Fourteen years after their last album, Accept are back with blood on their hands. First of all, because the original German band had to agree to the delicate surgical act that consisted in replacing their vocalist, but also, quite simply, because this new album is killer. It’s called Blood Of The Nations, and it was only natural that the band should defend it on Radio Metal. Wolf Hoffman, the band’s emblematic guitar player, got down to it, and the least you can say is that the man was pretty aggressive! The only thing he had in mind was the news surrounding Accept and their new baby – and nothing else. Good for him, in a way, since it shows he’s passionate and proud of this album – some might even say too proud, given some of his excessive declarations. If you want to breach other subjects and talk about spicy detail, do it yourself. ‘Cause I don’t want to have this wolf’s teeth around my leg!

About Mark Tornillo : « We didn’t really audition for a singer, we weren’t even really looking for one. He just happened to come by, because he lived close by. We realized how well he fit with Accept, how much of a perfect voice he has for Accept. So we decided very spontaneously to reunite. »

Radio Metal : In 2005, Accept did a short reunion tour with Udo Dirkschneider. That didn’t lead to anything more. Are you disappointed?[/

Wolf Hoffman (guitare) : No, there was never meant to be anything more. From the get go, Udo said that it wouldn’t lead to anything. It was just gonna be some festivals. So I’m not disappointed.

In 2007, Udo said: “I understand people want a new Accept album, but composing songs together would have been a disaster. That way, we would destroy more than we would create”. Why do you think he said that?[/

I’ve no idea, you’ll have to ask him.

Would you agree with him?

No and besides I don’t want to comment on anything that he said.

Last year, Accept announced yet another reunion, but with a new singer, Mark Tornillo from TT-Quick. What pushed you to reform the band, and how did Mark end up joining Accept?

It all started about a year ago, when I met up with Peter [Baltes, bass]. We more or less found Mark by accident. We just happened to do a little jam session and invited a singer, and that was Mark. We didn’t really audition for a singer, we weren’t even really looking for one. He just happened to come by, because he lived close by. We realized how well he fit with Accept, how much of a perfect voice he has for Accept. So we decided very spontaneously to reunite. That was just over a year ago. We’ve done a new record, and we’ll be on tour together.

It’s the first time since Eat The Heat that a singer other than Udo sings on an Accept album. Is it something you dreaded? Were you afraid of the fans’ reaction the first time you went on stage with Mark?

I wouldn’t say we dreaded it. We knew Mark was phenomenal, and we knew we had something special here. But of course, for the first show, you’re always sort of nervous, because we’d never been together on stage before. I wouldn’t say we dreaded it, but we were nervous, and there was anticipation.

What about the fans’ reaction?

It was phenomenal. Mind-blowingly good. It was an overwhelming response.

Contrary to David Reece, who sang on Eat The Heat, Mark’s voice is much closer to Udo’s. Was this a requirement, somehow? Would you have considered a singer who didn’t have that kind of hoarse voice?

We didn’t really have any requirements. As I said earlier, we didn’t go through all that, we just happened to meet Mark and figured he was perfect. It was just gut instinct. We met him, and we loved him. That’s all there is to it. We didn’t analyze all this stuff, we just felt he was perfect.

What do you think today about the three albums you did with Udo between 1993 and 1996? They have been quite criticized, more specifically Death Row, which has even been qualified as neo-metal by some critics…

I don’t really know what to say about this. I don’t think about it much. It was many years ago, and I don’t honestly care. It was a time when a lot of bands were looking for their identity, trying to find their place in this time. Everybody made some good records, and some that were not so good. That’s true for any band out there. We made a few albums that were not that good, so what’s the big deal? It happened so many years ago.

Does it mean you’ll never play any songs from these albums anymore?

I didn’t say that. Of course we will. I think there was some good stuff on there.

Blood Of The Nations sounds much more like classic Accept. Does it mean you’ll never try to experiment with other styles again, like you did with Eat The Heat or Death Row?

I don’t know what the future will bring. At this point we just thought we would play what we thought was classic Accept. We wanted to release an album that would sound like we did back in the 80s, only with a modern sound and fresh ideas. It was our goal this time, and I think we achieved it. Who knows what we’ll do in the future? We’ll have to wait and see what ideas we have and were they will take us. But we do have long-terms plans, we want to make another record, we’re already thinking about new songs and stuff. But I think the days we tried to take Accept in a new direction are over. I think we know pretty well where we stand, where we belong and what fans expect from us. That’s what we want to give them.

« Yeah, bullshit! I think you’re taking this way too seriously. I think you should back off and have a little fun! If you have an album called Blood Of The Nations, there has to be some blood on the cover. It’s just good heavy metal fun. »

When you announced the reformation of the band with Mark, you offered re-recordings of “Balls To The Wall” and “Fast As A Shark” as free downloads. Was it a way to reassure the fans with regards to the quality of the band’s line-up, and more specifically the new singer?

No, it was just a very rough sketch of the first day we met Mark. As I told you, we met him at a jam session, and we felt he was such a perfect match for us that we put this online. But these recordings were not meant for publication. We just did it for fun, basically. It was not meant to be a proper recording, it wasn’t supposed to be released on a record. This all happened within two hours, if you can imagine. Within two hours of meeting Mark, we just played something with him and happened to have a tape recorded running. We wanted to document the event, that’s all. We weren’t expecting people to take it seriously and compare it to the finished record. Obviously, live and learn… We can’t take that stuff back. It’s still mind-blowing to me that people would compare what’s obviously a rough jam session to a finished product. We heard some negative comments about it, but in the end it made us stronger, because we wanted to show people how good it could be. I think the new record will prove that. All we’re asking is that people give us a chance and listen to the finished product, and not pre-judge something. A lot of those who commented earlier are quiet now, because the record is really good and really strong.

