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Video Premiere: ACCEPT’s ‘Stampede’

Manos Spanos
"Stampede", the new video from German/American metallers ACCEPT, can be seen below. The song is taken from the band's new album, "Blind Rage", which will be released on August 15 (postponed from the previously announced July 18) via Nuclear Blast. Like its two predecessors, 2010's "Blood Of The Nations" and 2012's "Stalingrad", the new CD was helmed by British producer Andy Sneap, who has previously worked with MEGADETH, EXODUS, TESTAMENT, ARCH ENEMY and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE. The cover artwork was created by Daniel Goldsworthy. "Blind Rage" standard version track listing: 01. Stampede 02. Dying Breed 03. Dark Side Of My Heart 04. Fall Of The Empire 05. Trail Of Tears 06. Wanna Be Free 07. 200 Years 08. Bloodbath Mastermind 09. From The Ashes We Rise 10. The Curse 11. Final Journey The limited-edition digipak will include either a bonus DVD or Blu-ray disc. It features ACCEPT's complete April 12, 2013 concert at Teatro Caupolicán in Santiago, Chile during the "Stalingrad" tour. Bonus DVD / Blu-ray disc track listing: 01. Intro 02. Hung, Drawn & Quartered 03. Hellfire 04. Restless & Wild 05. Losers & Winners 06. Stalingrad 07. Breaker 08. Bucket Full Of Hate 09. Monsterman 10. Shadow Soldier 11. Amamos La Vida 12. Guitar Solo Wolf 13. Neon Nights 14. Bulletproof 15. Aiming High 16. Princess Of The Dawn 17. Up To The Limit 18. No Shelter 19. Pandemic 20. Fast As A Shark 21. Metal Heart 22. Teutonic Terror 23. Balls To The Wall A single, "Stampede", will precede the full-length album on July 11, available digitally and as a limited vinyl edition. You can pre-order "Blind Rage" from the Nuclear Blast webshop. ACCEPT will promote "Blind Rage" with a European headlining tour which will kick off on September 19 in Copenhagen, Denmark. In a recent interview with Metal Assault, ACCEPT guitarist Wolf Hoffmann stated about the musical direction of "Blind Rage": "I think what we have here is really a collection of totally typical ACCEPT songs with t
06 min read

MARK TORNILLO Says Next ACCEPT Album Will Have ‘Even More Of A Classic Feel’ Than Last Two Did

