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Guitarist Wolf Hoffmann Says “ACCEPT Documentary Came to a halt because there wasn’t enough Archival Footage”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on August 5, 2022
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from The Metal Voice spoke to legendary guitarist of Accept Wolf Hoffmann about the bands tour plans, new music, the status of their documentary and the possibility of ever doing an Accept Fest

When asked about North American Tour 
“I’m currently in Europe as we have we all have been here for the whole summer  because it’s summer festival season here  and we played more shows than I can remember ever playing. I mean we usually do festivals  for a few weeks here and there but it’s been almost three months for us now  because I think there was all this pent up demand because of the pandemic. So this summer has been busier than ever it’s been awesome. So now we’re getting ready to do this U.S. tour which is coming up soon. It’s actually the first full-blown U.S tour for Accept in a decade, it’s time I don’t know.”

When asked was it a good idea to release their last studio album ‘To Mean to die’ during the pandemic
“It went really y well, I have to say people love the album and I think that we’re very grateful that we didn’t hold back until times got back to normal. People got to enjoy the album and the fan reaction was fantastic. We sold really well, of course nobody knows what it would have been like had we had the tour to support the album.”

When asked about the upcoming set list
 “We incorporate a whole lot more songs than I had anticipated at some of these festival shows that we did. We played like five new songs and they all had a  great reaction from the fans  because normally a lot of times when we have a new album we play only two songs sometimes three but there’s so much good stuff on this album, so much good live songs, that it’s really fun to do and people really appreciate it. I do put the setlist together every night  but we do make stuff up sometimes last minute.  I make a small adjustment and we also like to mix it up sometimes more than we’ve ever done before. A lot of times in the past we arrived at what seemed to be the perfect set list and we kind of kept it as is. Lately we all said  why don’t we just mix it up a little because it’s also fun for us  and if somebody comes to    more than one show  they get a slightly different set list. I can tell you this some songs we will always play like ‘Princess of the dawn’ , ‘Fast as a shark’,  ‘Metal heart’, ‘Balls to the wall’.”  

When asked if he ever heard the AC/DC original Demo of the song ‘I’m A Rebel’ which was given to Accept to record for their second album
“I have yeah and Bon Scott singing on it from what I remember. It’s unreleased and they probably will keep it in the archive or their vault or whatever forever  I can tell you why it will be unreleased because it was a demo. Apparently AC/DC did not like the song enough or they didn’t want to record it properly they just  had the demo and said, we are not going to do properly record it. So that’s how we ended up with the song. I thought their version was fabulous. I thought it was much better than our version, sorry. I remember that was clearly Bon Scott on it,  kind of a rough demo. I believe it was recorded in Hamburg at a demo studio or maybe not.  I know that  Alex Young (who wrote the song)  lived in Hamburg at the time or at least he had a really close connection to our publisher that’s how we ended up with a song. They said we’ve got these unreleased songs and I think the song  would be great for you guys  and we actually met him (Alex Young).”

When asked if they would even do a tour playing a whole classic album from start to finish
 “I’m not a huge fan of all these anniversary things because it always reeks a little bit of desperation, like I don’t have a new album we’ve got nothing else to say, so we celebrate something that happened 40 years ago. Maybe if we’ve come to the point where we don’t have a current album and it happens to be anniversary?  I don’t want to really get caught up in that too much and as far as like playing an album in the entirety we’ve done that once or twice but an album is an album and it has a certain running order and the show has a different running order to me and it’s not necessarily the best live show. But it doesn’t say we don’t want to do it, actually we committed to do to that in Japan but that show  never happened. We were supposed to play the entirety of ‘Metal heart’ and ‘Balls to the wall’ in two different shows in Japan as a special thing. We rehearsed for it but then pandemic uh put a stop to it it never happened. “

When asked if he would ever consider doing an Accept  Festival brining back the former members, like Schenker Fest
“I mean anything is possible but at this point no interest, no thanks.  I learned to say never say never because one day you might  look like a fool otherwise.” 

