It’s Christmas time and a time for celebrating, even if you’re alone! Aside from watching films and making love, we all love listening to our favourite music at full volume. Our Chief Editor has made a flammable list for you to rock with your loved ones, friends or even by yourself!
“I’ve made this for almost everyone – for those who have fallen in love this year or those who are still together after many years, those who lost their loves or friends or family members, those who are apart from each other and those who have new family members. And for those who are tired of this sad and horrible year and wish a brighter and better 2017. So here you go, rock it and don’t forget you love your neighbours, so rock it louder!
Merry Christmas!
Mohsen Stargazer Fayazi.”
1. Royal Hunt – ‘Heart On A Platter’ (“Devil’s Dozen” 2015) 2. Wolf – ‘Love At First Bite’ (“Ravenous” 2009) 3. Twilight Force – ‘To the Stars’ (“Heroes Of Mighty Magic” 2016) 4. Kingdom Come – ‘Loving You’ (“Kingdom Come” 1988) 5. Myrath – ‘Through Your Eyes’ (“Legacy” 2016) 6. Wolf Hoffmann – ‘Symphony No. 40’ (“Headbangers Symphony” 2016) 7. Judas Priest – ‘Between The Hammer & The Anvil’ (“Painkiller” 1990) 8. Iced Earth – ‘Watching Over Me’ (“Something Wicked This Way Comes” 1998) 9. Gamma Ray – ‘Rebellion In Dreamland’ (“Land Of The Free” 1995) 10. Accept – ‘Shadow Soldiers’ (“Stalingrad” 2012) 11. Black Sabbath – ‘Heaven And Hell’ (“Heaven And Hell” 1980) In memory of Ronnie James Dio R.I.P. 12. Queen – ‘The Show Must Go on’ (“Innuendo” 1991) In memory of Freddie Mercury R.I.P. 13. Motörhead – ‘Ace Of Spades’ (“Motörhead” 1980) In memory of Lemmy Kilmister R.I.P.
With the sad news today, we would like to remember Rick Parfitt from the legendary Status Quo, R.I.P.
As their fans know very well, metal giants ACCEPT never rest on their laurels! The band are in the middle of recording their highly anticipated next album and are also set to release a brand new live package “Restless And Live” on 13th January via Nuclear Blast. This package will include the entire show ACCEPT played at Bang Your Head Festival 2015 on Blu-ray/DVD plus two live CDs, with different recordings from during the European tour.
Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth, recently celebrated the fourth anniversary of her radio show Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem on http://www.totalrock.com. Metal veteran, guitarist Wolf Hoffmann joined the celebrations on the show to chat about the new “Restless And Live” release, the forthcoming new ACCEPT album and much more! The whole radio show will soon be available to hear at this location, but you can hear the chat with Wolf (plus a song in between!) on the audio player below, along with a few excerpts to read:
Discussing “Restless And Live”:
“We wanted to have our own production featured as much as possible for the DVD, we didn’t really know how it was going to turn out. We just watched the footage afterwards and thought ‘wow, it’s awesome!’ looks really good, the edits are really cool, so we decided to release it. We figured it’s a good time for a live DVD.
What I think is important to mention too was that we didn’t just do the cheap way and did the audio CD from the exact same footage as the DVD – no, we used recordings from all over the world and across Europe. There’s a lot of material on the audio CD’s that’s completely different from the DVD part. Andy Sneap mixed them all, it took him forever, it’s a lot of different tracks! ”
Talking about the forthcoming tour with SABATON:
“I think this is gonna be a fun experience for us. It’s one of those things we spontaneously agreed to because it also gave us a chance to leave the studio for a while. We’ve been locked up in the studio working on the new Accept album for some time now. We can actually leave all that, go on the road, have a little bit of fun! It’s not our tour, it’s really Sabaton’s tour – we can just go out there and enjoy playing for a while in front of audiences, then go back to the studio and finish what we started.”
