EDITORS CHOICE
TRUE TO THE METAL FOR OVER 45 YEARS , FOUNDING MEMBER HOFFMANN TALKS “ TOO MEAN TO DIE ”, ACCEPTS ’ MOST AGGRESSIVE RELEASE SINCE the 80 ’ s .
Before the days of hair bands , heavy metal was aggressive and down right dangerous . Parents feared kids who started wearing jean jackets and leather with patches all around , now affectionately known as warrior jackets . Bands like Iron Maiden , Judas Priest , Krokus , Metallica , Dokken and the Scorpions seemed to adorn every jacket and right smack in the middle of all of them all was Accept . One of the last TRUE METAL BANDS , they refused to change with the times , even when the times were changing . Our reward is one of the best TRUE METAL albums we have heard in a long time . Accept ’ s Too Mean To Die !
Photo Credit : Wolf Hoffmann Facebook
Was the new record completed during or before the pandemic ?
WOLF : For the most part we were pretty much done . We just had a few more songs to finish up . We had to record the final pieces ourselves because our producer wasn ’ t able to come into the country . It wasn ’ t that big of a deal because he could see and listen in remotely . Other than that it didn ’ t affect us much .
This sound and style of this record takes us back to the heyday of the band .
WOLF : You can make all the predictions in the world of what the album is going to sound like because you really can ’ t plan an album . It just happens or it doesn ’ t . It ’ s kind of unpredictable in the end , how songs and albums turn out . Each album has a spirit in itself . It ’ s very organic in nature .
Mark Tornillo does an amazing vocal job on this record . He is a local NJ product that I used to share stages with .
WOLF : He really did . He ’ s an amazing singer . Especially on the slow song , the ballad . “ The Best Is Yet To Come ” shows the other dimension of him , the emotional , soulful side of him .
What does it mean to you that Accept is celebrating 45 years in the industry ?
WOLF : It ’ s scary as hell ! ( Laughs ) I mean I just turned 61 recently and in my mind im still 16 . Same numbers only backwards ( chuckles ). I don ’ t feel like 45 years have passed , but they have , because I have the albums to prove it . Metal keeps us young . We ’ re too mean to die anyway ( chuckles ).
Machines on Blast
The latest EP from Machines on Blast is Black Market Happi-
ness and it’s nothing but happy. There is not a single bad song
on the entire album for the diehard metal heads. Since 2013,
Evan Mitchell who is a total metal electro rock enthusiast is a
powerhouse when it comes to song writing. Evan indicated he
writes up to 30 songs for each album, chooses, then trash’s the
rest only to start over with the next album. Talking with Evan
and Alejandro who is the drummer in the band, I learned how
hard charging they are to bring some new to the scene and give
fans something to think about. When you listen to Black Market
Happiness, you will get it.
Unite Against Hate Festival
goes digital with resounding
success and support from
the UK Metal community.
Founder member Sarah Keetch says “We wanted to create
an event that not only embraced all the good work that the
foundation do and support them, but to give alternative acts
a platform purely based on their talent and performance and
not just whether they had the right manager or PR company
behind them.
Unite Against Hate Festival was set up by Sarah Keetch (Radar7 AMP) and
Carl Richardson (Fire Rock records) to ultimately raise funds and awareness
for The Sophie Lancaster Foundation. The charity does amazing work with
young people educating them about hate crimes by visiting them in schools
and emphasizing that it is “Ok to be different”.
The brutal murder of Sophie Lancaster, who ran to the aid of the boyfriend
Robert Maltby, whilst he was being attacked by a number of teenage boys
while walking through a Park in Lancashire, on 11 August 2007, shocked
the country. Both were left for dead. The youths attacked Robert and Sophie,
because they followed an “alternative culture’ and didn’t like the way they
looked. Many onlookers witnessed the attack and one of them called the para-
medics to their aid. However, when they arrived, they were so badly beaten
they couldn’t be identified initially. Robert survived the attack, but Sophie lost
her life. Subsequently two of the attackers were convicted of murder and sen-
tenced to life imprisonment.
After such a horrendous ordeal, Sylvia Lancaster, rather than just under-
standably grieve her daughter’s pointless murder, decided to set up a Foun-
dation in her legacy S.O.P.H.I.E. (Stamp Out Prejudice Hate & Intolerance
Everywhere) and in June 2014 was awarded an O.B.E. by the Queen for her
work on “Community Cohesion – Especially in Reduction of Hate Crime”.
The charity has been embraced in the UK by the alternative/ rock/ goth
culture and both Download Festival and Bloodstock Festival donate to the
charity annually.
At the time we noticed that many of our peer events were just
showcasing the same bands – some deservedly and some
were obviously based on who the industry wanted to currently
‘plug’. Working with so many artists over the years, we often
felt that the more creative deserved acts weren’t getting the
exposure they deserved, so we set about putting this right in
conjunction with raising awareness for a very worthy cause”
Perceived
Chris, Kevin and Charlie comprise this 3 Piece Band out of
Dallas Texas who are life long friends that decided to form
a band after a couple of rehearsals. Due to a constant rota-
tion around the Dallas area, these have gained a loyal fol-
lowing. Their debut EP which released on October 30th has
gained popularity worldwide due to songs such as “Not to Be”,
“Darkening” and “Living Hell”. You can not help but feel their
music in your sol from on the humblest bands I know.
In 2018 two events were held, one in Stoke and one in S.
Wales. Both showcased bands that were on the UP who need-
ed an extra push. Both events were well attended, and the
reputation started to grow.
In 2019 Carl stepped down from the events and Sarah
set about continuing the festival. She joined forces with
99WNRR’s The Highlander, who had already been heavily
publicising the events on his show and a new partnership was
formed.
2019 resulted in the festival visiting 4 cities; Aberdare,
Wolverhampton, Manchester and Swansea throughout
October – which in hindsight was a very difficult task!
Again, each event attracted a great response, with Manches-
ter specifically a success – and members of SOPHIE attended
to help promote. The Highlander took over as host for the
events and most of the bands were streamed online live.
Noxus
2016 was the year that Noxus formed in Charlotte, NC. Lis-
tening to a couple of tracks such as “Frayed” and “Red Ho-
rizon Sun” you can hear some serious thrash, melodic death
metal. James, Reese, Brandon and Thyshara have that total
metal smash that you just want to throw those horns up.
These Carolina Uprising Music Festival veterans are cur-
rently in the studio recording their latest EP and since en-
tering Raven’s Reveal they have been #1 on the charts for 2
weeks or in the Top 3. I would say they have become a Fan
Favorite. Yes, yes they have.
After a chaotic and fantastic 2019, Unite Against
Hate Festival opened up submissions for 2020.
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