll hear how this type of metal is supposed to sound.

Unless you are an Accept completist, I would definitely steer clear of "Eat The Heat".

Eat the Heat ranks up there with Raven's The Pack Is Back, Savatage's Fight For the Rock, and Celtic Frost's Cold Lake on the "WTF were they thinking" scale.

That said, a couple of tracks are actually pretty good, it just sounds nothing like an Accept record. I like "Generation Clash" (dig the rumbling bass on that one), "Turn the Wheel" is cool, and "D-Train" is the only song where they actually sorta kinda almost sound like Accept.

On a side note, David Reece's spaztic white-boy dance moves in the "Generation Clash" video are hilarious.

I read an interview w/Udo years ago where he said that while Accept were making Eat the Heat, he happened to be using the same studio for one of his solo albums (possibly Mean Machine?) Supposedly he spoke to some of his former band mates at the time, who'd been in the studio for months at the time and they weren't happy with the way the record was turning out at all. They knew they'd made a huge mistake but the ship had already sailed.

I actually don't hate the album, and few tunes on the album, are half way decent, 'X-T-C", "Turn the Wheel Around' and " Generation Clash', the rest of the album is very forgettable.

I remember thinking that David Reece was a hell of a singer, and he could do both the melodic type tunes and your traditional balls to the wall Accept type metal.

The problem was the material was not very strong and the songs even the good ones were lacking identity, it could have been any number of second or third tier metal acts.

Like Spec said, it was not just the fact that Udo's unique voice was missing, but Wolf Hoffman sounded like he was missing in action.

A good album in places but overall disappointment

I don't actually own a copy. I saw the video and stayed away...... I had already gotten burned The Pack Is back and Fight For The Rock, so there was no way I was jumping in head first on this one...........

Accept sans Udo was not a success. In came two American newbies, most noticeably David Reece (Bangalore Choir, Sircle Of Silence) on vocals. But I'm not sure he was the real "problem" with this disc, although he has in hindsight gotten all the blame. The fact is that he is a great singer, and he fits the music on the disc perfectly. The problem is that the music doesn't sound like Accept. If the album had a different name on the cover, this disc might have been a stellar debut from a new band. A band which sound was just right at the time of the release of this album. 'Eat The Heat' delivers some solid melodic metal, but so few of the tracks give us the idea that we're listening to one of the classic German heavy metal acts. It sounds like an American band, with power ballads and all. "X-T-C" has later been "covered" by U.D.O., and during the reunion with Accept and Udo in the 90's, the band re-recorded "Generation Clash". The album came with a different cover in Europe, and an extra track.

Killer tracks: X-T-C, D-Train, Generation Clash, Mistreated, Hellhammer

Considering my fanboyness with everything Accept I liked "Eat the Heat" even though it was one of my last albums of theirs purchased. But it was 2 disc bootleg with "Mean Machine" and some of the Accept (worse) tracks were left over. Maybe it made the album more enjoyable
Still, "X-T-C", "D-Train", "Generation Clash", and especially "Hellhammer" - this song simply smokes - are enjoyable. Not great by any means, but not a disaster of an album either, 20 years later after its release.

"Mean Machine" I felt was a little weaker than "Animal House", but that means it is also brilliant. Maybe except "Catch My Fall" - seems at that point Udo couldn't write silly little numbers like "Cut Me Out".
More killer guitarwork by Mr. Dieth can't harm anyone. The begging of "We're History" gives me goosebumps to this day.

I forgot about Mean Machine!

'Mean Machine' is Udo's second solo-effort. But Udo solo sounded more like Accept then Accept did themselves during this period! Just check out "Streets On Fire" if you don't believe me. This is pure heavy metal, nothing more, nothing less. Leave it to Mr. Dirkschneider to never fail his audience!

I own the digitally remastered version, released as a digi-pack on Udo's own label, Breaker.

Killer tracks: Don't Look Back, Break The Rules, We're History, Streets On Fire, Sweet Little Child

Mean Machine is a great release. Lots of good tunes on it but I think my favorites are Don't Look Back and We're History.


I've never heard anything of Eat The Heat. Not sure if I'm missing anything.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"D-Train" is the only song where they actually sorta kinda almost sound like Accept.  

I could've seen ´em do "Hellhammer" with Udo as well, and "X-T-C", U.D.U actually covered that one, and Accept performed it on the Objection Overruled tour. And of course, the re-recorded "Generation Clash" for the Death Row album, without it sounding much different musically.

I quite like Eat the Heat, song wise, the production is really sterile and cold. This and the drum(machine?) sound really lets the album down.

"Mistreated" too - great song.

Udo are currently working on a new studio album. About time \m/