Working with Andy Sneap and the new ACCEPT album:
“This is the fourth time in a row with the same producer, it’s a world record for Accept for sure! Every time we work together it turns out fantastic, we love what the final result is. We have a great working relationship, so why change it if it works, right?“
“The only thing I can tell you is that it feels as Accept as ever. It feels maybe a slightly bit heavier for now, but these things are always hard to say when you’re in the middle of it. Man, it’s gonna sound like Accept as always, there’s not gonna be any weird surprises – we’re not gonna go soft, we’re not gonna go jazz! We’re really just trying to get better at what we already do.
We’re trying our best to get it done in time for next year, July or August. We’ve got a bunch of basic tracks done, a lot of vocals are done, so we’re looking pretty good at this point.”
“Headbangers Symphony” fan reaction:
“I didn’t know how it was going to go, but everybody loves it, it’s amazing! People are much more open minded and into this kinda stuff than I thought they would be.”
On more future classical work:
“There might well be, there’s a time and a place for all that. Right now I’m working on the new Accept album and when that’s done and we’re touring with it, maybe by that time I start thinking about new ideas for another classical project, I’d love to do it. First and foremost I’d like to do some shows with it though, that would be the more immediate thing for me to think about, to perform this stuff live on stage and get some shows under our belt. That would be fantastic and what I’m really looking forward to because this music’s really meant to be played live, I can’t wait for that to happen!
There are some definite plans next year, I can’t tell you yet. I can officially tell you it will happen.”
Wolf Hoffmann will celebrate his birthday on 10th December, so we wish him a very Happy Birthday!
For more information on Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem, visit the official Facebook page here and the official website at this location.
Metal icons, ACCEPT, recently made the release of their new live package called “Restless And Live”, public. This package will include the entire show ACCEPT played at Bang Your Head!!! Festival 2015 on Blu-ray/DVD plus two Live CDs with different recordings during the European tour. The release will be available in stores from January 13th, 2017 (Nuclear Blast). To provide you with a taster of this new masterpiece, the band led by axe man Wolf Hoffmann presents their first trailer for their upcoming Blu-ray/DVD today. In this clip, Wolf and ACCEPT producer Andy Sneap talk about the setlist and about new as well as old classics from ACCEPT. If you don’t want to miss this stimulating discussion.
“When you do a live show you obviously have an opener and an ending, and in between you only have a certain amount of songs that you can choose from, because especially at festivals you only get a limited amount of time to play. When we do headline shows we have a little more room to play with and we can pick a few more songs.”, comments Wolf Hoffmann. “What is interesting to me is, that when you listen to the stuff back to back there doesn’t seem to be any discrepancy between the stuff that we recorded or wrote 30 years ago and our more recent material! And the fans tell me the same thing, it really blends together rather well.”
Blu-ray / DVD
01. Stampede
02. Stalingrad
03. London Leatherboys
04. Restless And Wild
05. Dying Breed
06. Final Journey
07. Shadow Soldiers
08. Losers And Winners
09. 200 Years
10. Midnight Mover
11. No Shelter
12. Princess Of The Dawn
13. Dark Side Of My Heart
14. Pandemic
15. Fast As A Shark
16. Metal Heart
17. Teutonic Terror
18. Balls To The Wall
CD1
01. Stampede
02. Stalingrad
03. Hellfire
04. London Leatherboys
05. Living For Tonite
06. 200 Years
07. Demon’s Night
08. Dying Breed
09. Final Journey
10. From The Ashes We Rise
11. Losers And Winners
12. No Shelter
13. Shadow Soldiers
14. Midnight Mover
CD2
01. Starlight
02. Restless And Wild
03. Son Of A Bitch
04. Pandemic
05. Dark Side Of My Heart
06. The Curse
07. Flash Rockin’ Man
08. Bulletproof
09. Fall Of The Empire
10. Fast As A Shark
11. Metal Heart
12. Teutonic Terror
