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! 

Dimlight, Meden Agan, Humayrah, Layil, live @ Kyttaro, Athens Greece, 31-03-2012

Dimlight, Meden Agan, Humayrah, Layil, live @ Kyttaro, Athens Greece, 31-03-2012

I must admit that it was the first time in my life that I was going to go and willingly see a metal festival where 3 out of 4 bands had female singers and were in the symphonic-atmospheric genre! I’m not a big fan of symphonic metal, I only like certain bands but I really wanted to see Dimlight and Meden Agan, they are 2 very good bands that you don’t see live very often. And now was the time!

The gig started around 19.30 and the first band on stage was “Layil”, an interesting and experimental band who despite the fact that they’re newcomers and they obviously have a lack of live experience, did a really great job of warming the crowd and played some very good songs. I’m not very familiar with their style, but I think that if they stick to a certain musical route and chop off some extra experimentations that they have, we’re gonna be hearing from them in the future.

The second band was “Humayrah” and they had the most different style of all the other bands. They sounded a lot like “aggressive 90s Sepultura” witch got many people banging heads and moshing around almost instantly. They have a groovy thrash style with some death metal elements and they seem to have worked on their songs a lot, because the overall outcome was way beyond good. More people started entering the venue while the band played, and the atmosphere was getting a lot warmer.

It was finally time for Meden Agan. The crowd was going really wild now and you can tell that many people were here to just see them giving their best. The band started playing and hell broke loose. They played a lot of songs from their record “Erevos Aenaon” along with some covers. The band is extremely tight, a thing you rarely see in a new band and they already have an emerging hype around their name. The minor sound problems didn’t stop the band from giving its best self and the singer Iliana from showing her unique singing abilities. Her stage presence is also very good, and that goes for the rest of the band, a thing you rarely see in most bands nowadays. She sang every tune perfectly while keeping the communication with the crowd alive at all times. Most people knew the songs already and I also saw some people opening a pit (!) a really weird thing to see during the gig of a symphonic metal band. I must mention here the awesome cover that they made in the song “Somewhere” from another favourite band of mine, Within Temptation, with the help of Maxi Nil. 2 great voices performing a great song of the genre, what more can you ask for? They definitely were my favourite band of the festival; I can’t wait to see them again soon.

Meden Agan Setlist:

Intro

From The Ashes Of Sin

Dissolve Into Grey

Sensorium (Epica cover)

All Seems Lost

Blinded By Faith

Somewhere (Feat. Maxi Nil)

Tribute To Life

Thoughtlesh (Korn cover)

Erevos Aenaon

Nemesis

Black Sky

Dimlight was about to hit the stage and the sound starting having problems again. The band has played many shows in Greece and abroad but sadly I’ve never had the chance to see them. They mostly played songs from their upcoming record “Psychosynthesis” and I can definitely say that it was like seeing a big band somewhere in a stage in Europe. They had definitely worked a lot on their stage appearance and they also had a very good show planned ahead which left the crowd speechless. Some minor sound problems appeared again but no one seemed to mind because the bands performance was excellent. I must admit that I surely wasn’t expecting such a good overall show from them. The show continued with some nice fire effects and a guest appearance by Iliana from “Medan Agan” who gave another excellent performance in the song “Mind’s Game” alongside Sanna. Even during the Dimlight gig people still kept coming and I’d say that there must have been nearly 300 people or more by the end of the night who attended. After the end of the show a lottery was made were some fans won cds, t-shirts and a guitar.

Overally the show was very close to perfect, the bands played great, the price was great and a lot of people attended. I’m very glad I was there and I definitely wish that we get the chance to see festivals like this more often in the future.

Dimlight Setlist:

Masters Of Our Faith

Dimlight

Lucid Dreams

Agonize

Path Of Ritual

Mind’s Game (Feat. Iliana  – Meden Agan)

Quest Of The Fallen

R.I.D.

Stillborn Debris

Black Hole

Unify

Cardinal Sins

Absense Of Light

Dark Emotion

Also on Burst.gr - http://burst.gr/live/reports/item/1083-hymayrah-%E2%80%93-layil

Tony Macalpine-Agent Cooper-Daniel Pique Live @ Kyttaro, Athens, Greece, 09-03-2012

Tony Macalpine-Agent Cooper-Daniel Pique Live @ Kyttaro, Athens, Greece, 09-03-2012

The week was coming to an end and there was only one more stop we had to make before reaching its epilogue. That stop was none other than the gig of Tony Macalpine at Kyttaro Club. Tony is one of my favorite guitarists of all time, a true master of the guitar as well as a great keyboard player, and I couldn’t wait to see him live for the first time. I like most of his projects, but his solo works are definitely on the top of my list. This tour was called “Dream Mechanism Tour 2012” and with him Tony had a bunch of excellent musicians like the ex-ANGRA drummer, Aquiles Priester, one of the top drummers of his era as well as a candidate for Mike Portnoy’s place in Dream Theater, bass player Bjorn Englen, who has toured with Yngwie Malmsteen as well as Uli Jon Roth and Quiet Riot, and last but not least, Nili Brosh, a very talented young guitar player who has played with Stu Hamm (Joe Satriani, Steve Vai), Guthrie Govan (ASIA) and Andy Timmons (Danger Danger). Tony had announced that he was going to play a few songs from his new record as well as some of his older stuff, but the greatest part was that he was going to play his extraordinary debut album “Edge Of Insanity” in its entirety.

The first disappointment was a sudden change of schedule. The gig was supposed to start at 21:00 and only a few hours before, the time changed to 20:00. I knew then that I’d have to miss the first support act, Daniel Pique, who was supposed to play between 20:15 – 20:30. The second disappointment came when I arrived at the gig. Agent Cooper, the second support act, who was originally scheduled to play between 20:45 – 21:30, had cancelled! So when I arrived at about 20:40, Tony was already on stage! I rushed in only to find myself disappointed again for a third time. Tony and the rest of the group were giving a helluva show in a crowd of… 30 people. I couldn’t believe my eyes. A guitar player of this caliber and should get a little more recognition, although the tough economic situation in Greece, along with a couple of other gigs in Athens that night (one of them was the legendary Arthur Brown) must have had their impact.

Tony played for an hour and a half and his performance was excellent. Another 20 people must have joined the gig during the show. The whole thing looked more like a “music seminar” than a normal gig. I don’t know the attendance on the rest of the tour but on that night, it was really short. But also the atmosphere was also “warmer”. Tony was unstoppable, he’s an actual “music instrument machine”, jumping from one instrument to another with total control and ease. Nili was a pleasure to watch, simply great playing beyond anyone’s expectations and what can you say about Bjorn… the guy was 100% into the gig, always dancing around while playing the bass; he was definitely bringing a very nice breeze to the whole concert. Aquiles on the other hand was playing like a maniac! During the middle of the show the band went on a very small break and he played an extraordinary drum solo which made the very few people in the club go totally crazy at that time.

Overally this was a very good show and the band, despite the fact that they had a ferry to catch in a few hours, stayed for a “meet & greet” with all the fans. They stood there for anyone to take their photo with them, signed autographs and talked about the tour among some other things. I only hope that they’ll come back real soon for another gig and not be affected by the small attendance of this one.

Also on Burst.gr - http://burst.gr/live/reports/item/1028-live-report-tony-macalpine-9/3/2012-kyttaro