When asked if you have been inspired to get ideas ideas down for a new album
“I tell you what is inspiring, it is to be out on stage and to see the reaction of fans. When you ask me was I creative during this pandemic time, no. I wasn’t, I kind of fell into a slump.  I’m totally honest  I didn’t know when life would resume and I didn’t know when the tour would actually happen that we had planned and there were so many unknowns and so I didn’t feel inspired. But now that I’m back out on the road and we’re on stage every night and  I’m fired up and I actually wrote a bunch of stuff already sitting in hotel rooms and such. That’s when I get creative. Time just flew by doing this pandemic and I wasn’t really creative at all.  I wish I would have been but you can’t force it.”

When asked about the status of the  Accept Documentary
“I don’t know where it stands, I need to check but I think it came to a halt because there wasn’t enough stuff (video footage) that that we could find. We wanted some fan footage but there really isn’t much fan footage yeah it’s kind of disappointing in a way.” 

“Too Mean To Die – Tour North America 2022” dates w/ Accept

Sept. 29 – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl
Oct. 1 – Houston, TX – The Concert Pub North
Oct. 2 – Fort Worth, TX – Rail Club
Oct. 4 – San Antonio, TX – The Espee Pavilion
Oct. 5 – El Paso, TX – Rockhouse
Oct. 7 – San Luis Obispo, CA – The Coach House
Oct. 8 – West Hollywood, CA – Whisky A Go-Go
Oct. 9 – Las Vegas – Vamp’d
Oct. 11 – Denver, CO – The Venue
Oct. 13 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave Ballroom
Oct. 14 – St. Charles, IL – The Arcada Theater
Oct. 15 – Westland, MI – The Token
Oct. 16 – Toronto, ON – The Phoenix Theater
Oct. 18 – Vineland, NJ – Landis Theater
Oct. 20 – Jim Thorpe, PA – Penns Peak
Oct. 21 – Patchogue, NY – Stereo Garden
Oct. 22 – Peekskill, NY – Paramount Theater
Oct. 23 – Teaneck, NJ – Debonair Music Hall
Oct. 25 – New York City, NY – The Gramercy
Oct. 26 – Derry, NH – Tupelo Music Hall
Oct. 27 – Harrisburg, PA – XL Live
Oct. 29 – Columbus, OH – King Of Clubs

ACCEPT’s Wolf Hoffmann: “I was Sad & Heartbroken when Peter Baltes left but the show must go on”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on December 2, 2020
Posted in: Int. News, News. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to Accept’s co-founder  and  guitarist  Wolf Hoffmann about the bands upcoming studio album ‘Too Mean to Die’ which will be released January 15 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records. 

During the chat Hoffmann also gave his  thoughts on the departure of Peter Baltes, the influence of Eddie Van Halen and revisited the legacy of Accept’s classic albums Restless and Wild and Balls to the Wall 

When asked about  the making and style of new Accept studio album  ‘Too Mean to die’
“Brand new songs in the traditional form of Accept and better than ever. It’s got a whole bunch of stuff on it which surprised a lot of the people. I have heard  comments from people that say it reminds them a little bit of the Blood of the Nations album as far as the vibe is concerned. Another comment I got was there is a lot of surprising variety on this album. When we started recording and writing the songs we never had a goal or a plan of what we are trying to achieve that we must do this or do that, we just basically followed where the songs took us and that kind of shaped the album in the end. “

What were the pros and cons of releasing an album during a pandemic
“Ask me again in three months and I will tell you of how good of an idea it was (laughs). We don”t know when everything is going to go back to normal, if ever, so how long do you postpone everything? Is it really such a good idea to let the album just sit there in the archives until day X which may or not be anytime soon or is it better to give the fans now so they can at least enjoy the music and when the day comes we will see each other on tour again. In a weird way this might actually help album sales because people don’t have to buy concert tickets because they can’t, maybe more people will buy the album ? “

When asked about the absence of long time bassist Peter Baltes
“It was a little strange for me I was kind of heartbroken and sad when it happened but at the end of the day what are you going to do, you have to keep on moving, the show must go on. We got a great new guy on bass his name is Mark Motnik and he actually contributed quite a bit to this album, songwriting wise which really surprised me in a good way. I miss Peter but it has been two years and the ship rolls on what can you do.

