WOLF HOFFMANN, THE LAST MAN STANDING FROM ACCEPT’S ORIGINAL LINEUP, TALKS GEAR, RIFF CONSTRUCTION AND THE BAND’S NEW ANDY SNEAP-PRODUCED ALBUM, HUMANOID

By Andrew Daly

Wolf Hoffmann on stage in Madrid, Spain, January 21, 2023

ALDARA ZARRAOA/REDFERNS

THE OLD GUARD will remember German heavy metal outfit Accept for their classic Eighties records Restless and Wild (1982), Balls to the Wall (1983) and Metal Heart (1985). And that’s with good reason, as those records are iconic within traditional metal circles.

The Nineties, however, were a different story. Shifts in Accept’s lineup and some interesting but somewhat unsuccessful experimentation led to a few albums that read back a little funny. Though resilient, by the Noughties, Accept was on the ropes. But in 2010, the period that lone heyday holdover Wolf Hoffmann calls “a new era” began. Now, 14 years later, with Humanoid, Accept is looking stronger than ever.

It’d be all too easy to take the shiny, new energy surrounding Humanoid and label it as Accept’s best. Hoffmann, ever pragmatic, is aware of this, saying, “That’s always a tough one because, man, I’ve been really close to it. I don’t even like to judge my own records, to be honest. I think it’s up to the fans. There’s always a tendency to think, ‘The latest album is the greatest of all,’ you know? Of course, you’re going to be so proud of it when you’ve just finished recording it; I get that.”