Accept are one of Heavy Metal’s most legendary groups. This is the band that brought you classic albums like “Restless and Wild”, “Balls to the Wall”, and “Metal Heart”. It is also the band that introduced you to the unique vocals of frontman Udo Dirkschneider. Many regard 1986’s “Russian Roulette” as the bands last classic album (three more were released in the 90’s) to feature Udo on vocals. An Udo-less “Eat the Heat” in 1989 failed to capture the magic that was present from “Breaker” through “Russian Roulette”. Mr. Dirkschneider moved on and in 1987 formed U.D.O. releasing “Animal House” which was a continuation of the classic Accept sound that the world had fallen in love with. More than 20 years and 11 studio albums later, U.D.O. is still alive and well bringing true heavy metal to the masses around the world. Udo keeps his former band close to his heart as classic Accept songs are still very much a part of his live set.

“Metallized” captures the best of U.D.O. from 1987 until now, well almost all the best as I was shocked to see nothing represented from 1991’s killer “Timebomb” album. Favorites here include “Holy”, “Animal House”, and “Man and Machine”. For this collection there are two unreleased bonus tracks, “Shadow Maker” being the first which sounds like it could have been a Grave Digger song from the “Heart of Darkness” album. As a matter of fact, Grave Digger did a song on “Heart of Darkness” called ”Shadowmaker”, how funny is that? The other unreleased bonus track is “Terror in Paradise” which is a darker tune and sounds like it could have fit perfectly on the “Holy” album. Also included is an acoustic version of the Accept classic “Balls to the Wall” which is just terrible. Almost every metalhead knows this as one of metal’s finest anthems, a true headbanger. Hearing this version with piano is just torture and very painful to get through. What was Udo thinking? The album closes out with a live version of “Bullet and the Bomb” live from St. Petersburg and it just absolutely crushes. Minus the hideous acoustic ball-less “Balls to the Wall” this is a great collection to pick up if you are not familiar with U.D.O. After listening to this do yourself a favor and pick up “Timebomb” before getting the rest, you won’t be sorry.