Welcome to another edition of From My Collection. When it comes to German metal legends Accept, the four album run of Breaker (1981), Restless and Wild (1982), Balls to the Wall (1983), and Metal Heart (1985) is widely regarded as their creative peak and the pinnacle of their canon. Being the contrarian that I am, today I’m arguing that run goes one album further with 1986’s Russian Roulette. The final album of the band’s classic ’80s era, Russian Roulette seems to have been largely lost to the sands of time, seldom mentioned in the same breath as the four albums that proceeded it. Why? Surely, it’s any bit as good as its predecessors, and those who disagree have never listened to it in full. That’s right, I said it. Join us as we go back in time to ’86 to the last days of Accept’s Udo-fronted era. This is the tale of Russian Roulette.
1985 was a curious year for Accept. Following the unexpected commercial success of 1983’s Balls to the Wall, the band followed with an album that was more, well, commercial. Although Metal Heart didn’t see the band adopting makeup-painted faces or hairspray-drenched hairdos, many of the songs followed suit. “Midnight Mover”, “Screaming for a Love-Bite”, “Living for Tonite”: If one substituted the signature snarl of Udo Dirkschneider for a more accessible hard rock vocalist, these could’ve easily passed for rock radio smashes in the ilk of Def Leppard or Scorpions. Although Metal Heart didn’t reach the commercial heights of Balls, it did see Accept continue their focus on the American marketplace, establishing themselves as an arena act in the country’s B and C markets (i.e. “Good evening Peoria, Illinois!”)
The following year, Accept struck while the iron was hot, hoping to build upon their continued success with the release of their seventh studio album, Russian Roulette. By ’86, however, metal was in a unique predicament. The landscape consisted almost exclusively of thrash acts, metal’s newest, youngest, and most extreme subgenre to date, or glam acts eager to piggyback on the success of acts like Mötley Crüe and Ratt. As a result, the traditional metal and hard rock bands of the early ’80s got lost in the shuffle. Many tried their best to get with the times and got “glammed up” (i.e. Ozzy, Priest, Saxon). Others kept doing what they did best, never capitulating to formulas or trends (i.e. AC/DC, Maiden, Motörhead). And then you had Accept, who fell somewhere in between.
Perhaps aware that Metal Heart was in parts too polished for the old guard, Russian Roulette saw a return back to the anthemic, crushing, and speed-driven Teutonic metal that made albums like Restless and Wild and Balls to the Wall overnight classics. On the flipside, there was also no shortage of “commercial metal” moments scattered about, expanding upon the Metal Heart formula and showcasing the band at their most accessible to date. It was an experiment, perhaps, but a subtle balance that paid off in yet another masterpiece of an album.
Russian Roulette opens with one of the most unique songs in the Accept catalog, “T.V. War”. Now considering this is the band who gave us “Fast as a Shark”, Accept were no strangers to kicking off an album with a high speed blitz. That said, there’s something distinctly different about “T.V. War”. This isn’t your usual rough and ready speed metal out of the band’s ’81/’82 heyday. There is a sophistication and class to the guitarwork, as well as a harmonious edge to the chorus, that foreshadows the type of valorous euro power metal that bands like Running Wild, Helloween, and Blind Guardian would specialize in a few short years later. While I’d never call Accept a power metal act, much like Maiden, there’s no shortage of prototypes in their early oeuvre, with “T.V. War” coming musically the closest to modern power metal as we know it.
This is followed by an anthemic arena metal palette cleanse in “Monsterman”. Although not as blatantly commercial as the bulk of Metal Heart, “Monsterman” isn’t far removed from what one would expect from that album or even Defenders of the Faith era Judas Priest. It’s stoned to the bone, traditional metal mania, complete with air guitar friendly-riffage, but polished for mass consumption with its slick ’80s production and brainless headbanger singalong refrain. Surely, if suburban American teens could singalong to one band of German metallists (Scorpions), they could do the same to another.
Smack dab in the middle of side A, “Russian Roulette” comes sneaking in the way only an Accept anthem can: Slow, ominous, and colossal in every way possible. With its gang vocal shout-along chant of “WARGAMES!”, there’s certainly reason to argue this as “Balls to the Wall” pt. 2. It certainly follows the same formula, and even the riffs sound slightly in the same ilk, at least during the verses. What I’ve always wondered is if there was a juxtaposition between the album’s lyrical themes of war and conflict (i.e. “Russian Roulette”, “T.V. War”, “Man Enough to Cry”, “Stand Tight”) and the band’s internal state at the time. Perhaps that’s one to ask the next time we speak to Udo!
