Accept – Humanoid

Similarly to Queensrÿche, German Metal legends from Accept managed to pull that which is almost impossible, successfully replacing an iconic singer very late into their career. With their return together with Mark Tornillo on vocals in 2009 the band managed to return strong and with their integrity in place. And not only that, but they also followed the impressive Tornillo debut with couple equally strong albums. But since then, the band has released a couple of albums, which saw the overall quality of the material take a dive. Their previous release Too Mean to Die was a solid record but nothing that would find a significant place in Accept’s discography, but especially The Rise of Chaos from 2017 saw the band releasing their weakest album of Tornillo-era.

Humanoid, just like previous five records is produced by Andy Sneap, which means that much those other albums (and solid portion of Sneap’s producing catalogue) the record is eminently sounding, with über-clear and well-balanced sound. It’s very polished, but with enough warmth and character to avoid too much of that sterile feel.

The endless line-up changes mean that not only is Wolf Hoffmann the only remaining original member, but Tornillo is now the second-longest serving member. With Hoffmann behind the wheel, however, there is not much change so that this tightly ran ship would steer far from its course. This means that it’s business as usual for Accept anno 2024.

Humanoid is a professionally produced, performed, and executed album which checks all the expected boxes musically. This means that there are some energetic upbeat songs on it, big mid-tempo stompers and of course few AC/DC inspired songs as well. This time around there is also place for one of those heartfelt ballads.

The album opens in a solid manner with “Diving into Sin”, “Humanoid” and “Frankenstein” all working just fine and most certainly delivering that which is expected of them, despite too much familiarity and lyrical triviality.

And while the opening trio is solid it doesn’t impress. Unfortunately rest of the album doesn’t impress much either. Recycling riffs, ideas, and melodies characterizes most of the songs and lyrical themes have been the same for decades. Rhymes are extremely easy to predict and just like the case was with several songs on especially The Rise of Chaos, there is big dose of lyrics that are nothing short of cringe-worthy. There are often relevant and even noble themes behind them, but some of the lyrics make the respective songs hard to get through, even after several spins.

On the other hand, “Ravages of Time” comes across as honest and the closer “Southside of Hell” wraps up the album in a good way.

In a recent interview Hoffmann stated that he finds the process of writing new music easy and while that most certainly can be a good thing, more often than not it does result in uninspired work. The level of skill and professionalism is undeniable, but inspiration and creativity are missing. That’s the main reason why Humanoid comes across as an autopilot record from competent gentlemen.

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