When asked if Eddie Van Halen influenced by his guitar playing
“At the end of the day he influenced everybody, anyone who heard him was blown away. He opened up a whole new chapter for every guitar player but I personally was never really influenced by him I was more drawn to Ritchie Blackmore and Uli Jon Roth and other players with a little more of the classical European style of playing.”

ACCEPT’s lineup has also been expanded with the addition of a third guitarist, Philip Shouse, who originally filled in for Uwe Lulis during last year’s “Symphonic Terror” tour, before being asked to join the band permanently.

“Too Mean To Die” was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee with British producer Andy Sneap (JUDAS PRIEST, MEGADETH), who has been responsible for the magnificent studio sound of ACCEPT since 2010.  

Interview with WOLF HOFFMANN: “I’m sure we can all meet again”

Posted by aliblackdiamond on November 25, 2020
Posted in: Interviews. Tagged: , , , , , . 7 Comments

Interview By Alison Booth

During these difficult times, there is always some positivity to be found when it comes to music. So, we are very lucky that metal giants ACCEPT were not going to let a pandemic stop them and have created their forthcoming 16th studio album “Too Mean To Die” over this last year! The album is set for release on 15th January 2021 via Nuclear Blast.

Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth, recently caught up with ACCEPT mastermind and guitar legend Wolf Hoffmann, who was a guest on her radio show Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem at TotalRock. The whole show can be heard at this location. Of course the new album was discussed, plus lots more! You can hear the chat on the audio player below, along with a few excerpts to read:

Discussing the recording of the album, Wolf explained:

“Yeah it’s crazy, we couldn’t finish. We had about half of it recorded and we all went back home to regroup and write the rest of the material and we wanted to meet again later in the year and all of a sudden the countries were closing down and nobody could come or leave. I mean, we could travel within the U.S. but Andy couldn’t come back. So we had no choice but to try to find a remote solution and after lots of trial and error, we found a solution that seemed to work technically quite well. Unfortunately, my internet connection broke down the whole time. But we made it work in the end and when the connection was stable, it worked surprisingly okay. You know, it’s not your first choice, but it worked. It was almost like a Zoom call, it’s kind of okay. It’s not perfect, but it’s still better than nothing if it gets the job done. But you would still want to be in the same room with people you talk to basically.

Wolf discussed how the pandemic has affected ACCEPT:

“Tell me about it, it’s been terrible for us. We had all of last summer’s festivals cancelled and pushed back to 2021. So everything was pushed back to next year for the festivals and then our headline tour was to coincide with the release of the album in January, but that won’t happen. It’s all been pushed back one complete year to 2022. Yeah it’s a long time, so we have to wait and see how things are going.

A lot of bands have been postponing their releases, but we decided that it’s probably not a bad idea to just go ahead and release it now, give the fans at least something to listen to. I’m sure we can all meet again basically, but it serves nobody’s interest if we just wait with the release until we can tour again, because who knows when that is.“

Talking about the new songs:

“‘Symphony Of Pain’ was one of the songs that was actually written first. I had that sort of more or less finished, just sitting there waiting to be performed. And then one of the other earlier songs I did was ‘Undertaker’ which was based on some lyrics Mark wrote. Mark gave me these lyrics and he wrote ’em sort of like a poem without any music in mind, just a bunch of words about an undertaker. I thought it’s kind of a cool subject title and I wrote the music sort of to fit the lyrics and you know, with that little intro it turned out quite a little eery and spooky, which kinda fits the subject obviously and turned out alright.