Manos Spanos
On March 10, journalist Mitch Lafon conducted an interview with ACCEPT and TT QUICK singer Mark Tornillo. You can now watch the chat below. On the progress of the recording sessions for the new ACCEPT album: "I literally finished singing the vocal tracks a week ago Sunday." On whether fans of the first two ACCEPT albums with Tornillo on vocals — 2010's "Blood Of The Nations" and 2012's "Stalingrad" — will be happy with the musical direction of the new ACCEPT album: "Yeah, I would say. It's more of the same, but even more of a classic feel than the other ones, I think. There's some songs on this one, I think, that when you hear the opening riffs, you're gonna go, 'Wow! This could have been on 'Balls To The Wall'. This could have been on 'Metal Heart'.' It's just very classic-sounding stuff, classic-sounding ACCEPT stuff. But with a lot of very diverse things on this record as well. I mean, you've got the heavies and the double basses, but some things that, I think, are a little different." On whether the songwriting process for the new ACCEPT album was more comfortable for him, having done two albums already with the band prior to this one: "It is more comfiortable for me. I think it's a little more comfortable for everyone. 'Stalingrad' was the one, I think, that threw us all for a loop, more than anything, because we had set the bar so high with 'Blood Of The Nations'. And we were really searching for a niche with 'Blood Of The Nations' still, searching for an identity for the band. So 'Stalingrad' was actually more of a challenge, I think, than this one was. We really kind of settled in with this one and are not afraid to take a chance here and there now too. So we'll see what happens. I'm loving it. So I'm just hoping the fans will feel the same way." On the status of the the first official ACCEPT documentary, "Acceptology", featuring footage from ACCEPT's humble beginnings as a garage band in their German home town of Solingen in the late '70s, their '80s "Balls To The Wall" "glory days," and all the way up their most successful reincarnation with Tornillo: "'Acceptology' is still being recorded. Actually, Stefan Kaufmann [former ACCEPT drummer and U.D.O. guitarist] is spearheading that whole project. So I know that we did some extensive video during the recording of this album that's gonna be on some of that stuff. But there are two live DVDs now; there's one from South America, and there's one from Bang Your Head!!! festival last year in Germany. Now, the way I understand it, one of these is going to be released with the new album [as a bonus disc]. I'm not sure which one — I think possibly the German one; I don't know all the details — but the way I understand it, there will be a live DVD with the new album. 'Acceptology', I'm not sure when that's gonna be released and how it's gonna be released." On TT QUICK's future plans: "We've talked about [doing some recording and scheduling some more dates]. There's talk about us maybe doing a few shows, actually, this summer while I'm home. I'm gonna be here, now that we're done with recording the new ACCEPT album, I'm gonna be in the neighborhood now until probably the end of July when we're gonna start touring again [with ACCEPT]. So it gives us some time to do some TT QUICK stuff this summer. David [Dipietro, TT QUICK guitarist] and I have actually been throwing ideas back and forth, so there's a good possibility we may just do an EP, release it digitally and see what happens." Tornillo's pre-ACCEPT band TT QUICK will reunite once again for a performance at the "Rock N' Roll Heaven Presents" event on May 3 at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey. Also appearing on the bill will be KING'S X, THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX and the BLACK SABBATH cover band BLACK REIGN. This time around, TT QUICK will play a full set after their "teaser" appearance at Rock N' Roll Heaven and the Old Bridge Metal Militia's reunion concert and fundraiser in May 2013 to benefit the victims of Superstorm Sandy. TT QUICK was a popular club band during the 1980s in the New York and New Jersey area and was known for the guitar work of David Dipietro and the powerful vocals of Mark Tornillo. Dipietro's skills were especially singled out as he had given lessons to both Zakk Wylde of the OZZY OSBOURNE band and SKID ROW's Dave Sabo. TT QUICK disbanded and later reunited sporadically and released a few more albums, including a live CD from one of their reunion gigs ("Thrown Together Live") and a studio effort, "Ink", which came out in 2000.
05 min read

DESTRUCTION’s SCHMIER Says He Is Collaborating With ACCEPT Members On New Project

Manos Spanos
"Met Al Metal" — Israel's metal radio show hosted by brothers Lior and Niv Peleg — recently conducted an interview with DESTRUCTION bassist/vocalist Schmier. During the chat, which can be streamed using the audio player below, Schmier reveals that he is currently working on a new side project with members of ACCEPT. DESTRUCTION's 30th-anniversary album, "Spiritual Genocide", was released on November 23, 2012 via Nuclear Blast Records. The follow-up to 2011's "Day Of Reckoning" was recorded at Gernhart Studios in Troisdorf, Germany with engineer Martin Buchwalter and was mixed by Andy Classen. The album features guest appearances by Thomas "Angelripper" Such (SODOM), Andreas "Gerre" Geremia (TANKARD) and Ol Drake (EVILE). In addition, the "Mad Butcher"/"Release From Agony" lineup of DESTRUCTION — featuring guitarist Harry Wilkens and drummer Oliver Kaiser — reunited for one song. Asked how DESTRUCTION's sound has evolved over the years, Schmier told Metal Assault, "We were 17-18 years old when we started, and we were young and wild. We didn't play that well at the time. Of course now, we have the experience of 30 years and our playing skills are totally different, so we cannot really compare, but I still compare the style of music and it's still thrash metal. We still do it with a lot of emotion and a lot of aggression, and those things will never change. I think we even came more brutal and more aggressive with this new album as compared to the old ones, actually. [Today's] DESTRUCTION doesn't sound like an old band." Interview (audio):
02 min read

Video: TESTAMENT, ANTHRAX, NIGHTWISH, Ex-HELLOWEEN, ACCEPT Singers Perform At ‘Christmas Metal Symphony’

