Eat the Heat

After the departure of signature vocalist Udo Dirkschneider—who said he left because he was the only band member who refused to go commercial—Accept hired native Oklahoman David Reece from the L.A. metal scene. Without Dirkschneider's savage squeals, it was harder to distinguish Accept from hundreds of likeminded metal bands. Yet Reece did an admirable job, and Wolf Hoffman’s methodically pulverizing riffs kept Accept’s legacy alive on Eat the Heat. While the band lost some of its untamed edge, Accept became a sexier, more Americanized group with “Prisoner,” “Love Sensation," and “Chain Reaction.” Certainly power pop tunes like “Break the Ice” and tender ballads like “Mistreated” would've been impossible in the band’s earlier incarnation. While it might have been easy to write off Reece as a handsome interloper, diehard fans accepted him on the basis of “Hellhammer,” “Turn the Wheel," and “D-Train,” which are as thunderous as anything from the band’s early years and are made even more deafening by Dieter Dierks' brawny production.