It’s nice to see people’s reaction. But I’m getting different reactions from journalists and big fans all over the board. Some people like the more moderate songs like ‘Undertaker’ and ‘Overnight Sensation’ and then other people go for the kill basically, with ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ and ‘Too Mean To Die’ – the more in your face metal kinda riffs and songs.“

Wolf talked about the changes in the band:

“Yeah it’s crazy – we lost one guy but gained two new guys, two for one (laughs). I mean with Peter, it’s just sad. It just killed me at the time but I’m sort of over it now, because it’s just after all these forty years, it was a sad departure. But I have to respect it and I mean, people move on and he made the decision. He no longer wanted to be in the band and what can I do? I just move on and move forward. I wouldn’t say Martin stepped right in his footsteps, that would be ridiculous because hey, I played with Peter for forty years. But Martin really is doing his best and he’s doing a tremendous job filling in, he’s great. He even contributed a lot to the songwriting, which took me completely by surprise. He wrote some great songs for this album and that was a blessing, he’s awesome. I really didn’t want the album to be all mine, mine, mine – I didn’t want it to be like a solo album, so I welcomed input from everybody and Martin was the guy who really stepped forward and delivered some cool stuff.“

We discovered what a great player, nice guy and easy going and perfect fit for the band Phil is. You know, when we toured with him on this orchestra tour last year, Headbanger’s Symphony, Symphonic Terror tour and we found out what a great guy he is. We basically didn’t want to let him go after this tour, it’s as simple as that. And we decided, why not have three guitar players? We did some shows together and it worked brilliantly. I gotta say I was not one hundred percent sure it would be as good as it is, but I was actually pleasantly surprised how well it sounds and how well it looks and how well it works on stage. It’s a good camaraderie in the band and yeah, it’s just one more guy, awesome! And he plays a lot of lead on the album too, so we deliberately made enough space for him to be on the album and especially with that in mind for live shows. We gave him enough space to play leads and with trading licks and we do a lot of twin leads together – so there’s a lot of room for Phil on this album.“

Order “Too Mean To Die” here

Official ACCEPT Website

ACCEPT: “Pandemic” Video Reached More Than Three Million Views

Posted by Stargazer on April 30, 2020
Posted in: Int. News. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

ACCEPT‘s ‘Pandamic‘ official video clip reached more than 3 Million views on YouTube, which seems to be one good side effect of COVID 19 pandemic . The band has posted the following statement:

“We all hope that our fans across the world remain safe and healthy wherever they live or work! We all must band together to defeat this nasty virus!!! You are not alone – the ACCEPT Family will STAND TOGETHER and we shall all continue to help and support each other! We will stay connected … today and tomorrow and forever!
The sad reality today: This is A PANDEMIC – but, when we wrote this song ten years ago, we were pushing the idea that it is THE LOVE FOR HEAVY METAL that is spreading like a disease; this is true for the past, the present and the future. Today we believe that when you are head banging’ to our song … that song is a Heavy Metal DISEASE, one that will make your day brighter and help you through this “other” disease! 😊

Let’s unite virtually in metal, stand together STRONG. Please obey social distancing! #stayhome”

Take good care of yourself and your family! Stay safe!
With eternal love,

ACCEPT ❤️”

Teutonic metal gods, ACCEPT released this song through their epic return album,”Blood of the Nations“, which was released on 20 August 2010 via Nuclear Blast. The album was a successful release for the band, which hit the charts on many country like USA, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Japan and Austria. It was also the first album to feature the amazing vocalist Mark Tornillo, who replaced Udo Dirkschneider successfully for the fans.

ACCEPT: Peter Baltes Left The Band

Posted by Stargazer on November 28, 2018
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A shocking piece of news hits the metal universe today; ACCEPT‘s founding member, Peter Baltes has recently revealed that he has quit the band! He posted the following statement:

“To all ACCEPT fans: I hereby like to announce my departure as bass player from ACCEPT. I have been with the band from the very beginning. Many of you have been there as well. I like to thank you all for the great years we shared together. Keep it metal.”

