Accept - Breaker. 1981 Germany

One of the most important European metal albums, Accept surprised everyone with their 3rd opus. After a couple of ordinary hard rock albums, Breaker turned up the amps and broke out the riffs for a head turning "did you hear that?". I bought this album real time (the US Passport version) and its impact was profound. I'm surprised I did though, as I unfortunately purchased I'm A Rebel prior, one of the worst buys of my initial forays into the underground during high school. I'll have to hear it again at some point, but it was absolutely not what I wanted at the time. I must have heard a track on the radio from Breaker to compel me to go back to Accept. Over time I lost interest in this kind of metal and sold off my copy in the early 90s - probably along with the 1980s Scorpions albums.

Some years ago I decided I wanted Breaker back. But I insisted on a German pressing on Brain. I also figured the Passport version would be easy to find once I started crate digging - but nope - this wasn't going to be something I'd find in the wilds after all. More about that in the Ownership section.

One thing to note is that the original German version has a different running order than the American press. And this is important because the opening 3 tracks here pack a wallop when thrown together. Opener 'Starlight' reminds me of Judas Priest's 'Grinder' and is a great way to open the album. But the second track - and it is the second track on the Passport version as well - is the title song. It is this song that has one of those memorable riffs that would become heavy metal's ultimate trademark. And 'Run If You Can' fulfills the great opening sequence. From here the album doesn't maintain it's blistering pace but almost all of it is very good. Only 'Midnight Highway' can be skipped - a moldy relic from their I'm a Rebel past. Naturally that was the opener on the US version. So typical... Oddly my rating for this album didn't change. I was expecting a major revelation here, but no - my memory of it from 30 years ago was pretty accurate. I just appreciate more now its historical significance.

Back to 1981: I had become an established Accept fan. Good timing, because their next album was the masterpiece - the one that blew the doors off the metal scene and created the expanding universe as we know it. That of course would be Restless and Wild, and unlike Breaker, I never got tired of that album and it remains one of the treasures of my collection. We'll cover that album on another day.

Ownership: LP: 1981 Brain. Single sleeve with lyric/picture inner bag. Recent online acquisition (2022) from a dealer here in the States at a great price. As you can see it's the black label version, which means it's the second pressing. This is the year they introduced their new design, as there does exist an "orange Brain" version. Originally I had insisted on getting that, but at some point I asked myself what difference does it make? I never owned it in the first place. Nothing beats that back cover - and their next album would show them in flames on the front (not the US/UK version of course - they had to screw it up. Fortunately I bought the German version real time and still have it).

10/25/22 (new entry)