The Rise of Chaos＜Colored Vinyl＞

The 15th studio long-player from the venerable German metallers, The Rise of Chaos is Accept's fourth full-length since re-forming in 2009 with vocalist Mark Tornillo -- original frontman Udo Dirkschneider left the group in 1987. It's also the first LP to feature new guitarist Uwe Lulis and drummer Christopher Williams, but fans of 2014's surprisingly vital-sounding Blind Rage will be pleased to hear that Accept 2.0 is still a force to be reckoned with, especially if one's tastes lean toward the kind of uncompromising, no-frills Euro-metal that filled stadiums in the 1980s. Internationally, Accept's particular brand of workmanlike metal, a steely mix of muscular AC/DC-styled riffage and Motorhead-esque bad attitude, never truly went out of style, and The Rise of Chaos plays to those strengths via a ten-track onslaught that shows little in the way of innovation, yet never loses sight of the end goal, which is to rock with extreme prejudice. Opener "Die by the Sword" does just that, framing Sabbathy power chords against Williams' propulsive kit work, and then launching into a fist-pumping chorus that gives the whole band a chance to scream along -- thankfully, those signature group vocals, which were so essential to early career triumphs like "Balls to the Wall" and "Fast as a Shark," still play a large role. The rest of the LP follows suit, with highlights arriving via the rousing title cut and the kinetic "Carry the Weight." Even at its most hackneyed -- "I need you like a prison term," snarls Tornillo on the clunky "Hole in the Head" -- The Rise of Chaos manages to entertain, and that the album does so with such gusto is the mark of a band with more than a little fight left in it. ~ James Christopher Monger