13. Balls To The Wall
4LP (140g, 33 RPM) Side A
01. Stampede
02. Stalingrad
03. Hellfire Side B
01. London Leatherboys
02. Living For Tonite
03. 200 Years
04. Demon’s Night Side C
01. Dying Breed
02. Final Journey
03. From The Ashes We Rise Side D
01. Losers And Winners
02. No Shelter
03. Shadow Soldiers
04. Midnight Mover Side E
01. Starlight
02. Restless And Wild
03. Son Of A Bitch
04. Pandemic Side F
01. Dark Side Of My Heart
02. The Curse
03. Flash Rockin’ Man Side G
01. Bulletproof
02. Fall Of The Empire
03. Fast As A Shark Side H
01. Metal Heart
02. Teutonic Terror
03. Balls To The Wall
Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke with Accept guitarist Wolf Hoffmann about his new classical solo album entitled Headbangers Symphony which was released on July 1st 2016 on Nuclear Blast
On the release of his new Classical/ Metal solo album that was ten years in the making
”I’m super duper excited, I couldn’t be more excited to be quite honest. It’s been in the making for a long time finally presented to the world. My favorite pieces on the album are the first two tracks ‘Scherzo’ and ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ and that’s maybe why I put them at the front of the cd. I think they turned out to be really metal . They were pretty aggressive and in your face and seemed to be perfect openers for this album. This album is just a random collection of some my favorite classical tunes.”
“With a lot of these pieces I take the main theme and start playing it on electric guitar and see how it feels and then I try to think what else I can come up with that sort of makes sense to me. I try to say to myself what would I do this if it were my idea and then I just go crazy and see what other riffs fit that mood and what other stuff I can come up with that sort of would make sense to me and then I treat it as my own piece in a way. The only big difference between the previous classical solo I did was that I am using orchestral players on this album. I hired a full blown orchestra in the Czech Republic. It turned out great and it was well worth the effort and the money time spent.
When asked if Accept would even consider doing a symphonic recording
“You never know I wouldn’t rule it out at this point. I’ve always said no but now that this album is out and sounds quite heavy and I see how well heavy guitar riffs and orchestra really blend together. I’m really encouraged to go there one day to play some orchestral stuff with Accept, you never know. ”
“One thing is for sure I would definitely like to perform this classical stuff with an orchestra live somewhere on stage. On time special occasion gig some where the whole material with an orchestra on stage with a big production, light show. That’s what my dream is, I can just picture it in my head and i would love to make it come true.”
On how Brexit will affect metal bands
“Well it will make things a little more complicated getting in and out of the country for example if you are planning on doing a UK tour in the future , you will probably have to get work permits and visas and things like that and have to deal with customs and you have to pay hefty fees to get some lawyers, some immigration people to work on it, it’s just a pain. The EU did away with all of that so it was beautiful you can do a whole European tour and not have to worry about anything you just go from country to country , without any paperwork any proof that trouble.”
ACCEPT‘sguitar powerhouse, WOLF HOFFMANN, is set to release his second solo album entitled “Headbangers Symphony”, completely dedicated to the grand classic maestros, next week through Nuclear Blast. In joyful anticipation of this new record, the second trailer has been released today. Watch it here:
If you missed part I, watch it here:
“Headbangers Symphony” Track Listing:
01. Scherzo (L. v. Beethoven)
02. Night On Bald Mountain (M. Mussorgsky)
03. Je Crois Entendre Encore (G. Bizet)
04. Double Cello Concerto in G Minor (A. Vivaldi)
05. Adagio (T. Albinoni)
06. Symphony No. 40 (W. A. Mozart )
07. Swan Lake (P. Tchaikovsky)
08. Madame Butterfly (G. Puccini)
09. Pathétique (L. v. Beethoven)
10. Meditation (J. Massenet)
11. Air On The G String (J. S. Bach)
Pre-orders for “Headbangers Symphony” are available here.
