Accept
Explore the band's historical lineups, musicians, and studio albums.
Active13 formations17 studio albums
Formation chronology
Newest first
Formation 13 of 13
Sep 25, 2025 – Present
Members
- Mark TornilloLead VocalsFrom Sep 2025
- Wolf HoffmannLead GuitarFrom Sep 2025
- Philip ShouseGuitarFrom Sep 2025
- Martin MotnikBassFrom Sep 2025
- Christopher WilliamsDrumsFrom Sep 2025
Formation facts
- Accept marked fifty professional years with Teutonic Titans 1976–2026, scheduled for September 4, 2026: nineteen reimagined catalog tracks performed with fifty guest musicians from across the rock and metal world. As of August 24, 2026, the anniversary project had been announced but not yet released.
- On 25 September 2025 Accept parted ways with Uwe Lulis and returned to a two-guitar lineup. The current band is Wolf Hoffmann, Mark Tornillo, Philip Shouse, Martin Motnik, and Christopher Williams.
Formation 12 of 13
2023 – Sep 24, 2025
Members
- Mark TornilloLead VocalsJan 2023 – Sep 2025
- Wolf HoffmannLead GuitarJan 2023 – Sep 2025
- Uwe LulisRhythm GuitarJan 2023 – Sep 2025
- Martin MotnikBassJan 2023 – Sep 2025
- Christopher WilliamsDrumsJan 2023 – Sep 2025
Formation facts
- Wolf Hoffmann has said 2024's Humanoid grew out of unease about artificial intelligence, robots, and how much control technology already has in everyday life. He stressed that it is not a strict concept album: the title track and imagery carry that concern, while the rest of the record explores other subjects. The core album credits are Mark Tornillo, Wolf Hoffmann, Uwe Lulis, Martin Motnik, and Christopher Williams. Philip Shouse had stepped back into a permanent live and special-guest role, and he contributed additional guitars rather than sitting as a sixth core member.
Studio albums
- Humanoid (Apr 2024)
Formation 11 of 13
Nov 1, 2019 – 2023
Members
- Mark TornilloLead VocalsNov 2019 – Jan 2023
- Wolf HoffmannLead GuitarNov 2019 – Jan 2023
- Uwe LulisRhythm GuitarNov 2019 – Jan 2023
- Philip ShouseGuitarNov 2019 – Jan 2023
- Martin MotnikBassNov 2019 – Jan 2023
- Christopher WilliamsDrumsNov 2019 – Jan 2023
Formation facts
- Martin Motnik was announced as Accept's bassist on 16 April 2019. Philip Shouse first stood in for Uwe Lulis on the 2019 Symphonic Terror orchestra tour, and the chemistry was good enough that the band kept both guitarists. On 1 November 2019 Accept presented Shouse as the formal third guitarist. Too Mean to Die was recorded by that six-piece. Wolf Hoffmann described the result as an "army of guitars," three-part lines and studio overdubs they could finally reproduce onstage.
Studio albums
- Too Mean to Die (Jan 2021)
Formation 10 of 13
Apr 12, 2015 – Nov 27, 2018
Members
- Mark TornilloLead VocalsApr 2015 – Nov 2018
- Wolf HoffmannLead GuitarApr 2015 – Nov 2018
- Uwe LulisRhythm GuitarApr 2015 – Nov 2018
- Peter BaltesBassApr 2015 – Nov 2018
- Christopher WilliamsDrumsApr 2015 – Nov 2018
Formation facts
- On 12 April 2015 Accept announced Uwe Lulis and Christopher Williams as the new guitarist and drummer. That five-piece recorded The Rise of Chaos.
- When Peter Baltes left Accept in 2018 after more than forty years, Wolf Hoffmann said the decision “killed” him and that they never had the sit-down he wanted. Baltes later described a band where artistic and business decisions had drifted away from him: once you are out of the room where choices are made, he asked, what is the point? The two accounts have never been reconciled in public.
Studio albums
- The Rise of Chaos (Aug 2017)
Formation 9 of 13
May 16, 2009 – Dec 28, 2014
Members
- Mark TornilloLead VocalsMay 2009 – Dec 2014
- Wolf HoffmannLead GuitarMay 2009 – Dec 2014
- Herman FrankRhythm GuitarMay 2009 – Dec 2014
- Peter BaltesBassMay 2009 – Dec 2014
- Stefan SchwarzmannDrumsMay 2009 – Dec 2014
Formation facts
- After Udo Dirkschneider declined another reunion, Wolf Hoffmann and Peter Baltes were jamming old Accept songs at a New Jersey-area studio when the studio owner suggested local singer Mark Tornillo. They invited him over simply to join the jam. Wolf has said that as soon as Tornillo began singing, he and Baltes looked at each other and realized a band they had not planned to revive suddenly had a new voice.
- On 28 December 2014 Accept parted ways with Herman Frank and Stefan Schwarzmann, closing the five-piece that had recorded Blood of the Nations, Stalingrad, and Blind Rage.
