The Metal Files

I guess it was 1981 or 1982 when my brother Robert (RIP) came home with Accept’s Breaker on cassette.  I thought it was pretty cool but they catch my ear like Priest, Cooper, Sabbath and the other bands I was into at the time did.  It wasn’t until hearing Balls to the Wall (BTTW) in 83 on the radio that I sort of got in tune with Germany’s.  I’d never call myself a hardcore fan but I enjoy pretty much all of their stuff from Russian Roulette on back.  Restless and Wild and BTTW would be my 2 faves.  I didn’t listen to them at all throughout the 90s and 2000s until I ad read somewhere that TT Quick’s Mark Tornillo had joined Accept.  I LOVE TT Quick’s  Metal of Honor album…LOVE IT!  Thanks to Big Bill for turning me on to that one in high school.  The 2 albums with Mark are really strong and he sounds great with them.  He is a perfect fit.  While he’s not Udo, he has a similar style that works quite well.  I met Udo back in 2000.  He was standing next to me while Raven was on stage.  Nice enough fella.

Kreator has been to Austin at least one other time since I’ve lived here but I didn’t see them.  I’ve never really been a fan.  I don’t dislike them, I’m just indifferent about them.  They had some great album covers back in the 80s, though.  However, when Tommy Vertelli from Coroner joined their ranks, they got my interest.  I do like the 2 albums he did with them, Outcast and Endorama; mainly because I can hear Tommy’s influence and I love Coroner.

When this show was first advertised, I made it a point to keep that date open as I really wanted to see Accept.  So…ticket bought and away we go.

If you’ve been paying even minor attention to this site, you know my obsession with getting The Booksigned when opportunity presents itself.  I had nothing to do yesterday afternoon and decided to just go to the venue a few hours before the

doors open and see what I can get done.  *cough* NERD *cough*  I was able to park right next to the buses and I just hung out for a bit and Kreator’s drummer, Ventor, came off of the bus and sat on the curb to smoke a cigarette.  I got out of my car, sat down next to him, introduced myself and talked to him and one of the roadcrew for about 15 minutes.  He signed the book and joked on the picture of himself.  I asked him if Mille was available and he said he was sleeping on the bus.  Cool.  No biggie.  After this I went back to my car for a bit.

King’s X’s tour manager was walking around the parking lot and he’s a good pal of mine.  He was looking for Kreator’s manager and the Accept guys as he’s friends with both.  “Accept’s plling up shortly.  Did you bring the book?”  They know me so well, eh?  A cab pulled up and Herman Frank, Wolf Hoffman and Mark Tornillo got out.  My friend was talking to them for a few then he waved me over and introduced us all.  I cracked open the book to the TT Quick page and Mark signed my CD cover and the page.  We spoke briefly about that record and I mentioned how much I loved it.  He said it was nice to see someone bringing that stuff to the shows.  Herman was up next and he saw the picture of Accept with Jorg Fischer and said, “”I’m prettier than that other guy. I’ll sign here.  Maybe over his face?”   He was obviously a fun loving  guy and was joking around with us.  I talked to him a bit about my love of his other band Victory.  “Oh, you’re the guy who bought that record?”  haha.  Wolf saw the photo and said, “Man, I had hair!”  A few moments later another car pulls up and Peter Baltes and Stefan Schwarzmann came over.  They said their hellos to my friend and Peter asked about the book.  I opened to his picture with Accept and said, “I’m still pretty” and laughed.  I told him about seeing him on tour with Dokken in 1991.  “Holy shit, you saw that?  How were we?”  Accept’s drummer, Stefan, has been around the block playing with Running Wild, Udo, X-Wild, Krokus and Helloween.  I had him sign the Running Wild page, shook hands with all of them and off they went to the bus.  Right place, right time and patience paid off.  I’m glad I had the time to hang out.

The doors at Emo’s East were supposed to be at 7PM but they didn’t open until 8 and Swallow The Sun was on at 8:10 with only a few people in the venue.  That sucked for them.  I waited a while outside with some friends to let the line go down and ended up only catching their last 2 songs in person.  They were alright.  Solid, mid-paced death/doom.  I used to own their debut album but it didn’t stick around long.

Up next was Accept.  They came out and just rocked.  The whole band looked like they were having a great time.  Herman, Peter and Wolf were pretty much smiling the whole show.  They played many of my favorites including Breaker, Metal Heart, Princess of the Dawn, Restless and Wild, Fast as a Shark and, of course, Balls to the Wall.  I was hoping to hear London Leather Boys, but oh well.  Their newer material sounded great live and was very well received by the crowd.  About halfway through the set, the place really filled up.  It was definitely a crowd where the majority was there to see Kreator.

And then there they were.  They hit the stage and just went into hard and heavy.  They were extremely tight and their lead guitarist was quite enjoyable to watch.  I stayed through 5 or so songs.  I did get to hear Enemy of God and a song from Endorama, Phobia, which I liked a lot.  Ventor is a beast on the drums, holy crap.  The crowd was totally into them, too, which was great to see.  But it was almost 11:30PM and I was tired.  I had to get up at 6Am for work today so I bailed out.

I will say that if Kreator makes their way back around here, I’d try and go see them again.  Accept is playing the South Texas Rock Fest in October in San Antonio, but I don’t think I’ll make it.

If you like any of these bands and can make it to the show, you won’t be disappointed.