Early years (1968–1982) Accept evolved from an earlier group called Band X, formed in 1968 by lead vocalist
Udo Dirkschneider. X. After Dirkschneider finished his military service in 1972, he reformed the band changed its name to Accept, influenced by the album
Accept by the British blues band
Chicken Shack. For many years, Accept went through numerous line-up changes. This instability essentially kept the band on an amateur level, making sporadic appearances in festival concerts. Accept's professional career began in 1976, with Dirkschneider, along with
Wolf Hoffmann (lead guitar),
Peter Baltes (bass), Gerard Wahl (rhythm guitar) and Frank Friedrich (drums), when they were invited to play at one of the first
rock and roll festivals in Germany — Rock am Rhein. Following the festival, the band was offered a recording deal. Wahl would soon after leave the group and was replaced by
Jörg Fischer. Their first recording was the self-titled
Accept album, which was released in 1979, but did not achieve much commercial success. Friedrich quit the band before the release of
Accept and was replaced by
Stefan Kaufmann, making it the bands first stable lineup. This line-up recorded ''
I'm a Rebel'' in 1980. "
I'm a Rebel" was originally written for
AC/DC and recorded by the band but never released by them. The album brought some media attention, and the band was invited to make a televised appearance. In 1981, Accept's third studio album,
Breaker, was released, and the band employed manager
Gaby Hauke. The same year, Accept served as a supporting act on
Judas Priest's
World Wide Blitz Tour, and obtained attention outside of Europe for the first time. The band's fourth studio album,
Restless and Wild was released in 1982. Fischer left before the recording of the album began, as did his intended replacement,
Jan Koemmet.
Restless and Wild saw an evolution in the band's sound, which incorporated characteristics defining the genre later dubbed
speed metal. Gaby Hauke was credited as "Deaffy" on two of the album's tracks.
Mainstream success (1983–1987) Accept's fifth studio album,
Balls to the Wall, was released in 1983, now with guitarist
Herman Frank (ex-
Sinner). Udo Dirkschneider had left the band at this time but returned when the album was being recorded. The album was more conceptual and included lyrical themes about
politics,
sexuality and human relationships. During a 1983 show in their hometown, the band met Jörg Fischer by chance and on Hauke's insistence, Fischer rejoined the band. A world tour followed through 1984, including the
Monsters of Rock festival. By this time, the band was supported by
Bad Steve, a band which was led by former Accept and Band X members
Dieter Rubach,
Jan Koemmet and Frank Friedrich. The band also opened for
Iron Maiden on their
World Slavery Tour.
Metal Heart was released in 1985. Produced by
Dieter Dierks (then-known for working with
Scorpions), it presented the band's creative peak. Accept toured the world supporting the album, and documented the live shows with the live mini-album
Kaizoku-Ban. The follow-up album,
Russian Roulette, was released in 1986. In 1987, Udo Dirkschneider was fired from the band, and later decided to embark on a solo career. According to Wolf Hoffmann, Dirkschneider was never fired but it was rather a mutual decision within the band to part ways. Supporting this decision, the songwriting team in Accept wrote his entire solo album, released in 1987 as
Animal House under the band moniker
U.D.O. David Reece period and first hiatus (1988–1991) Parallel to work on
Animal House, Accept started to audition vocalists. The band tried out a few singers, including
Ken Tamplin and
Baby Tuckoo singer
Rob Armitage, whom they even featured in promo photos and metal magazine interviews, and also recorded demos with. Armitage also performed live with the band and one of the shows with him was reviewed by
Metal Hammer magazine. However, American vocalist
David Reece was chosen and this new lineup recorded and released
Eat the Heat in 1989. Fischer left again before the recording of the album.
Jim Stacey joined on rhythm guitar for the album's promotional tour. Accept toured in support of the album that year with bands like
Metal Church,
W.A.S.P.,
Danzig and
Armored Saint. Accept's career came to a sudden halt when Stefan Kaufmann sustained a serious injury to his back during the tour in support of the album. He was briefly replaced by
House of Lords drummer
Ken Mary for the remainder of the US tour. By the time the tour ended in late 1989, the band decided that without Kaufmann, and with differences surfacing with Reece, it was time to cease their activities for the time being.