The cover artwork looks pretty gory, with the hand covered in blood doing the sign of victory, which could also represent peace…

Oh yeah, I like it!

It’s a really strong image. It looks like a criticism of the politics of some nations and of the conflicts we’ve witnessed in the past few years…

Yeah, bullshit! I think you’re taking this way too seriously. I think you should back off and have a little fun! If you have an album called Blood Of The Nations, there has to be some blood on the cover. It’s just good heavy metal fun. I think you’re interpreting all this way too much! It’s not meant to be a political statement or anything. You need to relax a little on that front! (laughs)

It’s just for fun, then?

Mostly, yeah. Of course it’s not all fun, but it’s not as serious as you think it is.

I’m sure there’s a meaning behind this, albeit small…

You can interpret this any way you want, but it’s not meant to be a political statement.

You’re about to go on tour to promote Blood Of The Nations. Would a tour with both Accept and Udo’s solo band be something that could happen at some point? That would be a memorable event for the fans!

We will go on tour this fall, and we’ll continue to go on tour. We have long-term plans. We’re gonna start the American tour right now, and then we’ll go to Japan. We’ve already played a few shows with AC/DC, played some huge shows in Turkey for the Sonisphere festival. Things are going really well. As for a tour with Udo, you need to move on from that kind of stuff. I want to talk about the new record, not about Udo.

On a more personal level, you now live in the US. This is the case for many renowned European hard rock musicians. What motivated you to leave Germany and go live in the US?

It was a personal decision I don’t want to comment on. It’s got nothing to do with our music.

Ok but, precisely, has the fact that you now live in the USA influenced in some ways the music of Accept?

What does it have to do with anything where I live? I thought we were going to talk about music! What difference does it make where anybody live?

I think the country where we live can influence the way we compose music…

Yeah… So you think because Udo lives in Spain now he composes music like a Spaniard?

I don’t know!

I don’t know either! You tell me!

I have a lot of examples of musicians who live in the US and were influenced by the country.

You know, some members of Scorpions live in America or in Poland. This is modern times. We’re not 15 or 20 anymore, we no longer live in the same neighborhood. It’s a fact, and it has been for a long time. I’ve been living in the US for 20 years, but who cares? It’s got nothing to do with what I do as an artist, or with what Accept does.

Ok, so what can you tell us about the new album, then?

I think we’ve got twelve strong songs, a collection of songs that is representative of the 80s, like I said. It would have fit at the time of Restless And Wild or Balls To The Wall. So far it’s getting great reviews, we entered the charts in Germany. Everything is doing well. Any real Accept fan would probably agree that it’s a classic Accept album.

Do you think it could be compared with you classic albums like Metal Heart or Balls To The Wall?

Time will tell, but I believe it could, yes. I think the songs are strong enough, it’s exactly what Accept stands for. We’ve got all the backing vocals, heavy guitar riffs… There’s all the good stuff fans want to hear.

« There was such a hype over the fact that we were coming back, and it was such a cool video that in the end, some Turkish fan twittered another guy about this new video. I don’t know if you’ve heard this but there was a huge story worldwide saying that Twitter was actually shut down because of it. »

Andy Sneap produced the record…

Yeah, and he was a very good find, I would say. Andy contacted us when he heard we were making a new record. He’d been a long-time Accept fan, since his teenage years, actually. He was one of the best producers we ever worked with. I think it was so great partly because of the fact that he’s an Accept fan. He knew exactly what he wanted to hear as a fan. He was very instrumental from a very early point on, in selecting the songs and during the recording process. We had a fabulous time. We recorded half of the album in his studio in England, and the other half in Nashville. It was an international effort. Some members of the band flew in from Germany or from Switzerland, and we all met in England. We had a great time, with very constructive and harmonious ways of working. It was much better than the last production we made in the 90s. I don’t think we could have made such a good record without Andy.

I read somewhere that you composed the album in a short time…

About three of four months. It’s short, but that’s because Peter and I are a great team. When we get together, the ideas really start flowing. We’ve been the creative team since the 80s. We probably wrote something like 30 or 40 songs, out of which the best 14 were chosen. We recorded 14 songs, so we had more than enough material for this record.

Accept opened for AC/DC not long ago. How did it go?

It was phenomenal. AC/DC have always been our heroes, and it was a huge honor for us to be on their stage. Of course there was a huge audience of 80,000 people. They were all excited about the new version of Accept, it was fantastic. We had the whole audience singing along and raising their fists. That’s pretty remarkable, because it was AC/DC’s audience, after all, and not ours! But we won them over, and it was a huge night.

You did a video for “Teutonic Terror”. Do you think it’s still useful to make videos in today’s world? MTV probably won’t broadcast this video… But maybe I’m wrong?

I think you’re wrong. It created so much sensation worldwide that we were number one in the charts for weeks. There was such a hype over the fact that we were coming back, and it was such a cool video that in the end, some Turkish fan twittered another guy about this new video. I don’t know if you’ve heard this but there was a huge story worldwide saying that Twitter was actually shut down because of it.

Don’t you think it’s a little sad that music channels like MTV don’t broadcast metal videos?

Yeah, it’s sad, but what are you gonna do? This is the era of Internet and the YouTube generation. YouTube basically took the place of MTV.

Interview conducted in august, 2010 by phone.
Myspace ACCEPT : www.myspace.com/accepttheband