Heavy Metal legends ACCEPT will release their new album Blind Rage on August 15 via Nuclear Blast Records. The influential group's 14th studio album was produced by renowned audio engineer Andy Sneap (Megadeth, Napalm Death, Opeth) and is the follow-up to 2012's Stalingrad, which debuted at #81 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and was hailed as "brilliant" and a record that "the traditional metalhead will really cherish" by Goldmine.
The first single from Blind Rage, "Stampede", will precede the full-length album on July 11, available digitally and as a limited vinyl edition. The band recently filmed a video for "Stampede", which will make its online premiere this summer.
"Whatever we do on record, it's there for eternity," says ACCEPT guitarist Wolf Hoffmann. "If you do something great it's not something people throw away tomorrow. Songs we wrote 30 years ago are still loved by fans today. That teaches you to be careful with what you release and make sure you like it yourself. With Blind Rage, we have a collection of songs with the classic ACCEPT feel, and -- as always -- there's an overriding theme of aggression and rage in our music." "Otherwise, it wouldn't be metal," he concludes.
Built around the songwriting nucleus of Hoffmann (guitars) and bassist Peter Baltes, ACCEPT's beginnings can be traced back to the late 1970's. The German band played a pivotal role in the development of speed and thrash metal, which emerged in the early to mid-1980's and along with Judas Priestand Iron Maiden, ACCEPT has delivered an undeniable impact on the global metal scene. The group has penned an innovative and pioneering body of work and some of the most influential metal albums of all time, including Restless and Wild (1982; which included "Fast as a Shark", the first speed metal song ever put to tape), Balls to the Wall (1984; the iconic title track is still the group's most well known song to date and has become a worldwide metal anthem) and Metal Heart (1985). ACCEPT's premier status as ambassadors of the genre has led to pop culture crossover into film (The Wrestler), television (Justified, Beavis and Butthead) and video games (Grand Theft Auto, Guitar Hero) and its popularity and status as one of the world's exemplary heavy metal bands has allowed the band to flourish for decades with no sign of slowing down. The band's two previous albums -- Blood of the Nations (2010) and Stalingrad (2012) have charted internationally, topping both critic and fan polls in the process.