Remember earlier when I mentioned this album contained some of Accept’s most commercial work up until that point? Look no further than “It’s Hard to Find a Way”. There’s no denying that Accept are one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Their legend was already etched in stone by ’86. That being said “It’s Hard to Find a Way” is a glimpse into what could’ve been: The Teutonic titans trying their hand at lush Foreigner-esque AOR…and absolutely nailing it. Sorry folks, I don’t care how “weak” or “wimpy” it would’ve been, but an album of 10 songs in this vein would go down as one of the greatest in AOR history. Accept would also join the rare ranks of Icon in making the leap from traditional metal to AOR and perfecting both, but I digress.
Side A closes with yet another uptempo headbanger in “Aiming High”. Although this song isn’t as “powerful” in arrangement and demeanor as “T.V. War”, yet again, there is a vibe throughout not far removed from Michael Kiske-fronted Helloween. Granted, with their sights set almost solely on America, I’m not sure how influenced or even aware Accept were by the growing power metal and thrash metal scene in their motherland, but cuts like “Aiming High” and “T.V. War” make it hard to believe Wolf Hoffmann and company were completely oblivious to the new wave.
As we flip over to side B, we’re greeted by what is perhaps the “weakest” song on the album, “Heaven is Hell”. Similar to the title track, this is another anthem of a song, with a chorus so repetitive that it’ll be permanently drilled into your skull by the second or third refrain. Musically, it’s a glorified Teutonic metal rewrite of AC/DC’s “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)”, and that ain’t a bad thing. This is just big, dumb, arena metal fun, even if the riffage is eerily similar to that of the brothers Young. Perhaps it was based off AC/DC and Accept’s friendship alone that their Aussie mates DIDN’T sue.
Alongside the opening “T.V. War” and dreamy “It’s Hard to Find a Way”, “Another Second to Be” is a contender for not just best song on Russian Roulette, but one of the best in the Accept catalog, period. It’s peak melodic metal, fusing the drama and pomp of euro metal with a harmonious pop metal chorus and razor-sharp guitarwork. It’s too blatantly metallic to pass as a radio single, but also more accessible than cranium-crushing fare like “T.V. War” and “Aiming High”. Every time that chorus hits, I can feel the dopamine coursing through my veins.
One of the least talked about tracks on the album, “Walking in the Shadow” (not to be confused with Queensrÿche’s “Walk in the Shadows”) sounds largely like one of the more midtempo and middle of the road bruisers on Balls to the Wall (i.e. “Love Child”, “Losing More Than You’ll Ever Have”, etc.) Granted, the production has seen much sheen since those more naive days of ’83, but as far as arrangement and structure goes, one could easily mistake it for a composition from a few years earlier.
Behind “It’s Hard to Find a Way”, “Man Enough to Cry” is arguably the second most commercialized cut on Russian Roulette, and again, Accept hit the bullseye with ease. Get a load of that huge opening riff, four on the floor arena metal drumbeat, and yes, those signature gang vocal choruses. If Bon Jovi had balls, they’d sound like this. How “Man Enough to Cry” didn’t achieve hit single status like “Balls to the Wall” did a few years earlier is beyond me. Again, imagine Klaus Meine, Joe Elliott, or even the aforementioned Jon Bon Jovi singing this, and we’d be hearing it daily on classic rock radio to this day.
In true grandiose and Germanic fashion, “Stand Tight” closes both Russian Roulette and the first chapter of the Udo Dirkschneider era with one last metallic battle march. It’s yet another compelling and convincing, the type that this band specialized in the way Motörhead specialized in filthy, metallized rock n’ rollers and Dio specialized in songs about swords, sorcery, dragons, and rainbows. Predictable? Sure. Enjoyable? Absolutely, even down to the “WHO-HA-WHO-HA!”
Russian Roulette not only failed to follow the success of Metal Heart, but would be the band’s final outing with Udo Dirkschneider until 1993’s Objection Overruled. Ironically, U.D.O.’s debut, Animal House, was intended to be Accept’s follow up to Russian Roulette, and it certainly fits the bill as such. However, unsatisfied with the direction it was headed, and aware that their time with Udo was through, the band “gave” Udo the album as his solo debut. The rest, as they say, is history. Today, both Udo and Accept are still out there, keeping the heavy metal faith alive and still playing those WARGAMES! Who better to do so? *explosion*