Accept, Marauder Live @ Fuzz Club, Athens, Greece, 18-10-12

Accept, Marauder Live @ Fuzz Club, Athens, Greece, 18-10-12

If you’re into pure classic Heavy Metal, there was no other place for you to be tonight, than Fuzz Club. The almighty Accept were once again visiting Greece to deliver the goods, this time supported by one of the best Heavy Metal bands that Greece has to offer, Marauder.

I didn’t have the chance to see them the last time they visited Greece with their new singer Mark Tornillo, so I was really looking forward to see him on stage. The night didn’t start very well though, due to the fact that the doors were about to open at 19.30 which didn’t happen until one hour later. Oh well, a few more beers for us “thirsty” ones! The line of people started filling up the club until it was half-full and Marauder came on stage. Sadly most of the crowd didn’t seem very familiar with the Marauder stuff, although a lot of people in the front rows were singing along. The band played 8 songs, some old and some from their new great record –check it out- with a mediocre sound, but an excellent performance.  It was a very special case because despite the fact that the founder/guitarist of the band George had his birthday that night and that they were supporting Accept, the legendary singer Tony Martin was there to watch both bands play. During the last few songs, the crowd looked a lot more active and warmed up. The band finished their set and a big applause followed.

Marauder setlist:

Elegy of Blood

The Great War

Warriors

Free Like An Eagle

Face the Mirror

Classics Never Die

The Return of the Warrior

God’s Will

The Greek Revolution Begins

A small break, lights down, crowd cheering. Accept was about to hit the stage, hard.  They started out playing a couple of songs from their new “child” Stalingrad. You could tell right from the beginning that the sound wasn’t in any case their ally. The vocals were way too low, although Mark was giving his best self, and the guitar and bass were very high. I’ve said it before, but sadly in half the gigs that take place in Fuzz Club, the sound isn’t exactly crystal clear, but more like a mess of electricity and buzz in places. Anyway, the band continued with some of their classics and the crowd –which has doubled until then- didn’t seem to mind so much about the sound quality. I haven’t checked live setlists from the band, I’m a fan so I didn’t have to learn the songs or something, but Monsterman did come as a nice surprise. I think that people didn’t like Accept records like Russian Roulette but mostly their 80s classic stuff. The song that followed was Shadow Soldiers and at that point you could see that the band was tighter than ever. I’ve seen them with UDO as well, and I’m a big fan of UDO in both his Accept and solo career, but I didn’t enjoy their performance with UDO as much as I enjoyed this one with Mark. He’s definitely way more than just “a good replacement”! 

This is was the part where the Accept classics started to tear us up, with the highlight of all of them being the song Aiming High. A few more sons from Blood of the Nations, and the band left the stage for a few minutes. The encore was more than great. Metal Heart, the bands anthem and generally, a Heavy Metal anthem as far as I’m concerned, Teutonic Terror, their smash hit single from Blood of the Nations and Balls To The Wall ended the bands show. I don’t think that there was anyone who left with bad memories from that gig, a real Heavy Metal concert, a true and full Accept show in every sense of the word. Mark is more than great, Stefan and Herman are metal machines and Peter and Wolf are like one on stage. I believe that today’s classic Heavy Metal scene, really fails to offer the kind of on and off stage quality that bands like Accept have set the standards for.

Accept setlist:

Hung, Drawn and Quartered

Hellfire

Restless and Wild

Losers and Winners

Stalingrad

Breaker

Bucket Full of Hate

Monsterman

Shadow Soldiers

Neon Nights

Bulletproof

Aiming High

Princess of the Dawn

Up to the Limit

No Shelter

Pandemic

Fast as a Shark

Encore:

Metal Heart

Teutonic Terror

Balls to the Wall

Cheers to Alice from Ruthless Steel for the company and photos, Alexis from Hurlement -come back soon brother- , Andreas Andreou for the beer and the hookup with T.M., Tony Martin -for just being there-, Dimitris Tsouanas for the photos with Accept, the guys from Battleroar, Greg from Eat Metal, Nikos Mac, Antonis Souvatzis, and last but not least, the 2 dudes I always like to tease, Mitsos “Swordmaster” and Leonidas “Spartan” -they know why-.

Also on Burst.gr - http://burst.gr/live/reports/item/2099-accept-marauder-live--fuzz-club-athens-greece-18-10-12

ACCEPT - Wolf Hoffmann Interview

ACCEPT - Wolf Hoffmann Interview

Prologue: The Heavy Metal legends Accept are back for good, after their very successful album "Blood of the Nations" and a world tour that followed, they're in the studio again recording its successor. We already got a small but good taste with their new song "Stalingrad" and we can only hope for the best!

WOLF: Thank you!  We are trying  our best - as always.

Elias: A tour, a new killer record, another tour and another record coming. ACCEPT are back for good! What's the next step?

WOLF: That is for us the next step - the second round in less than 30 months. We are on a roll and nothing seem to stop us. Any musicians dream came true - we are on a worldwide attack.

Elias: You sound very tight as a band right now, reminding a lot of the early ACCEPT days, but with a touch of "aggressiveness" if I might say so. Where does that come from?

WOLF: Perhaps because we ignored what is in us for decades.We are like a boiling bottle beer ... it was time to burst for us!

Elias: Your previous album "Blood of the Nations" received very good critics and I believe it went very well. Did you expect such a warm welcome after all these years of absence?

WOLF: I guess one of the secrets of our return was, that we EXPECTED absolutely NOTHING and got absolutely EVERYTHING. We are still speechless. 

Elias: You toured several countries last year, including Greece which was a sold-out show if I remember correctly. What are your memories from that tour?

