Legendary metal: Germany's Accept brings new album 'Humanoid' to the masses

True metal never dies.

It carries on its legacy with German headbangers Accept. Formed in 1976, it carries on the torch for true heavy metal that has seen three generations of concertgoers who are singing every lyric and banging their heads.

It is a new world, and so suits the name of its latest album, “Humanoid.” There is no theme or rhyme or reason for its latest album. It is a hodgepodge of music that touches base on current discussions such as AI.

“I’m not really sure if it’s good or bad,” said Wolf Hoffmann, guitarist and original member of Accept. “I noticed the shift from when I grew up and when, for the longest time, everybody thought art is just something that can be created by humans, you need emotions, intelligence or feelings, and all these things to create art. And here we are, all of a sudden, we live in an era when machines can do art or what looks like art, and it sounds like art, it might not be art, but it’s damn close, and it’s scary.”

Hoffmann ponders if artificial intelligence will replace humanity.

“Is there going to be a time when people don’t even go to concerts anymore?” he questioned. “Or maybe there’s concerts by machines. Or maybe the museums are going to be full of art that were all created by, cloned by machines. It’s just interesting times. And I don’t have a solution for it. I don’t even know if it’s good or bad.”

The album lightens up with a fun song, “Straight Up Jack,” that has an AC/DC vibe and revolves around drinking at a bar.

“Everybody needs a good drinking song,” Hoffmann said. “This song was literally created after the lyrics were written first (by vocalist Mark Tornillo). He’s a guy who hangs out at the bar. He wrote these lyrics. And it took us several attempts to write the right kind of music for it, but in the end, it turned into this sort of fun, easygoing, drinking kind of song, very AC/DC influenced, obviously, but it’s a lot of fun. And we play it live every night. People love it. It’s very easy and catchy, and it’s fun.”

He added, “Straight Up Jack,” has a double meaning, of being direct.

“Give it to me straight, you know, don’t beat around the bush, tell me what’s on your mind, just give it to me straight,” he explained.

Hoffmann, who is an original member of Accept, is not ready to hang up his hat any time soon.

“I don’t really know, man, I just wonder myself sometimes, because here I am, 64 years old now, and I’ve been doing this since I was 16,” he said when asked what the key is to longevity. “We’re coming up to our 50th anniversary, and I can’t believe it’s that number, it’s like a scary number, if I think about it, but it doesn’t feel that way to me,” Hoffmann said.

Music and touring continues to keep Hoffman young.

“It’s just something that never gets old, it’s just amazing,” he said. “So I guess that as long as we feel that we’re still going to keep doing it, I mean, there’s a reason why nobody ever wants to retire. I mean, I’m not, by far, anywhere near retirement age, but there’s a lot of people who are still out there doing it that are my age or even much older. The idea of just stopping and doing nothing or staying at home, is not very appealing. That’s why musicians never retire.”

Accept has seen its share of generations attending its concerts, keeping the flame of metal alive.

“It’s very humbling and very rewarding, in a way, when I meet people that tell me that, they started to (listen to) Accept and they’ve been influenced by us,” Hoffmann said. “It’s an amazing honor for me. Sometimes it blows my mind how many musicians are out there who tell me that. It’s just a wonderful feeling.”

He added that Accept also had influences from other bands.

“We had our heroes we looked up to that we stole a little bit or borrowed from their style, made it our own style, and the next generation will do that too,” Hoffmann explained. “They take a little bit from here, a little bit from there, and then that’s the way it’s supposed to be. It’s almost like passing the torch.”