Monday, November 15, 2010

CSOTD Bonus Edition: Accept - Rolling Thunder



Woken up yet?

Sorry everyone, but I just couldn't blog only one song by Accept.  Especially not off their new album "Blood Of Nations".

I love (almost) every track off this album. Deciding on what second track to post was extremely tough.

For a long time it was going to be Pandemic, but when it came time to actually write this post, I just can't get over the sheer awesomeness of Rolling Thunder.

Accept have been playing music since 1968 as Band X, and as Accept since 1976.  As you can imagine there have been a lot of stops and starts, highs and lows, and the Wiki link above and their band's Bio's page tell much of their story.

But while I love this album, and this band, I do fear for Heavy Metal as a genre.  Or, more precisely, I fear for my own love of Metal.  You see, to my ears, my growing elderly ears, too much of what passes for "Metal" these days just sounds like THIS.

And, I'm sorry, I truly am, but in my opinion there is nothing cool about that sound.  At all.  And I absolutely refuse to blog about songs or music that I don't consider "cool", regardless of how hip or contemporary or "cool" others may think it is.

Yes, I'm aware that there is more to the metal scene than just that sound, but somehow it's what keeps creeping into my headphones over and over whenever I'm doing research for this humble blog.

With every post I try to broaden my own horizons, and it's often a struggle.  I think that, for my age, I've done well in trying to open my mind to new musical experiences.  But, as with most things, there is a limit.

Maybe I've hit the wall.  Maybe songs like THIS are the step to far, the line that cannot be crossed, the border between youthful exuberance and mature discernment.

Which is why I thank the Heavens above for groups like Accept, who do that most complicated of things; they honour the past not by throwing it out, but by moving it forward.

Most of their songs sound like they could have been released in 1985, but they aren't stale or dated. They totally, for lack of a better word, rock. Totally rock. More than likely because they rocked it during the 80's and survived.  It sounds like they learned what works and have tossed out what doesn't work.

So, it may be nostalgia, the rose coloured glasses influencing my taste, especially in this complicated genre.  But, I'd like to think its something else.  Something more basic.

I'd like to think I like songs that work, and don't like songs that don't.

Accept works.  THIS doesn't.  At all.

But, again, that's just me, and I might be wrong.

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