Studio albums
- Blind Rage (Aug 2014)
- Stalingrad (Apr 2012)
- Blood of the Nations (Aug 2010)
Formation 8 of 13
1995 – 1997
Members
- Udo DirkschneiderLead VocalsJan 1995 – Jan 1997
- Wolf HoffmannGuitarsJan 1995 – Jan 1997
- Peter BaltesBassJan 1995 – Jan 1997
- Michael CartelloneDrumsJan 1995 – Jan 1997
Formation facts
- Michael Cartellone, then of Damn Yankees, is the studio drummer on Predator, Accept's last album before the long recording silence that followed.
- After Predator, Accept went quiet as a recording band. In 2005, Udo Dirkschneider, Wolf Hoffmann, Peter Baltes, Herman Frank, and Stefan Schwarzmann reunited for a short run of classic-material festival shows with no new studio album attached. The dates were booked as a one-off rather than the start of a new recording cycle, although Wolf later said he hoped the door might remain open.
Studio albums
- Predator (Jan 1996)
Formation 7 of 13
1992 – 1994
Members
- Udo DirkschneiderLead VocalsJan 1992 – Jan 1994
- Wolf HoffmannGuitarsJan 1992 – Jan 1994
- Peter BaltesBassJan 1992 – Jan 1994
- Stefan KaufmannDrumsJan 1992 – Jan 1994
Formation facts
- In 1992 Accept reunited with Udo Dirkschneider for Objection Overruled, restoring the Hoffmann, Baltes, and Kaufmann studio core. On the follow-up Death Row, Kaufmann remained the primary drummer; Stefan Schwarzmann plays "Bad Habits Die Hard" and "Prejudice," the two tracks specifically credited to him.
Studio albums
- Death Row (Oct 1994)
- Objection Overruled (Feb 1993)
Formation 6 of 13
1988 – 1989
Members
- David ReeceLead VocalsJan 1988 – Jan 1989
- Wolf HoffmannGuitarsJan 1988 – Jan 1989
- Peter BaltesBassJan 1988 – Jan 1989
- Stefan KaufmannDrumsJan 1988 – Jan 1989
Formation facts
- Eat the Heat is David Reece's Accept studio album. Wolf Hoffmann recorded the guitars. Jim Stacey is pictured around the release and toured as second guitarist, but he did not play on the record. After Stefan Kaufmann injured his back on the 1989 U.S. tour, House of Lords drummer Ken Mary filled in for the rest of that run.
- Metal folklore still likes an onstage fistfight between David Reece and Peter Baltes. Manager Gaby Hauke said there was no onstage fight and no drug problem during Reece’s Accept tenure, but that something close to a fight happened backstage and the band separated from Reece the next day. Reece later said he slapped Baltes in Chicago and regretted it.
Studio albums
- Eat the Heat (May 1989)
Formation 5 of 13
1983 – 1987
Members
- Udo DirkschneiderLead VocalsJan 1983 – Jan 1987
- Wolf HoffmannLead GuitarJan 1983 – Jan 1987
- Jörg FischerRhythm GuitarJan 1983 – Jan 1987
- Peter BaltesBassJan 1983 – Jan 1987
- Stefan KaufmannDrumsJan 1983 – Jan 1987
Formation facts
- On the title track of 1985’s Metal Heart, Wolf Hoffmann folded Tchaikovsky’s “Slavonic March” into the intro and Beethoven’s “Für Elise” into his guitar solo. He later said he had no idea that mixing classical music into Accept this way would become one of his most recognizable trademarks.
- The 1985 video for “Midnight Mover,” from Metal Heart, was directed by Polish filmmaker Zbigniew Rybczyński, who ringed the band with a circle of synchronized film cameras and re-edited the footage so the viewpoint seemed to swing around frozen motion. It was an unusually early version of a visual idea that would become far more familiar years later.
- Jörg Fischer returned for 1985's Metal Heart and stayed through 1986's Russian Roulette. Accept felt that producer Dieter Dierks had pushed Metal Heart too far toward a polished, commercial sound, so for Russian Roulette the band took production back into its own hands and tried to recover a rougher edge.
- Udo Dirkschneider has been consistent that he was fired in 1987, not that he quit, amid a push toward a more American-friendly direction. The songs already written for the next Accept album were handed to him and became U.D.O.'s debut, Animal House. Accept briefly worked with British singer Rob Armitage after Udo left, then hired American David Reece.
Studio albums
- Russian Roulette (Apr 1986)
- Metal Heart (Mar 1985)
Formation 4 of 13
1982 – 1983
Members
- Udo DirkschneiderLead VocalsJan 1982 – Jan 1983
- Wolf HoffmannLead GuitarJan 1982 – Jan 1983
- Herman FrankRhythm GuitarJan 1982 – Jan 1983
- Peter BaltesBassJan 1982 – Jan 1983
- Stefan KaufmannDrumsJan 1982 – Jan 1983
Formation facts
- Gaby Hauke spotted the phrase “balls to the wall” in a British magazine and told Wolf Hoffmann to write a song with that title. He has said the riff and chorus arrived in minutes, the band finished the rest almost as fast, and he briefly worried they had accidentally copied something — then spent far more mixing time on that one track than on the rest of Balls to the Wall.