Manos Spanos
Fan-filmed video footage of the first two shows of this year's Christmas Metal Symphony European tour — which kicked off this past Friday night (December 13) in Trollhättan, Sweden and played again last night (Saturday, December 14) in Kristianstad, Sweden — can be seen below. Magnum Opum Rockestra (under conductor Marcel Heijnen), a 32-strong orchestra accompanied by the METALFORCE 1 rock band and led by singers/vocalists which influenced the metal scene in recent years and decades, are taking part in the Christmas Metal Symphony European tour. Musical director of the production is Joost van den Broek. Singers taking part in the trek include Joey Belladonna (ANTHRAX), Chuck Billy (TESTAMENT), Udo Dirkschneider (U.D.O., ex-ACCEPT), Michael Kiske (HELLOWEEN, UNISONIC) and Floor Jansen (REVAMP, NIGHTWISH, AFTER FOREVER). It is a well-known fact in the world of international metal fans that Tilburg in The Netherlands was host of this impressive metal show for two years. As a direct result of the succes of these shows, the requests for bringing it to the rest of Europe kept growing. Nowthe time is right to fulfill these wishes and bring this monster on the road. Christmas Metal Symphony comes with six fantastic international metal vocalists, a six-piece metal band with musicians from bands like EPICA, AFTER FOREVER and STREAM OF PASSION and an impressive 32-piece symphonic orchestra. The heavy backbone of the show is METALFORCE 1. These musicians were handpicked by Joost van den Broek and these Santa's Little Helpers contain some of the finest metal artists: * Marcel Coenen (SUN CAGED) - Guitar * Johan Van Stratum (STREAM OF PASSION) - Bass * Abel Carnizales (LABIRINTHO) - Guitar * Jeffrey Revet (STREAM OF PASSION) - Keyboards * Koen Herfst (EPICA) - Drums * Joost Van Den Broek (AFTER FOREVER) - Keyboards Over the last 35 years of metalmusic, bands have written many concept albums and concept shows; great stories and fantastic songs. The team of Christmas Metal Symphony therefore decided that with the impressive heritage of all these great metal songs ever written, it would be a shame not to use them. So for this reason you can expect performances of your all time favorite metal songs, by some of the best international artists who are part of that great metal history themselves. All of this in a great Christmas and metal setting and brought to you as a full metal show; loud and extremely powerful… just like the doctor ordered! Kristianstad fan-filmed video footage:
04 min read

WOLF HOFFMANN: ACCEPT Has Proven Naysayers Wrong With Latest Comeback

Manos Spanos
On November 13, guitarist Wolf Hoffmann of reformed heavy metal legends ACCEPT was interviewed backstage before the band's first-ever joint concert with SCORPIONS in Helsinki, Finland. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow. On ACCEPT's most recent "comeback," which began with 2010's "Blood Of The Nations": Wolf: "When we started doing [reactivating the band] this three or four years ago, nobody had any idea if this would go anywhere — if it would die tomorrow. We just knew we wanted to play music again, and we found [singer] Mark [Tornillo], and we thought, 'Here's a chance for us to do what we love to do, and we'll just see what happens.' … We just wanted to play, basically, and we just put it out there and the fans liked it. I mean, we worked really hard — it's not like it happened overnight. We really had to build the whole machinery back up again. When we started, we had no record deal, we had no… I mean, we were out of the business. We had nothing… We had no crew, we had no video, we had no web site… We just had the idea to get started again." On new ACCEPT lead singer Mark Tornillo (formerly of TT QUICK): Wolf: "Mark is a rare find, I think. That's what we noticed when we first met him. We thought, 'Wow, this guy can really sing the old material with ease — he sounds totally comfortable doing it, it's totally his range, but at the same time, he can do it in a way that's not just a copy; he can really put his own twist to it. And any suggestions you throw at him, he can actually perform, so that's a huge plus for us. 'Cause now we can write songs that are a little different — more melodic, more this, more that — and he's got a huge range. That was the magic moment, that we met Mark, during that infamous jam session a few years back. We thought, 'This is too good to be true. We've got to try this. No matter what the world says, no matter what anybody says. We believe in it and we'll give it a go.' Because, as everybody says, it's an uphill battle when you change lead singers, and we experienced that head-on that people said, 'It's not gonna work. [Original ACCEPT singer] Udo [Dirkschneider] is [not there].' But I guess we've proved them wrong."
02 min read

UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER Says MARK TORNILLO Has ‘Problems’ Singing Old ACCEPT Songs