His old friend and another founding member of the band, Wolf Hoffmann has also posted his statement on his official Facebook page:

“We spent four decades together and went through thick and thin, ups and downs and I remember some incredible moments on stage. There was a blind understanding between us, personally and musically, that is very rare in this business!

Looking back, I will forever cherish the carefree early years, the countless hours we spent writing songs, goofing around or roaming the cities together on tour – just having a good ol’time!

Especially these last 10 years, after the revival of ACCEPT being so much fun and so successful that I thought we would continue forever and sail into the proverbial sunset together – maybe until one of us would drop dead on stage. But I guess I was wrong, it wasn’t meant to be.

To see Peter leave ACCEPT now saddens me immensely but there’s nothing I can do but to wish him well – hoping that this is the right decision for him and that he will find whatever he is looking for …

I will certainly miss my musical brother!
One thing is certain, however :
ACCEPT will continue full steam ahead !!
Wolf”

 

“And there are days that you start them with some shocking and sad news… ” Chief Editor of Metal Shock Finland, Mohsen “Stargazer” Fayazi stated, “But I know Wolf Hoffmann and his passion for Metal. He’ll do it full steam ahead! Wishing him, Peter, all other band members and of course Gaby, the best of luck and success!”

The band has recently released a live album, “Symphonic Terror – Live At Wacken 2017” on November 23rd, 2018 via Nuclear Blast. This album is a unique one, features a unique ACCEPT show, shot on August 3, 2017 at the Heavy Metal Mecca,Wacken Open Air 2017, where the band played the biggest and most extraordinary show of its career in front of 80,000, on top of thousands more fans watching via a live stream.

Wolf Hoffmann: “ACCEPT will be touring with an Orchestra all over the world in 2019”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on September 30, 2018
Posted in: Int. News. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

TheMetalVoice-WolfHofmann

For The Metal Voice former Anthrax singer Neil Turbin interviewed ACCEPT guitarist Wolf Hoffmann in Pasadena, California USA at The Rose on September 29 2018. Wolf Hoffmann spoke about the bands upcoming plans to tour with an orchestra all over the world, new album update and their new live album Symphonic Terror Live at Wacken 2017 that will be released on November 23 2018 via Nuclear Blast.

Watch the interview here:

When asked about the new live album Symphonic Terror Live at Wacken 2017
“It’s going to be a live DVD/CD of the show we did live at Wacken with 50 piece orchestra it was incredible, I always wanted to do that and it finally all came together when we played at Wacken a 2 hour set. I also played some stuff from my solo album ‘Headbangers Symphony’ and we played a bunch of Accept songs that were never done with orchestra. I have always been a fan of classical music however I was never a classically trained musician. My solo album was more like a tribute from an outsider. I just grew up wanting to make noise with Marshall stacks. A lot of these classical pieces are beautiful and I always thought it would be so cool to have a bunch of violins on stage and combine the two worlds.”

When asked if they plan to tour with an orchestra
“The orchestra at Wacken was meant to be a one off but then everybody loved it so much and we loved it so much he decided to bring this out on the road with us somehow because that what it waere it was meant to be. So we will be performing with an orchestra next year all over the world. It will start in Europe then Russia then the rest of the world.”

When asked about details of an upcoming studio album
“We have been so busy touring and with the classical album coming out so no time yet to work on. Yes we will make a new album but when we will get started I don’t know yet. I can’t write on the road. Then will be a time when I set the time aside and focus and dig into it. The musical direction is not going to change dramatically we don’t want to, we haven’t changed our style on the last four albums.

When asked about his writing style
“I am not trying to write any different I’m trying to write in the frame of mind that we had back in the day, how we felt back then and trying to recapture that even though it’s 40 years ago. I think we found out style and we are trying to write songs that could have been written 30 years ago. We are trying to write old school songs with modern tools and technology. It sounds simple but it really isn’t. We are not trying to reinvent the wheel but we want to build on what we have.