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Accept's first DVD, "Metal Blast From The Past", was released in 2002 in PAL format only. Nearly two years later, Drakkar Entertainment finally released it in NTSC format. Yet it still very hard to find, I finally got my hands on it, thanks to Scrape Records.

"Metal Blast From The Past" is a bunch of Accept goodies that cover the band's career. The main feature is the live gig/documentary in Osaka in 1985, and released in video format under the name "Staying A Life" in 1990. This is a very good live concert in Dolby Digital 2.0 audio format, with many great Accept songs (especially from the "Metal Heart" album), unfortunately intersected abruptly by some narrative, three videoclips, and footage of the band fooling around. This is pretty annoying: I wish that they had put all these "irritants" separate from the live gig and made them accessible via the menu (like they did for the clips) knowing that it's a DVD. Since I also own the VHS Japanese tape, I can compare both versions: the VHS one is a bit better in the sound and picture. I think they could have made a better transfer and restoration on the DVD version. Note that they both last 65 minutes and contain the same live concert, but contain some different narrations and footage outside the gig. Sure, it's meant as a documentary of Accept's career, but I would have preferred to have the entire live gig left intact, like we can hear on the excellent "Staying A Life" live audio CD. It is overall very suitable but could have been improved in many ways. I suggest you read my "Staying A Life" VHS review for a more in-depth review of this segment.

Another important part of this DVD is the seven Accept videoclips. This is a domain where Accept didn't excel really well! The clip "Midnight Mover" can even cause vertigo! (-; I remember reading some interview with the band saying that they weren't happy with their clips in the 80s. Nevertheless, it's great to have them all on this DVD and my highlights are the classic "Balls To The Wall", "Protectors Of Terror" (my favourite), "Generation Clash" and "Death Row". Minor complaint: I don't understand why they put the "Balls To The Wall" version where we hear the narrator presenting the song at the beginning. They should have put a proper, cleaner version.

There is also some footage in Sophia in 1993 where the band performed "Slaves To Metal", "Objection Overruled" and "Bulletproof". This is a 16 minutes live concert broadcasted by Bulgarian TV. The sound and picture are pretty average but it's a good addition. Note that they erroneously wrote "Starlight" on the back cover instead of "Bulletproof".

"Behind the scenes" is a 3 minutes section where we can watch the life on the road, videoshots of soundchecks and small interviews. This is interesting but a bit too short. "Photo gallery" is 26 very good shots taken from photo sessions throughout the band's career. There is also an excellent 22 pages biography of the band from the very beginning to the end. The discography is very complete and extremely well done with full screen cover and lyrics of all songs where you can listen to 2 songs of very long samples of every album ever released! Highly impressive! The "Audio selection" contains 30 tracks you can listen to, also included in the discography section.

This released is labelled "DVD-Plus". It means that on one side, you got a normal DVD with all features mentioned above, and on the other side, you have a normal audio CD which contains 9 songs, and lasts about 40 minutes. "Rich And Famous" is a track released only in Japan on the "Objection Overruled" album. Not a very good one. "Rocking For The Sun" and "Morning Sun" are two tracks recorded for the album "I'm A Rebel" but never released. These are my two favourite ones on this CD. The next five tracks have poor sound, all from a pretty useless 8-track demo version for the album "Breaker". The last one is "Writing On The Wall" a very good acoustic version from the "Death Row" album. All in all, not a mandatory CD even for an Accept freak like me, especially the five 8-track demo. I would have preferred they had put this on another CD like U.D.O. did with their "Nailed To Metal" DVD instead of putting it on the flip side of this DVD.

To wrap up, there is a lot of stuff on this release and since it's the only Accept DVD available to this day, this is your only chance to see the band digitally on the screen. They did a great job with the packaging (cover and booklet), discography with all lyrics, biography and the interactive menu. However, I think they should have made a bit more effort with the "Staying A Life" gig with a better editing, transfer and/or restoration to the DVD format. Although I formulate some complaints throughout my review, I really dig this DVD for all its features, especially to finally see all their videoclips. To conclude, this DVD is mandatory for an Accept freaks like me and to the headbangers who wants the complete score officially released on video by this great German metal band.