(TheBRHM.com) A flawless debut album is a challenge that many never hit. There will be something that either the artist or critics can look at and feel “Eh, this ruins it” or “That song was unnecessary to the overall project” and so on. German band Accept’s debut album was a hard rock affair that wasn’t a flawless album.
However, four years later, the band would drop their flawless album. From the start, Balls to the Wall doesn’t mess around! That’s always what I’m looking for in an album: something that kicks the door off the hinges, hangs around and leaves an impression.
At ten tracks and a little over 44 minutes in length, Balls to the Wall fits the bill perfectly.
Getting to ‘Balls to the Wall’
For Accept to get to this point, they had four other albums under their belt. Starting with their self-titled debut in 1979, Accept came in hard rock sound but swiftly moved away from it as their dominant sound by the time of their third release, Breaker.
Balls to the Wall is basically the continuation of Breaker and Restless and Wild while showing the band at their best for the decade. That is, unless you preferred Restless and Wild. This release was definitely their most successful outside of Germany and served as their commercial introduction to the world via MTV and expanded distribution.
What Made This Album Stand Out?
Well, besides the titular track which lived up to the music video—or did the album live up to “Balls to the Wall”—the album featured many bangers with some warranting their own music videos. Whether it was the A-side or B-side, this album just rocked and rode. There were some slower-tempo tracks, for sure but even those tracks had a heaviness to them.
Oftentimes, the heaviness overrides the slower-tempo mainly by having a powder keg of a lead singer for me. Udo Dirkschneider was that lead singer for this album and pretty much established the vocal stylings Accept looks for on their releases. The easiest way to describe their sound if you didn’t check out Breaker is—as if AC/DC was all the way heavy metal in the 1980s and the hard rock stuff was either made heavier or put on the back burner here and there.
First of all, on the A-side; the opening track: “Balls to the Wall”. It’s 1983, they’ve been doing this since 1976, and they’re five albums in. They didn’t come to f**k around this time, apparently.
I like that. I love when the titular track opens or closes the album. It denotes either “We’re dead body serious about how good this song is” or “This song is the album”. I mean, first the album has to feature a titular track.
Opening with Either a Pounder or a Ripper
Then it can’t be an instrumental, it has to have something to stick to the rips. It can’t be all sizzle and no steak. So, we got this titular track and it either has to be a ripper or a pounder.
Accept opens Balls to the Wall with a pounder. It’s one of metal’s truly legendary songs and I’d say it’s in the opening track and titular track hall of fames. Opening an album with something that slams will always get high marks with me.
Oh but Accept didn’t just blow all of their energy on the opener! For ten tracks straight, almost 45 minutes Accept proceeded to slam from song to song with no break! All songs were of high heaviness both speedsters and rockers.
As a matter of fact, this was an album of rippers and pounders. This was one of those debuts that got multiple replays while researching. Individual songs, the entire album in multiple sittings—Balls to the Wall is a delight 41 years after its release.
Your other standout bangers include “London Leatherboys”, “Fight It Back” which just slams to high heaven, “Head Over Heels”, and “Losing More Than You’ve Ever Had”. Yes, the entire A-side and the same can be said for the B-side!
It’s truly a flawless debut and perhaps the first here on The BRHM. Not only that but if you’re into moving songs around and making custom track lists for an album, Balls to the Wall will provide a fun challenge because all of the songs would be at home on either side of the album. There are also a few opener and closer candidates to consider.
What did you think of Accept’s Balls to the Wall? Does it hold up decades later or do you feel it’s dated to some degree? Share you thoughts!
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.