ACCEPT Announces First 2019 'Symphonic Terror' Shows With Orchestra

German/American heavy 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, shot on August 3, 2017 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 was an eight-minute version of ACCEPT's classic song "Balls To The Walls".

"We are so glad we recorded this unique show — this very special concert at Wacken will always stay in our memories," states ACCEPT guitarist and mastermind Wolf Hoffmann. And because what started as a premiere at Wacken caused a sensation and recognition worldwide, the "Symphonic Terror" will hit other cities live in April 2019. This can only mean one thing: ACCEPT will debut its orchestra tour throughout Europe in 2019, and today, the band has revealed the first tour dates for Germany.

Apr. 20 - Wuppertal - Stadthalle
Apr. 21 - Leipzig - Haus Auesee
Apr. 22 - Hamburg - Mehr!Theater
Apr. 23 - Fürth - Stadthalle
Apr. 25 - Saarbrücken-Congresshalle
Apr. 27 - München-Circus Krone

Hoffmann is already filled with anticipation. "Those who couldn’t be there at Wacken have never seen ACCEPT like this," he said. "But it's definitely worth it! On our last tour, I personally missed the orchestra in some songs. What I can already say is this: There will be some visual and musical surprises on the 'Symphonic Terror' tour that you wouldn’t exactly expect from ACCEPT. 2019 will be exciting!"

After the Wacken performance, Hoffmann told TotalRock's Whitney Alyson Ribbins: "It was phenomenal. We didn't really know what to expect. We did some rehearsals and stuff, but that was the first time we were ever on stage with an orchestra. It was totally different to what we normally do, but it sounded fantastic and it felt great. Everybody was smiling, the orchestra people had a lot of fun, the conductor was in a great mood and everybody was, like, 'This is fun.' It all went really, really smooth and it couldn't have gone better."

He continued: "A lot of preparation went into it — months of talking about it and organizing everything and writing the scores and writing all the sheet music for everybody, because playing with an orchestra, you can't just jam."