Since the explosive comeback of ACCEPT, he created even more of a great reputation with his guys in the band, releasing three successful and stunning heavy metal albums and played eye catching and headbanging concerts around the world. Now Wolf Hoffmann is going to see the release of his new solo album, “Headbangers Symphony”, twenty years after his first solo release, “Classical”. This will surely be another explosive comeback for the fans and most likely another success in his career.
The album is set to be released on July 1st 2016 via Nuclear Blast and it is indeed a masterpiece in the Neoclassical metal genre. I have had a chance to hold another interview with Wolf and discuss “Headbangers Symphony” with him. Some excerpts can be read below:
Starting our conversation about the process of the album from the very beginning, discussing which song was the first on the album, Wolf explained:
“Oh my gosh, I don’t even recall that to be honest, that’s a good question, that I don’t know. I don’t even precisely know when I started on this process – I think I started gathering ideas for a follow up album about ten years ago I would say and it developed step by step from there.
First it was just an idea, then I found this guy Melo Mafali. First, before I found Melo I was actually co-operating with some other guys, but I was never very happy with the results. ‘Cos I knew I needed a helper and a companion from the classical world, because I’m not classically trained and I can’t write scores for orchestras – I can hear it in my head, but I can’t physically do it myself. So, first of all I was looking for someone to work with and I went through several people and then I finally tracked down this Melo guy, who I knew from before. We started working and that’s when it all started to happen very fast. That must’ve been around 2007 or 8.”
What were the difficulties he faced during the writing of this new album, Mr Hoffmann answered:
“Musically it wasn’t really that difficult to be honest, it went really smooth. We did a round of demos initially all these years ago, I think we did about five or six songs in a week or so and it was really not that difficult, because I was so fond of these compositions that I sorta knew in my head what I wanted to hear. And I just came up with some riffs that work around it and we worked on those arrangements until we were happy and we did all of that just on the computer, you know just the two of us with a drum computer and I played guitar.
Melo plays keyboards and he plays string sounds and that’s how we worked. So we built a rough demo and then the big tragedy if you want, was that Accept got back together, right in the middle of all this. And then all of a sudden I had no more time and it just sat there for years, untouched. It was painfully slow because I was always busy, poor Melo always had to wait for this. At some point we both thought ‘this is never gonna happen!’ (laughs)”
We continued our conversation on “Headbangers Symphony”, you can listen to the whole of it on the Audio Player below, but Wolf astounded me by a kind of tragic news; Romeo and Juliet are left behind?! Check out how Wolf Hoffmann surprised me:
“Devin Townsend played a bass track for me. Unfortunately, that track did not even make it onto the album yet because there were some legal issues. It’s a great track which broke my heart that we couldn’t make it on the album, we will release it soon. It’s Romeo and Juliet, by Prokofiev, it’s ‘Dance Of The Knights’, it’s almost one of my favourites and Devin Townsend played an amazing bass track on it.
The problem is that the author has only been dead 68 or close to 70 years, something like that, so it’s not quite over the limit of where it becomes public domain. So, instead of taking any chances, the label decided to ask for permission and the permission never came, because it was dragging on and on and on. And in the meantime they decided we have to go ahead and release the album without the track. And now of course we got the permission from the family to use it, but it’s too late now, the album’s already printed.
The song turned out really good and so it’s too bad it didn’t make it – it fit on there really well, it rounded it off even more. But hey, it is what it is and sometimes you gotta move on and suck it up, what else can you do.”
Wolf Hoffmann has another surprise for his fans, he and a professional team have been working on a new video, a clip which you may have also wished to have for “Classical” too, as I did. Check out Wolf’s statement on this subject:
“Ah you got some spies here somewhere! It’s supposed to be a bit of a surprise, so I probably shouldn’t even say what it is, I think we had a pretty cool idea how to present this song. The video is called Bald Mountain, I can tell you that already. It’s hopefully coming out sometime soon, we’re at the editing phase right now and it’s gonna be released just before, around the release date of the album I think.”
You can listen to the whole of this interview on the Audio Player below:
Wolf Hoffmann’s “Headbangers Symphony” is available for pre-order at the following links:
