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:
ACCEPT‘sguitar powerhouse, WOLF HOFFMANN, is set to release his second solo album entitled “Headbangers Symphony”, completely dedicated to the grand classic maestros, on July 1st, 2016 through Nuclear Blast. After the first single, ‘Scherzo’, was released last week, the first album trailer has been launched today, in which Wolf presents details about the creation of the album. Check it out below:
“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)
‘Scherzo’:
Pre-orders for “Headbangers Symphony” are available here.
ACCEPT’sguitar powerhouse, WOLF HOFFMANN, is set to release his second solo album entitled “Headbangers Symphony”, completely dedicated to the grand classic maestros, on July 1st, 2016 through Nuclear Blast. In support of this record, the first single, ‘Scherzo’, has been released. Listen to Wolf‘s interpretation of Ludwig van Beethoven‘s composition below:
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)
Wolf Hoffmann has a passion. His life-long love and dedication to heavy metal music is documented in dozens of albums spanning four decades with his long time heavy metal band ACCEPT. But beyond heavy metal, Wolf has an incessant craving for the classics, yes, the ones written decades and centuries ago.
Classical music has always been an influence – albeit limited – on ACCEPT‘s Teutonic approach to rock and heavy metal. However, it wasn’t until 1997 during a extended hiatus from ACCEPT, that Wolf Hoffmann finally had the chance to fully explore and fulfill this interest by recording his first astounding solo album “Classical”, a record filled with his rock guitar driven interpretations of some of classical music’s most loved compositions.
“I have always incorporated classical music in my songwriting with ACCEPT, especially with »Metal Heart«, but I constantly felt there was so much more that I could do and I did not want to overload ACCEPT or force it in any way. I always knew I could make a whole record of it and that’s how the first record »Classical« was born. Even today, fans tell me that they are still listening to it, that’s why it is so fantastic now to do another one.”
“Headbangers Symphony” is truly a bold statement by a genuine musician who simply refused to rest on his laurels and continues to push and challenge himself.
“I am just so excited about »Headbangers Symphony«. It has taken a long, long time but here we are, it’s done, finally!”Wolf is just bursting with vigor as he talks about his latest labor of love. But why now? “It’s truly coincidental, after we completed the last ACCEPT tour, I finally had the time to finish it. I started this a few years ago. The early recordings have been sitting in my archives in my home studio for years, almost completed. The reality was that with the continued success of ACCEPT, I was only able to work on it when ACCEPT was not recording or touring.”
The prevalent early challenge was to pick the most suitable compositions. This was an exploratory process that only increased Wolf‘s adoration for the classics. “I always listen to classical music, it’s always playing throughout my house. I have a huge collection of classics and as I listen – often at random, I take notes if something truly strikes me. When I notice that this or that could work in a translation to rock or heavy metal, I remember it and I pursue it! This has been going on for a long time!”
There are several reasons for the necessary experimentations that faced Wolf. Most classical compositions were written to be performed by a full orchestra. The fluid timing, those multiple, complex layers and sections that stretched out for lengthy periods, classical music was simply never designed to be played to the rigid beat so prevalent in rock ‘n’ roll.
“Headbangers Symphony” showcases an overabundance of highly skilled improvisations. Wolf took the main pieces, and then wrote riffs that fit them. Lastly, in the grand hard rock tradition, he layered a guitar solo over it. He shaped the sound into a quite adventurous elegance, but the key themes of the originals remained.
The first volume had a focus on the better known pieces; the second – “Headbangers Symphony” – takes a similar approach. “In general, it does follow the same path,” admits Wolf, “but this time I did try to add a couple lesser known compositions. Mostly though, listeners will say, hey, I know that melody… so it’s pretty much the same path as the »Classical« record. It was my desire to record melodies I like and melodies people recognise.”
Now that the album is done, Wolf is proud looking back and is pleased with this true labour of love; something he has wanted to do since the first record “Classical” came out almost 20 years ago. While ACCEPT‘s Peter Baltes added several impressive bass lines, and other notable guest musicians made an appearance as well, the bulk of the work was completed by himself and Italian musician and arranger Melo Mafali.
“There are two major categories,”Wolf elaborates. “First the heavier stuff like Beethoven, the bombastic, full force epics on which you can simply shred along. Of course then there are the ballads, slower compositions that bring out the deeper feelings in each listener.”
The highlights on “Headbangers Symphony” are plentiful and easy to pin point. The album kicks off with ‘Scherzo’ from the well-known ‘9th Symphony’ by Ludwig v. Beethoven. Many listeners might recognise the opening riff from the ACCEPT song ‘Teutonic Terror’. “Back in 2009,”Wolf explains, “when we started working on the songs for the »Blood Of The Nations« album, I played the classical demos to our producer Andy Sneap. He liked that riff a lot and insisted on using it for the album. So we wrote ‘Teutonic Terror’ using this “borrowed” riff.”
Other highlights follow in rapid succession: ‘Night On Bald Mountain’ by Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky is a very dramatic dark song on the theme of a witches’ Sabbath, a perfect fit for Wolf‘s “metal treatment”. ‘Symphony No. 40’ by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be immediately recognisable. “It’s a little more up-tempo, pretty happy, typical for Mozart. Not mean and heavy as most of the other stuff,”Wolf points out. Additional highpoints include Wolf‘s interpretations of such masterworks as Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake’, ‘Pathétique’ also from Ludwig v. Beethoven, ‘Méditation’ from the opera “Thais” by French composer Jules Massenet, and of course the aforementioned ‘Madame Butterfly’.
All in all, the eleven compositions on “Headbangers Symphony” paint the perfect portrait of Wolf‘s life-long passion for the classics and his adoration for heavy metal. “I worked so much and so long on this until I felt it was ready. Now it is and I am thrilled and proud. This is my baby, my labor of love, ready for me to set it free.”
Artist: Wolf Hoffmann Album: Headbangers Symphony Label: Nuclear Blast Records Release Date: 2016
Track List:
Scherzo
Night On Bald Mountain
Je Crois Entendre Encore
Double Cello Concerto in G Minor
Adagio
Symphony No. 40
Swan Lake
Madame Butterfly
Pathétique
Meditation
Air On The G String
He released his first solo album, “Classical” in 1997, which I found a treasure chest of musical magic from the first listen. Eleven songs sit next to each other in the chest just like some colourful and shiny jewel stones, each of them with its own unique colour and charm. So it is indeed great to see that Wolf Hoffmann is going to release another solo album, which is entitled reasonably “Headbangers Symphony”. It has eleven songs in its track list too and it is set to be released on 1st July 2016.
Let the classical music rock, ‘Scherzo’ is the first in the line and it is not a “joke” at all. It is a heavy metal adaptation of the very famous second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No.9. ‘Scherzo’ is an extract of music from a larger piece, often in 3/4 time and here comes the challenge, as heavy metal music is usually written in 4/4. This sounds like a victory as Wolf could win the challenge and also he made it back with his second solo album. I know why Mr Hoffmann chose this beautiful piece of art as the first track; this song is as memorable and magnificent as ‘Teutonic Terror’, the riff of which you can easily recognise here. How can I forget that epic moment when ACCEPT came back with the “Blood Of The Nations” album and now Wolf Hoffmann’s ‘Scherzo’ promises one more great restart!
The second track in this album is ‘Night On Bald Mountain’ where maybe Wolf Hoffmann’s sense of humour is limited only to the title, as the music is very serious. I always see colours or sometime even more complex, some pictures or images when I am listening to music. Whilst listening to this track I see images of burning magma upon a high mountain, with a very strong wind. The images continue with some anxiety and anguish type feelings and I suddenly find myself with no limits of time or space, “OMG!” I can see the whole of the human’s history of pain with the eyes wide shut and witches dressed in black are escorting me. It is absolutely a great version of Mussorgsky’s ‘Night On Bare Mountain’ and Wolf was brilliantly successful to connect it to the next song by an invisible bridge, made not by music but by feelings. ‘Les Pêcheurs de Perles’ is indeed one of the most famous and emotional pieces in Western opera by Georges Bizet. Wolf Hoffmann’s adapted version of ‘Act 1’ of this masterpiece, ’Je Crois Entendre Encore’, is like a peaceful dark blue sea under a pale blue sky. While the waves are moving by the soft hands of the wind, I feel like a feather drowning in a limitless ocean of tears and emotions.
