ACCEPT – Symphonic Terror / Live At Wacken (2018)

German / American metal legends ACCEPT will release a live set, “Symphonic Terror – Live At Wacken 2017”, on November 23 via Nuclear Blast. Fans can expect a unique Accept show, recorded last year at the legendary Wacken Open Air festival, where the band played the biggest and most extraordinary show of its career in front of 80,000, on top of thousands more fans watching via a live stream.

The two-hour concert was divided into three parts showing the full creative power of Accept: the first part featured the premiere of new tracks “Die By The Sword” and “Koolaid”, as well as some of the band’s most popular songs, such as “Restless And Wild” and “Pandemic”.

The middle part featured guitarist Wolf Hoffmann accompanied by a symphony orchestra, presenting the best tracks from his recent solo album, “Headbangers Symphony”, which includes metal versions of some of the world’s biggest classical compositions (e.g. from Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi).

And in the last but not least part, fans were able to bang their heads to Accept anthems (also accompanied by the orchestra), such as “Princess Of The Dawn”, “Breaker”, “Fast As A Shark” and “Metal Heart”, as well as to newer songs like “Stalingrad”, “Shadow Soldiers” and “Teutonic Terror”.
The finale is an eight-minute version of the classic “Balls To The Walls” full of fire.

Presenting the show / album recording in this format is ambitious and certainly a gamble, especially for Wolf Hoffmann delivering his classical material, and even more so via a full blown 50-piece orchestra at metal’s mecca renowned for its slogan of ‘faster, louder, harder’, suffice to say that on home ground and what must also be said, nothing short of a blinding performance by both band and orchestra, it’s remarkably pulled off putting Accept back on the world map via this monumental package that captures the spectacle in all its splendour, gargantuan sound and most of all, atmosphere.

As a longtime fan who follow the band since the ’80s, needless to say it’s that third section that’s enthusiasm me the most. Kudos has to be given to Mark Tornillo who has come a long way, and on certain tracks like the mighty ‘Stalingrad’ comes pretty damn close to actually sounding like Accept’s legendary vocalist.
However, in other places like on ‘Shadow Soldiers’ and a truly epic ‘Dying Breed’ he delivers a masterful performance in his own right.

The orchestra, for their part, prove their worth in actually enhancing pure metallic tracks like ‘Fast As A Shark’ and ‘Metal Heart’ by carefully adding emotional depth and peripheral dramatics where needed but without interfering with the actual formula of the songs, thus making these versions truly worthy of sitting in any Accept fan’s collection.

Long a dream of Hoffmann to combine the two elements of metal and classical, “Symphonic Terror – Live At Wacken 2017” must have gone well beyond a highlight performance in the band’s career to one of tremendous personal gratification and as a fan, the man and his band (along with the orchestra) have done us proud.
Highly Recommended

DISC 1
Part 1: Accept
01. Die By The Sword (new song)
02. Restless And Wild
03. Koolaid (new song)
04. Pandemic
05. Final Journey

Part 2: Headbanger’s Symphony
06. Night On Bald Mountain
07. Scherzo
08. Romeo And Juliet
09. Pathétique
10. Double Cello Concerto In G Minor
11. Symphony No. 40 IN G Minor

DISC 2
Part 3: Accept with Orchestra
12. Princess Of The Dawn
13. Stalingrad
14. Dark Side Of My Heart
15. Breaker
16. Shadow Soldiers
17. Dying Breed
18. Fast As A Shark
19. Metal Heart
20. Teutonic Terror
21. Balls To The Wall

Mark Tornillo – vocals
Wolf Hoffmann – guitar
Uwe Lulis – guitars
Peter Baltes – bass
Christopher Williams – drums

Pre Order:
www.amazon.de/Symphonic-Terror-Live-at-Wacken-2017/dp/B07HGR7NYG
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