WOLF: If you take into consideration what I just told you, you can imagine - no one wanted to wake up. We felt like on a roller coaster, trying to get a hold of the world we found ourselves in. Surreal, exciting and the result was, that we could not sit back. We came off tour in 2011 and in 4 month from songwriting to finished master tape and INSANE train ride which continues to this minute. 

Elias: How much has the metal scene and the fans changed in all these years? Do have any "special places" that you prefer to tour in Europe or the U.S.?


WOLF: With Fans -  Nothing has changed, except we have the internet today. You should not forget, when we stopped working in 1996 - the world was a different one. As in STALINGRAD  we are trying to put a spotlight on the fact, that we human beings are all brothers..and sisters for that matter. We see our fans around the world and all we see is their faces! Everywhere they offer us their hearts and souls and that makes us the proudest MF on the planet. Our answer to that is: we thank you with the best show we can give you and the best songs we have at that moment. 

Elias: This is the era of information and Internet. How much has this helped the band?


WOLF: Here is my take, if you are good it helps, if you are bad it destroys .... it is a brutal mirror. You live or die in 30 seconds....

Elias: "Blood of the Nations" and now "Stalingrad". Two albums with very strong political messages. Does the current global economic crisis and general turmoil affect your songwriting and if yes, how so?

WOLF: We are known for talking about things most people don't - but we tried to offer a different perspective. You know, we have Mark now and Gaby (Deaffy)  decided to let him write his own lyrics. As an American he naturally is seeing the things from a total different perspective. That is a very sensible and for all of us difficult situation. We all are doing the best we can and yes, we will see how we did, this time.





Elias: A lot of classic heavy metal bands try to use more modern elements to their music but not ACCEPT. You're staying to the old recipe and the results are beyond great as usual. Do you listen to more "modern metal" bands or not?


WOLF: I am very old school and as you know my real passion is classical music. We want to do, what we do best, where we see that our fans are following us and carry our success to the top. of course, as a musician, you can easily feel the urge to try something new ...we did that and we do not regret that. However, we feel very safe, where we are now.






Elias: What I always loved about ACCEPT was the use of classical music, which always fitted so well between certain songs, blended with the guitar solo and always providing an excellent outcome. Do you believe classical music and heavy metal are connected somehow?


WOLF: The saying goes, that I was one of the first who established that. I don't know, but it seems there is something about it. It is in me, always was and always will.

Elias: Every band has its own influences when writing songs. What are the biggest influences of ACCEPT right now?


WOLF: I write with Peter since I was 16 years old. We are joint at the hips - we are the salt in each others composer life. We are inseparable since the day we met. What can be any better.... 

Elias: I'm more than certain that we'll expect another great album from ACCEPT. Is there anything else about "Stalingrad" that you wish to share with us?


WOLF: We are waiting for the verdict of our fans. THEY decide about  ACCEPT's today and tomorrow and nothing else!


Elias: Have you got any tour dates scheduled for 2012? Do you plan to visit Greece?

WOLF: Yes - we know we will be in Greece this autumn.


Elias: Any last messages for the Greek fans?


WOLF: When we come you got to be there, because this time we will record there for sure!  We need you! We were told the promoter promised to book the right venue, so we will not have to turn people away. GREECE....get ready! 

A Metal Heart is hard to tear apart...

It was 20 years ago this very same day... 30th May 1991.

30th May 1991 : 

A really sad day and a turning point in my life. It was my father who gave me the news of my grandfathers death that very same morning.

I was devastated. I loved my grandfather and I hadn't totally accepted the death factor, it was actually the first time in my life that I had to deal with such a thing.

My grandfather? Gone? Forever? I mean... he's not coming back like... ever again? No... that was too much for me at that moment...

I didn't know what to do and I was a bit angry. I thought that staying home wouldn't improve the whole situation, so it was time for a walk around the neighbourhood.

After a few strolls, I saw a neighbor, Nick, heading for his home in a rush. He was holding something very big. I went closer and asked "What is that?"

He stopped, looked at me and replied "Well that's a record!". A record. "And what is a record?" I asked. "A record is a thing that contains music from a band."

Suddenly I remembered that my father had a few records and I felt a bit stupid asking about it... "What kind of music?". "It's rock music." he said.

"I only have a few cassettes with rock music." I replied almost instantly. The truth was that at that time I only had like, 4 or 5 cassettes nothing more.

"So which rock bands have you heard?" he asked. "Scorpions, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Guns 'n  Roses and a few more..." I replied.

"Nah those are very soft... this is much harder!". "What's the name of the band?" I asked. "Accept!". Accept. The name sounded extremely good in my ears.

"So, you wanna listen to them?"... "Definitely!" I said. Almost instantly, I had forgotten all about my grandfathers death, my father being sad, my mother trying to calm him down and generally, the whole werid situation at home at that time.

That was it. That particular record defined the course of my life at that moment. The next day I had a cassette with Accept on it, which I still have, stuffed somewhere. That was also my first lesson in a very nice saying that I use all the time, which says that "Nothing is totally bad, or totally good, everything comes with a smaller or bigger dose of both."

A Metal Heart was born. I wish I could say that this made my life excellent and all, but it didn't. Antisocial at school almost until my twenties, not the best of grades, not caring about people, life, habits, future, anything...

My main concern was how to listen to more music, to talk about music, to learn more about music, to buy a guitar and play music, to take music lessons, music... music... music...

Your choices define your life, I regret nothing, some people and friends left, some stayed, the important thing is... I NEVER CHANGED! I never sacrificed any part of myself for becoming something that I despised, something I hated, something fake.

Truth guides my path in life, I never tell lies I hate them, and truth costs. But I'm willing to pay that price, a price which I'm paying for 20 years now... not an easy thing to do, but for me it was simply necessary in order to survive.

And it still is, it will always be...