Vivaldi’s music has always been a symbol of the harmony of life to me. The next track on “Headbangers Symphony” is ‘Double Cello Concerto In G Minor’, where Wolf delivers a headbanging version of Antonio Vivaldi’s masterpiece, with almost the same name. As I followed and observed ACCEPT’s work precisely, this song must be a special song for Wolf, as they always seem to place the most special song as the fourth track in their track lists, at least on their albums from 2009. The coordination between Wolf Hoffmann’s guitar and other instruments, especially the orchestral ones, is stunning, so much so that I started to think that Mr Hoffmann tried to have a musical discussion here with Mr Vivaldi.
Jimi Hendrix was the first one who could sing with his guitar, Ritchie Blackmore was the next one and Wolf Hoffmann belongs to the next generation and to those where not many can do the same and that is the most necessary skill for playing the next song, named ‘Adagio’. I have always thought that Tomaso Albinoni was a kind of super-human or an alien as I can hardly believe his ‘Adagio in G minor’ is a work of mankind! Indeed, Wolf Hoffmann was successful to create a new version of this masterpiece with his signature of playing the electric guitar and the instrument arrangement. Absolutely loyal to the main theme, but he manages to bring more emotional feelings into it. The peaceful music flows through my mind and with my closed eyes I find myself somewhere far far away from this galaxy.
The sixth track in the list, ‘Symphony No. 40’, is my favourite one and after lots of efforts of searching different dictionaries I still cannot find the words to describe it. This masterpiece is ten times more magnificent than magnificent with indescribable elegance, Wolf Hoffmann created such an uplifting piece of neoclassical metal music. This adaptation of Mozart’s ‘Symphony No.40’ will give a huge amount of joy to both classical music lovers and also metalheads around the world!
No matter if the love between Odette and Siegfried was strong enough to defeat the curse or not, their story is one of the most romantic. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Swan Lake” was and still is indeed an inspiring piece of art for many musicians and perhaps you have heard a few different versions by different artists. Now, luckily we have Wolf Hoffmann who brings us a unique one. The tempo is a little bit higher which makes it more rock and roll style at the beginning, but it will also go further and become a traditional heavy metal piece of music and you can find Wolf’s trademark through the whole song. The next track in the line is another beautiful piece of art, “Madame Butterfly” which is a power ballad adaptation of Italian composer Puccini’s opera of the same name. The emotive electric guitars backed by drums create such a dreamlike and stunning atmosphere from a drama story, of which you will not have heard a version such as this before.
In this album, Beethoven rocks. two head banger heavy metal adaption songs from his symphonies are created by Wolf like three powerful monsters who are ruling this fantastic world. ‘Pathetique’ is the title of the ninth track in “Headbangers Symphony”. Wolf seems to have found a tunnel in time and brought back 27 year old Ludwig to strike the heads and bang them furiously with a new exceptional version of ‘Sonata Pathétique’. Perhaps after some hard rocking and rolling, you may need to give your necks some rest, so here comes ‘Meditation’. It starts with an aura of peacefulness with the piano and electric guitar, so just close your eyes, relax and follow the music to eternity. This adaptation of Jules Massenet’s ‘Méditation (Thaïs)’ is as good as the original one, except that it is an overdriven guitar singing instead of the solo violin.
You may have had those emotional moments when you had to leave a beautiful place or a good friend but you didn’t want to and the last piece evokes that kind of feeling. The final stage of this awesomeness is ‘Air On The G String’ where Johann Sebastian Bach at last joins the party, just to say farewell and close the curtain. Wolf played the guitar perfectly and smoothly which may leave some tears on your eyes. But don’t get too upset, there is always a replay button to press!
It is all about balance, good or bad, black or white, happiness or sadness … this world’s nature demands balance and it is what you can find in Wolf Hoffmann’s second solo album perfectly too. There are soft and mellow songs and there are also energetic and heavy ones, so almost everything your nature needs. “Headbangers Symphony” is not only a wonderful musical album, but it is a healthy food for beautiful souls and minds and it is one of those albums which you want to listen to over and over again.
