NOVEMBER 25th, 2024
HUMANOID TOUR: ACCEPT & GUESTS
Review by Dmitry Sukhnin
Photos by Polina Kulikovskikh
Photo Gallery: http://www.metaltitans.com/concertpics/accept/

I have always enjoyed all the heavier covers of Accept, but getting into the original was a particularly big challenge due to the vocals. I could not sustain today’s attempt to listen to “Son Of A Bitch” by Accept, while Six Feet Under made a cover I enjoy. However, one must always challenge one’s taste, so I went to see the original act contributing to loads of great melodies spinning in my head.

The openers, Sister Sin from Sweden, are a thrash-heavy band with screaming vocals delivered by Liv Jagrell. Liv mentioned they last played in Oslo nine years ago. This time their performance featured a good mix: very tight palm-muted guitar riffs, a heavily distorted bass that sounded warm in the mix but quite harsh on its own, and vocals that balanced on the edge between cleans and screams. The advantage of vocals teetering on the edge is that when a wrong note slips into a scream, it actually sounds better than a straightforward wrong pitch.

I'm checking out their recordings now, and they sound very good—especially if you're a fan of thrash metal. That being said, in my opinion, since the setlist was quite long, it felt a bit tiring toward the end.

Accept had spent forty minutes for the change - to install big stage props and do a line check again. With Sister Sin I could see that they use a Marshall amp and a rack Kemper for guitars, but Accept have a very clean stage, so sadly my mission of checking equipment for the headliner never materialized. The installed stage was huge, the drum set (massive 2-level rack!) really high and some industrial-looking installations right and left. As they started, “what an interesting effect on vocals” was my first thought. Well, for you, who consider discovering Accept live, just like myself, I can firmly reassure you: the vocals fit just perfectly and Mark Tornillo delivers exceptionally well. Mark’s vocals are very dynamic and have several tones.
Most of the show Wolf Hoffmann is around the center and, being much taller than Mark, he looks like a giant when he steps on the pedestal to show off the solos. Any time there is a lead, the one who plays it is up above the rest. Accept do not overuse the effects, so the solos mostly sound quite dry, but very appropriate to the mix. The performance is top notch.

Despite “just playing”, the concert is a show with well-thought-of lights complementing the stage color palette.

Accept have three guitars and, despite I hear that alone they have quite a moderate amount of gain, all together the guitar sound feels oversaturated.

The set list contains all the usual suspects, including "Midnight Mover", "Restless and Wild", "Princess of Dawn" (Mark: “How many singers do we have here??” Everyone in the audience sings), "Demon Night" as part of a medley, "Metal Heart", "Balls to the Wall" (this one was in the encore), and as the setlist progresses, Mark announces the songs, - so I figure out that it is not any effect on his vocals - this is just how cool he sounds!!

End of the main set before the encore sees a very ire drum solo supported by frantic lights.
What can I say? This was my first ever Accept gig and I enjoyed it.