German/American heavy metal veterans ACCEPT celebrated the release of their new album, "The Rise Of Chaos", with a special performance last Thursday, August 3 at the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany. The set consisted of three parts: a classic ACCEPT set, packed with new and old hits; ACCEPT guitarist Wolf Hoffmann playing tracks from his solo album, "Headbangers Symphony", with an orchestra for the very first time; and the entire ACCEPT band sharing the stage with the orchestra, supported by a complex multimedia show. This unique concert experience took place on this year's "Night To Remember", which made it even more special. The "Night To Remember" is a celebrated, long-lasting Wacken tradition; for one night of the festival, an established band does something unique and special with its performance. After the 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." Asked whether this was something he would like to do again, Wolf responded: "Yeah, I'd love to. For me, classical music... the sound of an orchestra is something that has always fascinated me. My whole life I have wanted to combine the two elements together. I've done it by using classical bits and pieces in my solos over the years, then I made a solo record, then I made a solo record with an orchestra and now finally live on stage with an orchestra like that, fifty people, it was a dream come true and hopefully we get to do it again some time." "The Rise Of Chaos" was released on August 4 via Nuclear Blast. The follow-up to 2014's "Blind Rage" is the first ACCEPT album to feature the band's latest additions, guitarist Uwe Lulis (GRAVE DIGGER, REBELLION) and drummer Christopher Williams.
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