Manos Spanos
BigMusicGeek.com recently conducted an interview with former ACCEPT and current U.D.O. frontman Udo Dirkschneider. Several excerpts from the chat follow below. BigMusicGeek.com: At what point did you realize Stefan [Kaufmann, guitar] wasn't going to be able to participate in the recording of [U.D.O.'s] "Steelhammer" [album]? Were there any warning signs that the health issues he was experiencing were going to be so bad? Udo: It's a long story. He already had some big problems. It all started when we did the "Rev-Raptor" album. We had to stop for three months because he couldn't move anymore. He was going to the hospital in order to recover, and then, when we started touring, he was taking these really heavy pills. You could have killed an elephant with them. I've known Stefan for forty years and I saw that he couldn't really move on stage. He had to get into these crazy positions so it wouldn't hurt. He was always in pain, so he wasn't in a good mood. Sometimes, he would just start shouting. I thought to myself, "This is not the real Stefan." When the tour was over, I said, "Stefan, it's better for you to stop. I don't want to see you in a wheelchair." We talked about many, many things, but in the end, he said to me, "I think you're right. It's better to stop doing this." So I said, "You are welcome to produce the album and we can write some songs together," and that's when he said, "At the moment, I'm not in the mood to do this." It wasn't easy for me because I've been working together with him for so long, but sometimes you have to do things you don't want to. In the end, I think it was the best thing for him and he's now in better shape. He is producing a band in Switzerland, so I think he's back.
06 min read

Video: ACCEPT Members Visit FRAMUS/WARWICK Factory In Germany

Manos Spanos
ACCEPT members and recent Framus/Warwick endorsees Wolf Hoffmann (guitar) and Peter Baltes (bass) recently toured the "state-of-the-art" Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG factory in Markneukirchen, Germany. Check out the footage below. ACCEPT's April 12 concert at Teatro Caupolicán in Santiago, Chile was professionally filmed for the band's forthcoming DVD. During a recent interview with Radio Futuro, guitarist Wolf Hoffmannrevealed that ACCEPT is planning to enter the studio soon to begin work on the follow-up to 2012's "Stalingrad". "We're currently gathering material," he said. "We're writing stuff actively, so give us a few more months, and hopefully, by the end of the year, we 'll have enough material to actually start working on a new studio album. But it won't be long. I can't guarantee when exactly it's gonna be happening, but we wanna definitely go back to the studio as soon as we can."
01 min read

PHILIP ANSELMO Joins ACCEPT On Stage At France’s HELLFEST; Video Available

Manos Spanos
Philip Anselmo (DOWN, PANTERA) joined reformed heavy metal legendsACCEPT on stage this past Saturday, June 22 at Hellfest in Clisson, France to perform the band's classic song "Fast As A Shark". Fan-filmed video footage of his appearance can be seen below. ACCEPT's April 12 concert at Teatro Caupolicán in Santiago, Chile was professionally filmed for the band's forthcoming DVD. During a recent interview with Radio Futuro, guitarist Wolf Hoffmannrevealed that ACCEPT is planning to enter the studio soon to begin work on the follow-up to 2012's "Stalingrad". "We're currently gathering material," he said. "We're writing stuff actively, so give us a few more months, and hopefully, by the end of the year, we 'll have enough material to actually start working on a new studio album. But it won't be long. I can't guarantee when exactly it's gonna be happening, but we wanna definitely go back to the studio as soon as we can."
01 min read

ACCEPT Working On Official Documentary

Manos Spanos
This year, reformed German metal legends ACCEPT are headlining European festivals, preparing a new album as well as working on their first live DVD and CD featuring Wolf Hoffmann (guitar), Peter Baltes (bass),Mark Tornillo (vocals), Herman Frank (guitar) and Stefan Schwarzmann (drums). The Teutonic metal band has touched the lives of so many fans and musicians alike along the way in their 30-plus-year career. Having inspired legions of fans with songs like "Fast As A Shark" and "Metal Heart",ACCEPT helped create the speed metal genre. This time, however, it is the band that is inspired by the fans. With the making of new music on the horizon and their busy schedule, the band is eager to share even more of themselves with their loyal following by announcing the making of the first official ACCEPT documentary. The film will feature footage from ACCEPT's humble beginnings as a garage band in their German home town of Solingen in the late '70s, their '80s"Balls To The Wall" "glory days," and all the way up their most successful reincarnation with powerhouse vocalist Mark Tornillo. This is a very proud and important moment for the German heavy metal band.
03 min read