- Udo Dirkschneider has called Balls to the Wall the overnight American breakthrough: more than a hundred radio stations added the band, MTV put the title-track video in heavy rotation, and a tour with KISS opened a worldwide chapter nobody in the group had seen coming.
Studio albums
- Balls to the Wall (Dec 1983)
Formation 3 of 13
1982
Members
- Udo DirkschneiderLead VocalsJan 1982 – Jan 1982
- Wolf HoffmannGuitarsJan 1982 – Jan 1982
- Peter BaltesBassJan 1982 – Jan 1982
- Stefan KaufmannDrumsJan 1982 – Jan 1982
Formation facts
- Gaby Hauke became Accept’s manager and, under the pen name Deaffy, the band’s principal lyricist — starting on Restless and Wild and then writing the words that defined Balls to the Wall and the albums that followed. She kept the alias so attention would stay on the band, while quietly shaping image, titles, and lyrics that were more political and pointed than typical early-eighties metal.
- The odd intro to “Fast as a Shark,” from Restless and Wild, came from an old German children’s/folk recording in the record collection of studio owner Dieter Dierks’s mother, including a young Dieter singing on “Ein Heller und ein Batzen.” Wolf Hoffmann wanted listeners to think, for a few seconds, that the wrong record had been put on; the band scratched the old recording and pulled the needle away before “Fast as a Shark” itself kicked in.
- Jörg Fischer was already gone when Accept recorded Restless and Wild. Wolf Hoffmann tracked the studio guitars himself. Herman Frank later appeared in some credits, but those parts were recorded before he joined.
Studio albums
- Restless and Wild (Oct 1982)
Formation 2 of 13
1979 – 1982
Members
- Udo DirkschneiderLead VocalsJan 1979 – Jan 1982
- Wolf HoffmannLead GuitarJan 1979 – Jan 1982
- Jörg FischerRhythm GuitarJan 1979 – Jan 1982
- Peter BaltesBassJan 1979 – Jan 1982
- Stefan KaufmannDrumsJan 1979 – Jan 1982
Formation facts
- “I’m a Rebel,” the title track of Accept’s 1980 album I’m a Rebel, was written by Alex Young — older brother of AC/DC’s Angus and Malcolm Young — and credited under the name George Alexander. AC/DC had already demoed the song and never released it; Accept’s publisher brought it over as a possible radio door-opener. Wolf Hoffmann has said Alex Young came to the studio, that language and temperament made the collaboration awkward, and that AC/DC’s version still had a magic Accept’s did not.
- After I'm a Rebel left Accept still searching for its identity, the band stopped letting outside voices steer the music. Udo Dirkschneider later called 1981's Breaker "the birth of Accept's true sound." Peter Baltes took the lead vocal on "Breaking Up Again" and added vocals on "Midnight Highway," sharing the album with Udo rather than staying only on bass.
- Wolf Hoffmann later admitted that the word “Censored” on the Breaker sleeve, next to “Son of a Bitch,” was the band’s own idea. Nobody had banned the song. They simply guessed that a fake stamp would make people lean in closer.
- Udo has credited Judas Priest, on the 1981 tour after Breaker, with teaching Accept how to become a stage act rather than a band that simply stood and played. Wolf Hoffmann remembered watching Priest every night from the wings like kids seeing how the job was actually done.
Studio albums
- Breaker (Mar 1981)
- I'm a Rebel (Jun 1980)
Formation 1 of 13
1976 – 1979
Members
- Udo DirkschneiderLead VocalsJan 1976 – Jan 1979
- Wolf HoffmannLead GuitarJan 1976 – Jan 1979
- Jörg FischerRhythm GuitarJan 1976 – Jan 1979
- Peter BaltesBassJan 1976 – Jan 1979
- Frank FriedrichDrumsJan 1976 – Jan 1979
Formation facts
- Accept's professional years are counted from 1976. Founding guitarist Gerhard Wahl was part of that early working lineup before Jörg Fischer joined and recorded the self-titled debut. Frank Friedrich is the drummer on that first album, the only Accept studio record tracked with him behind the kit.
- Udo Dirkschneider has said the group was once called Band X, and that the name Accept came from a Chicken Shack album titled Accept that he bought. The word felt international and easy to understand — an unexpectedly ordinary origin for a metal institution.
- Udo has also recalled that early on, Accept could still draw only a few dozen people in Germany while Belgium and the Netherlands sometimes packed in a thousand or more. The first real hint that the band might have a life beyond German clubs came on the other side of the border.
Studio albums
- Accept (Jan 1979)