With Teutonic Titans 1976-2026 set for release on 4 September 2026 via Napalm Records, and UK shows set for Wolverhampton and London in August, Accept are welcoming us all to join the celebrations with their manifesto of Metal. For Wolf Hoffmann, the time is right. “I was never a fan of those nostalgia tours,” he told MetalTalk, “but after 50 years, I thought we had to do something special.”
Wolf Hoffmann is the type of guy who looks forward and says he never consciously thought about this landmark over the years. “Of course, it gets to 48 and 49 years,” he says, “and you think, wow, 50. That’s a big number. It’s like a lifetime.
“But I never think about the past. I always think about the here and now and plan for the future. I always avoided doing these big anniversary tours. 40 years of Balls To The Wall, 40 years this and 40 years that. We could have done this, but I always thought we had so much new stuff to show.”
But for the Accept 50-year celebrations, Wolf and the band thought they needed to do something special. “In the past, we always avoided that. We could have done a studio album with new songs. The Teutonic Titans idea was born because we always had guest musicians on stage (for example, Joel Hoekstra in 2024), and we found it so exciting to have other artists interpret our songs in a different way.
“We thought if we are gonna do something like that, then let’s do a full album and use songs that people haven’t heard that much, deep cuts of songs that have fallen off the radar over the years.”
Wolf, quite rightly, says he is proud of Teutonic Titans. “I never dreamt that our songs would have such a global reach amongst other musicians. I always saw us as this little band from Germany, especially in the early ’80s when we weren’t as connected as we are now.
“I didn’t realise that a musician on the other side of the world, somewhere in California, would take note of us and actually like what we do and be inspired by our own career path. I am still surprised when musicians come up to me today and tell me that it changed their lives when they first heard Fast As A Shark.”
For Teutonic Titans, the majority of the recording was completed remotely. “We met with some musicians, as they either didn’t have their own studio or were nearby. American musician and producer Zeuss (Chris Harris) did an amazing job, which was a massive undertaking to collect all the files and handle all the mixing and mastering, which he did in his own studio. You couldn’t do an album like this back in the ’80s.”
Was it easier back then to get noticed and become successful as a band? “I don’t think so,” Wolf says. “It’s maybe more difficult now to stand out as an artist, but it was difficult back then, too. If I think back, the record labels were the gods, and without a big record deal, nothing happened.
“And without selling millions of records, you didn’t earn any money. And you had to tour. Nowadays, there are no big record companies. There are small labels and independent labels. Some bands don’t even have a label.
“The income comes from live performances or selling merch, or in some cases, through YouTube or downloads. I am not entirely sure if it is better now or worse because it’s completely different now.”
The highlights of his 50-year career with Accept are plentiful. “There are performances you don’t forget, lots of ups and downs, but the most exciting times were the ’80s, when the whole Heavy Metal era was exploding.
“I can especially remember 1984 when we released Balls To The Wall, and we got a worldwide record deal. We toured the US for several months. This was a really exciting time for us.
“I try not to think about the difficult and dark ’90s. They weren’t so great. Ultimately, a 50-year career is a constant up and down, and you learn how to deal with that. But in the end, it’s the longevity that matters, and it doesn’t matter that we never had a number 1 or a number 2 in the charts. In the end, it’s not that important.
“The important thing is that we are still part of it, and we are currently having a great time. We tour the world, we have a worldwide fan community, and life couldn’t be better.”
Accept toured with Iron Maiden in the ’80s. “The funny thing is that the touring bit hasn’t changed at all over the years,” Wolf says. “It’s exactly how it was back then. You still have to climb onto that tour bus, get to the next location, stand on stage with five people, have your instrument in your hand and try to entertain your fans.
“It was an exciting time for us as a band from Germany to be touring the world. We were all young, and the Heavy Metal scene was young, and nobody knew what was gonna happen in the future.
“Of course, it was unimaginable that both bands are still around 40 years later. I always thought that one day it would be all over, and then there is another music genre, which there were, like punk, grunge. But somehow Heavy Metal didn’t go away, and the demand has actually increased over the years, which we didn’t expect.”
Over all this time, lineup changes and dynamics of the band and music style would have an influence. “Every musician who joined had their own style, and it changed the music a little bit,” Wolf says. “But I always saw it as my job as the last remaining original band member to make sure that the musical direction, the brand and the musical style of Accept didn’t change that much.
“We are in a lucky position that we have a musical direction and style that fans love and which we have mastered very well. So I always stayed away from experimenting, but instead stayed true to the style that fans love.”
Those early days saw the band driven in their ambitions, pushed by a desire to sing in English and not German. “We always wanted to be seen as a global band,” Wolf says. “Our heroes were Judas Priest, AC/DC and Deep Purple. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve that if we had sung in German, in those days anyway.
“We wanted to be part of that global arena of bands and to sing in English so people can understand us and take us seriously. Rammstein and others came much later.”
Now the focus is on Teutonic Titans and these August UK shows. Is there anything left on Wolf Hoffmann’s to-do list, something he still wants to achieve?
“I don’t really have a big milestone in mind,” he says. “I’ve already achieved things I never thought I would. But at the same time, I still have the drive to make the next album, the next tour, the next song better.
“I don’t sit back and say I’ve done everything, I don’t have to make an effort anymore.
“Accept will go on, and I always say the best is yet to come.”
Tickets for the KK’s Steel Mill and Indigo At The O2 shows are available from acceptworldwide.com.
Teutonic Titans 1976-2026 is set for release on 4 September 2026 via Napalm Records, and pre-orders are available from lnk.to/Accept-TeutonicTitans/napalmrecords. Every track features a different combination of vocals, guitars, bass, and drums, giving each classic a fresh edge.
Tobias Forge delivers a commanding performance on the track Save Us (I’m a Rebel, 1980), joined by Ray Luzier on drums. Phil Anselmo, Kirk Hammett, and Mikkey Dee tear through the speed metal classic Fast As A Shark (Restless and Wild, 1982).
Balls To The Wall surges with the powerful range of Metal God Rob Halford, alongside the guitar work of Matthias Jabs, while the reimagined Love Child is elevated by Billy Corgan and David Ellefson (both songs from Balls To The Wall, 1983).
Other guest stars on ACCEPT’s extraordinary release include K. K. Downing, Bobby Blitz, Hansi Kürsch, Chris Jericho, Ralf Scheepers, Billy Sheehan, Ola Englund, and Jeff Loomis.
The album also features a re-recording of Hellhammer (Eat The Heat, 1989), performed by ACCEPT’s current lineup: Wolf Hoffmann, bassist Martin Motnik, guitarist Philip Shouse and drummer Christopher Williams, joined by Jason McMaster on vocals. The album masterpiece was produced, mixed and mastered by legendary producer Zeuss.
