Accept - Humanoid

Humanoid is the seventeenth studio album by German heavy metal band Accept, released in April 2024 via Napalm Records.

Humanoid is a towering musical achievement and another world class entry in the Accept catalogue, certain to rally fans from around the world. Accept have never shied away from hot button issues, and this album is no exception.

The band’s 17th studio album is certainly not a concept album, yet it deals with topics like AI and how our reliance upon technology is gradually stripping away individuality. Since singer Mark Tornillo will never be an advocate for the digital age, he counterbalances the title track with raw emotions, frailties, significant Rites of Passage we encounter on the path of life and characteristics that make us uniquely human: feeling uncomfortable, getting older, dealing with hurt, disappointment, and the final stop for everyone: death.

The opening track “Diving into Sin” gives listeners a hair-raising energetic jolt with its Middle Eastern influenced intro, and an almost aggressive, screaming vocal from Tornillo setting the rest of the album up for a most bountiful feast. "Unbreakable" is as much about the band as it is the bond between Accept and their fans, in the concert arena – an easy going “Hey, let’s do this, ‘kind of rock song.”

"Mind Games", on the other hand, has a vintage feel, circa “Metal Heart”. "No One Gets Out Alive" seems tailor made for live shows. It says that regardless of life's circumstances, rich, famous, or not, death is the great equalizer. The good ole’ drinking song, "Straight Up Jack" utilizes many euphemisms for ordering at the bar. Upbeat and aggressive with guitar interplay, "Southside Of Hell" ends the album with a wonderful bit of wordplay, courtesy of Tornillo.

Humanoid is a ferociously electrifying, dynamic and subtly nuanced platter with tongue in cheek humour.

This album is on black vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve with a printed inner sleeve, pressed in Austria via Napalm Records.