Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Most Unfairly Underrated Accept & Metal CD, maybe of all time, September 30, 2007
If you can't stand hip-hop and boy bands and hate the music scene's degenerating into watching teen stars going bad and flashing their naked, high-mileage beavers, grow some guts and go back and rediscover some old Accept. This is still raw and heavy stuff, but it was truly hardcore in 1995. With slightly better production and a little more direction, I think this cd would have had taken Accept to the Balls to the Wall type of popularity. The cd's got a great cover, but the rest of the packaging leaves a lot to be desired; the insert has one picture of Udo and Wolf repeated on ever page with the lyrics (I'm glad we get those) superimposed over the pic. The music, though, is awesome. Led by Udo's growling malevolence and Wolf Hoffmann's electric brilliance, this cd rocks. And you can't say enough about Wolf. He goes from tight, precise, tough rhythm chores to wreaking lead-guitar havoc that is so good I can't call it anything other than divinely-inspired demolition. Giving all due respect to everyone else in the band, Hoffmann makes this cd and blows so much of his guitar competition away on Death Row. Any guitar player would want this cd to see how good one determined shredder can be doing it all --rhythm, leads, ambient fills-- on his own and making it all awe-inspiring. 90% of the vibe here is vicious and doesn't give quarter to anyone. If you're a weak sister or have one weak-sister cell, you'll know by song one. But you've gotta give Accept kudos for trying to add some unusual stuff to the heavy-end of the music spectrum. "Generation Class II" is a bass-led tune where Peter Baltes finally gets his come-uppance. You also get one melancholy Green-minded, confessional ballad that's more timely now than ever (and it is a very well done tune). The two instrumental pieces would have been better left off, but they are Wolf's Satriani-type moment, so I'll take them in honor of everything else he's accomplished on this album. As to the rest of the album, most bands would be happy to get two or three songs this heavy on a cd, and Accept rips through 12 of them, one right after the other. Every single one of these songs rank with the best that Accept ever put out, and they are much better than many current metal band's best stuff. So if you like your metal rough and want the best guitar musicianship to boot, get this cd. Accept was doing deathly hardcore metal before it became popular. They've always been underrated, but even among Accept fans, Death Row is probably the least understood and most unfairly underrated metal cd of all time. It deserves to be listened to.
|
|
|
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Power Is Still Here...but, January 4, 2007
As most of you know,Accept is one of my absolute favorite bands so it is really hard for me to write an average review of this band.Death Row is not a bad CD,it has all the classic sound of this metal force,it has killer guitar solos and the absolutely awesome vocals of UDO but something is missing.What's missing is the killer melodys that were a trademark of Accept through the years.It is a really heavy album,probably much more so than anything they ever did before but most of it is not memorable.The album opens with the title cut "Death Row" which is one of the best Accept songs ever,and is absolutely the highlight of the album,after hearing this song I had such high hopes but it goes into "Sodom & Gomorra" which is just mindless head banging,"The Beast Inside" is a great song and then comes "Dead On!" which rocks right up there with the best of any Accept,a truly great song,but then "Guns R Us" more fast pounding music without much melody,I could go on and on song by song but you get the idea. There are some truly inspired moments,Death Row,Dead On,Bad Religion,and the instrumentals "Drifting Away" and "Pomp And Circumstance" are truly beautiful,Wolf's guitar playing is absolutely amazing,Udo's voice is as always in top form but with those few exceptions the songs just don't stick with you. I think Predator is a much better CD and proves that even towards the end they DID have songwriting ability,same with Objection Overruled,and this CD just doesn't have that. If you are new to Accept I would recommend starting with Balls To The Walls,Breaker,and Metal Heart,then move on to Predator.
The upside:Some truly awesome songs,in particular "Death Row" and "Dead On" and some of the best guitar solos you will hear on any band's CD,not to mention Udo's vocals which are heavy metal singing some of it's best
The downside:Alot of songs are just not memorable,alot of fast pounding beats and many of the songs sound the same,lyrically nothing that jumps out like the outstanding lyrics on the 'balls to the wall' album.Basically too many filler songs.
The bottom line:You should buy this if you want a great CD to play when you are angry,if you want to crank it to 10 and drive in your car,this is the CD for you,very aggressive and fast.If you are a true Accept fan you should have it for the 5 or 6 great songs,but if you are new to the band stick to "Balls To The Wall","Breaker","Metal Heart",and "Predator",and heck,if you love this kind of music you should also check out "Wolves" by X-Terra there is a song on there called "I've Had Enough" that fits perfectly alongside songs like this. Overall "Death Row" is not a bad CD but it isn't great all the way through either. Donutman says so!
|
|
|
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fantastic, February 20, 2008
awesome cd. great guitar work from the one and only wolf hoffman, cant go wrong with this one,
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
- the new music site from IMDb and Amazon.