Reunion with Dirkschneider (1992–1996) The live album
Staying a Life, recorded in 1985, was released in 1990 as a souvenir celebrating their career. A few years later the ex-members met with Dirkschneider and decided to relaunch the band with core members Dirkschneider, Hoffmann, Baltes and Kaufmann. Their comeback album,
Objection Overruled, was released in 1993 and was a qualified success in Europe and the United States.
Arjen Lucassen of
Vengeance was hired as touring guitarist but ended up leaving before the tour started.
Return with Mark Tornillo and Blood of the Nations (2009–2011) At the end of May 2009, rumors again surfaced of a possible Accept reformation, when bassist
Peter Baltes revealed he spent a weekend at his house in Pennsylvania "shredding away" with guitarist
Wolf Hoffmann. "Something amazing is in the works", Baltes explained. "As soon as I can, I'll let everybody know. Let's make the 'Metal Heart' beat again." A coincidental meeting between Accept and former
T.T. Quick singer Mark Tornillo at this informal jam session occurred shortly after Tornillo was announced as the new vocalist. The new line-up made their live debut on 8 May 2010 at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City, their first American concert in fifteen years. On 21 May 2010, the video for "Teutonic Terror" was number 5 on the worldwide video charts in all genres on MySpace, topping such artists as
Miley Cyrus,
Justin Bieber and
Christina Aguilera. The video also topped the MySpace Global Metal Charts at number 1. On 13 June 2010, Accept opened for
AC/DC in Stuttgart, Germany, and on 25 June 2010, they headlined the
Sonisphere Festival in Romania and Turkey. With a set of over two hours, classics like "Balls to the Wall", "Metal Heart" and "Princess of the Dawn" were played along with the new album material.
Blood of the Nations was released in Europe on 20 August 2010 and made a chart debut at number 4 in the official German Media Control Charts, the band's second-highest chart debut in their career.
Blood of the Nations was released on 4 September 2010 in Japan, and on 18 September in the United States. Accept spent 80 days on a summer tour traveling over 65,000 km and playing for over 450,000 fans. In October, the band appeared at the prestigious Japanese festival
Loud Park outside of Tokyo to 40,000 fans along with
Ozzy Osbourne,
Motörhead and
Stone Sour. Within a month of the release of
Blood of the Nations, Wolf Hoffmann told "Metal Asylum": "We are already thinking about and writing for the next record. We've all missed doing Accept and we realized we missed doing this. Of course, we are not 20 years old anymore and not ready to do just anything to be successful, we're not that desperate. [laughs] We are looking to do what makes sense and that's fun."
Stalingrad and Blind Rage (2012–2014) , Belarus, 2011) has been Accept's guitarist since the band's inception in 1976. Accept worked with
Andy Sneap again to produce their thirteenth studio album, completed in early 2012. Entitled
Stalingrad, it was released in April 2012. On 8 April 2013, Wolf Hoffmann told Chile's Radio Futuro that Accept had begun writing new material for their fourteenth studio album and would "definitely go back to the studio as soon as [they] can." Four months later, on 9 August at the Bloodstock Open Air festival 2013, Wolf told Metal Shock Finland: Accept released their fourteenth studio album
Blind Rage on 15 August 2014 and on their world tour, they played in Australia for the very first time.
Blind Rage became Accept's first album to debut at number one on the charts in their home country.
