ACCEPT guitarist Wolf Hoffmann spoke to SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” about the band’s latest studio album, “Too Mean To Die”, which was released on January 29 via Nuclear Blast. The LP is the group’s first without bassist Peter Baltes, who exited ACCEPT in November 2018. He has since been replaced by Martin Motnik. ACCEPT‘s lineup has also been expanded with the addition of a third guitarist, Philip Shouse, who originally filled in for Uwe Lulis during 2019’s “Symphonic Terror” tour, before being asked to join the band permanently.
Asked if he has had a chance to talk to Peter since his departure from ACCEPT and if he has gotten clarification on why Baltes left the group, Wolf said: “No, man. That’s kind of the sad part about it. He kind of made that decision alone, and we never really had a sitdown and a man-to-man talk that I was hoping we’d have. He just announced it to the world, and that was it, and at that point, it was almost too late. I have to respect his decision.
“I miss him very much, and I think he’s always gonna be my buddy or whatever,” Wolf continued. “But right now, we don’t really have much in common. Because when somebody leaves the band, it’s usually that we never really see them much again, as sad as it is. I wish we would, and maybe one day we will. But right now, we don’t, really. But we didn’t have any fights or anything. I can only speculate why he left the band, but I’d rather not.”
Hoffmann was also asked if he was surprised to see Baltes working briefly with original ACCEPT singer Udo Dirkschneider on some new music last year. He responded: “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t say much about that. Again, I can only speculate what that was all about. At the end of the day, we do our thing, and everybody has to know for themselves what they wanna do. Yeah, let me not say as much about that as I can, please.”
Dirkschneider‘s long-running metal band U.D.O. released an album last July called “We Are One”, featuring contributions from two other former ACCEPT members, Baltes and Stefan Kaufmann. Baltes and Kaufmann also reunited with Dirkschneider in the studio to record a song called “Where The Angels Fly” as a tribute to the frontline workers who have protected others from the pandemic.
“Too Mean To Die” was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee with British producer Andy Sneap (JUDAS PRIEST, MEGADETH), who has been responsible for the studio sound of ACCEPT since 2010.
