When lists are compiled by hard rock experts concerning bands that should have been huge but never quite made it to the top, you can bet that metal act Accept’s name will be on just about every list.

The German powerhouse’s mix of Priest and the Scorpions has always been big news in its home country, most of Europe and Japan. But dating back to its first run of fame in the 80’s, the quintet has never been able to be more than a small theater headliner or opening act in the states.

Amazingly, that is now changing, and the band is doing it without longtime vocalist and legendary metal singer Udo Dirkschneider. With new vocalist Mark Tornillo fronting the band, Accept is dealing with success on a level it has never achieved worldwide, even in its heyday.

The band’s performance in San Francisco last week showed why-Tornillo, while not a substitute for Udo, is the perfect guy to step into his slot, and the rest of this semi-legendary metal outfit-guitarists Wolf Hoffman and Herman Frank, bassist Peter Baltes and drummer Stefan Schwarzmann-have come back together just as powerful and heavy as they were when Balls to the Wall gave the band its first big hit back in 1983.

Accept has reformed a few times before, and a 2005 run of European festivals with the original line-up (including Udo) was a fabulous success. But Udo declined to rejoin the band for good then, opting to continue a successful solo career that takes his band (which includes former Accept drummer Stefan Kaufmann on guitar) to the same outposts that Accept is popular in-Europe, Asia and especially Germany.

After those reunion dates, a few years passed before a jam between Baltes and Hoffmann led to a meeting with Tornillo back in 2009, and the former T.T. Quick singer provided something that most pundits thought could never be found-a replacement for Dirkschneider, the diminutive singer with the huge voice and even bigger stage presence.

Tornillo isn’t a carbon copy of Dirkschneider at all-he doesn’t look like him, and although his voice is similar, it isn’t a complete replication, either. But the tall, lanky and well-tanned New Jersey native fits the band like a glove, and his presence helped the band record another classic album, Blood of the Nations, which was released in 2010.

An early run of gigs with Tornillo before the album’s release went off to rave reviews, thus fueling the fan’s frenzy for new material. That material ended up on BOTN, which was voted into the Top 10 of most metal critics year-end lists last year. And then came the news of a tour that would take the band around the country to bring this new music and the group’s classic sound to a metal crowd hungry for any kind of new, exciting music.

Five songs from the new record helped make-up a 19-song set (performed simply on a barren stage with only a band backdrop as a prop) that included most of the unit’s classic songs (“Metal Heart,” “Restless and Wild,” “Fast as a Shark,” “Up to the Limit,” “Breaker” and “Balls to the Wall” among them), as well as some deep cuts and songs like “Aiming High” and “Monsterman” that were rarely played even when the record that featured those songs were released. Amazingly, it didn’t matter what the group played, since the frenzied crowd in SF was going balls out from the very first note of the new album’s “Teutonic Terror” to the last encore of “Balls to the Wall.” It was the band’s first appearance here since a date at the old Kabuki Theater in 1984, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Tornillo was quite a revelation, as you can probably tell from the previous paragraphs written here. He prowled the stage in a typical metal pose, wearing tight jeans and vest that showed his tan and biceps. His voice was able to rise above the volume of this thunderous metal act, and he led the crowd in many sing-alongs of the group’s famous, shouted choruses that sound just as German as the blood that runs through so many of this band’s members.

Hoffman and Frank played the band’s signature riffs and solos in tandem, with Hoffman shining many times and proving to be one of metal’s most underrated players. Baltes is one the best bassists in the business, and he and Schwarzmann were locked in a groove from the opening notes of the set. It was loud, it was powerful, it was heavy metal, and it was definitely as good a show as I’ve ever seen this band play.

So, what happens next? With the success of the record, there is already talk of new material being recorded. The touring will continue with a run of European dates this summer, and the inevitable live CD and DVD releases are being bandied about. Amazing as it seems, since the band released three records back in the 80’s (Restless and Wild, Balls to the Wall and Metal Heart) that are considered heavy metal masterpieces, but it might be this version of Accept that finally gets the band off of all of those should have been huge lists.