Departures of two members and The Rise of Chaos (2014–2017) On 28 December 2014, guitarist
Herman Frank announced that he had left Accept again. Later that day, Accept announced that drummer
Stefan Schwarzmann had also left the band. On 12 April 2015, Accept announced new guitarist and drummer, respectively
Uwe Lulis and Christopher Williams. On 5 June 2015, prior to the band's performance at the South Park festival in
Tampere, Finland, bassist
Peter Baltes told Kaaos TV that Accept planned to begin work on a new album after the conclusion of the
Blind Rage tour. Asked in a July 2015 interview about the band's future, guitarist
Wolf Hoffmann replied, "We will continue for a few more weeks, this run of touring, and then we'll take a little break and come back in the fall, but we're pretty much wrapping up the
Blind Rage tour at this point; it's the very last phase of this whole cycle. And then the next album will have to be written and to be recorded, and how long that's gonna take and when that's all gonna happen, who knows? But it'll happen; that's all I know." Hoffmann stated that the new album would be released around July or August 2017. Like their previous three albums, the album was produced by
Andy Sneap, making it Accept's fourth collaboration with him. On 16 April 2017, Accept announced that the album, titled
The Rise of Chaos, would be released on 4 August. On 2 June 2017, the band released the title track single digitally via Nuclear Blast accompanied by new artwork.
Split with Peter Baltes, Too Mean to Die and Humanoid (2018–2025) In a September 2018 interview with The Foundry, guitarist
Wolf Hoffmann confirmed that Accept had begun the songwriting process for the follow-up to
The Rise of Chaos. He stated, "We started putting down some riffs here and there, but the majority of the stuff will happen after we stop touring because it's really hard to do this on the road for me." On 27 November 2018, bassist
Peter Baltes announced that he had left Accept after 42 years as a member. According to the band, "Peter needed a change in his life and we wish him all the best. He will always be part of the Accept family and to honor his tribute to music history, we should all wish him well." With Baltes' departure, Hoffmann remains the last member of the original lineup in the band. Baltes was filled in on bass by Danny Silvestri for the band's performance at the 2019 edition of the
70000 Tons of Metal cruise. On 16 April 2019, former
Uli Jon Roth sideman
Martin Motnik was announced as Baltes' permanent replacement. Three days later, Accept released a special seven-inch single called "Life's a Bitch", which was their first song in two years and first one without Baltes. On 1 November 2019, Accept announced that Philip Shouse, previously a touring member, had joined the band as their third guitarist, thus converting Accept to a sextet. On 2 October 2020, Accept released "The Undertaker" as the first single from their upcoming sixteenth studio album
Too Mean to Die, released on 29 January 2021. Their sixteenth studio album
Too Mean to Die only narrowly missed the top of the German charts. It was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic in
Nashville and produced by
Andy Sneap in the UK. About their then-new album, the band said: "We are too mean to die! Weeds don't go away! Accept won't get down!" Touring in support of the album began 2 July 2021 at Penn's Peak in Pennsylvania. The touring cycle of
Too Mean to Die lasted for nearly two years, which included a headlining U.S. tour in the fall of 2022 with Narcotic Wasteland, followed by a European tour in January and February 2023 with
Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons. The latter tour was initially scheduled to take place in January and February 2022, but the COVID-19 pandemic meant that it would be postponed for a year. On 17 February 2022, Accept announced that they had signed a worldwide deal with
Napalm Records. In July, Hoffmann announced that the band had begun working on new material for the follow-up to
Too Mean to Die. Accept toured in early 2023. In June 2023, bassist Martin Motnik confirmed that Accept had begun demoing songs for the album. On 6 February 2024, the band announced
Humanoid as the title of the album and that it would be released on 26 April, with a supporting tour to follow. The band played
Wacken Open Air in August of 2024. On 25 September 2025, Accept announced that they had parted ways with guitarist
Uwe Lulis, and instead of replacing him, would revert to "the traditional two guitar player lineup".
50th anniversary celebration (2026–present) To coincide with their 50th anniversary, Accept will release a collaboration album on 4 September 2026, titled
Teutonic Titans 1976–2026. It will include contributions by
Billy Corgan,
Sebastian Bach, current or former members of
Judas Priest,
Scorpions,
Ghost,
Pantera,
Overkill,
Testament, and individual members of the "Big Four" of thrash metal bands (
Metallica's
Kirk Hammett,
Anthrax's
Frank Bello, former
Megadeth bassist
David Ellefson, and current
Slayer and longtime
Exodus guitarist
Gary Holt). ==Legacy==