German/American heavy metal veterans ACCEPT celebrated the release of their new album, “The Rise Of Chaos”, with a special performance last Thursday, August 3 at the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany. The set consisted of three parts: a classic ACCEPT set, packed with new and old hits; ACCEPT guitarist Wolf Hoffmann playing tracks from his solo album, “Headbangers Symphony”, with an orchestra for the very first time; and the entire ACCEPT band sharing the stage with the orchestra, supported by a complex multimedia show.
This unique concert experience took place on this year’s “Night To Remember”, which made it even more special. The “Night To Remember” is a celebrated, long-lasting Wacken tradition; for one night of the festival, an established band does something unique and special with its performance.
Professionally filmed video footage of ACCEPT performing the song “Die By The Sword” at this year’s Wacken Open Air can be seen below. The track is taken from “The Rise Of Chaos”, which was released on August 4 via Nuclear Blast. The follow-up to 2014’s “Blind Rage” is the first ACCEPT album to feature the band’s latest additions, guitarist Uwe Lulis (GRAVE DIGGER, REBELLION) and drummer Christopher Williams.
Hoffmann told Spain’s MariskalRock TV about “The Rise Of Chaos”: “It was recorded by the same team as the last three albums — it was Andy Sneap producing and Mark Tornillo on vocals and Peter Baltes [bass] and myself in the band. We have two new members, but other than that, it was recorded and written exactly the same way as all the other previous three albums. [It was] recorded mainly in Nashville, mixed in England. And, yeah, we took all of last year to write the songs, and I think it sounds [like] typical ACCEPT.”
Regarding the “The Rise Of Chaos” title, Wolf said: “The title just seemed to come out of nowhere. It really seems to fit the times that we live in. It really means the world is getting more and more chaotic, and that’s what we feel like. So when we had the [title track], it seemed to just fit the times that we live in. It’s not really about any chaos in particular, but if you look at politics nowadays, there’s chaos; if you look at the global warming or the climate change, that’s chaotic; or a lot of the Syrian crisis and the refugees in the world, there’s so much chaos around us. So that’s what it is about.”
