The last studio album from Teutonic titans Accept was released in 2014. Since then, the band has seen some lineup changes with the departure of guitarist Herman Frank and drummer Stefan Schwarzmann. According to a new interview with guitarist Wolf Hoffmann, Accept plan to release their next album sometime next year.

Hoffmann was discussing the band's songwriting process with Metal-Rules and revealed the timetable. "It has always been the same formula for years where Peter (Baltes, bass) and I jam on ideas, add some scratch vocals then combine it with other elements of songs," Hoffmann says. "We let it sit and simmer for a little while and come back to it. It’s a piecemeal process that takes shape over a course of many weeks. Very seldom do we write a song after just one go at it. It’s always about coming back to it and going over it again and again."

The guitarist continued, "Once we have a demo that’s worth listening to and an idea of what the song is about, we give it to Mark Tornillo to write the lyrics and put his spin on it. It’s meant to be released in 2017. It’s always hard to plan these things, we made a mistake a few years back and committed to a date as the tour was booked and then had to scramble to finish the album. It wasn’t fun and we don’t want to do it again. We just want to work hard until we feel it’s ready."

He also talked about the life of a touring musician: "If you’re a touring musician you have a very different schedule than most people. I wouldn’t change anything and didn’t miss anything. Nobody is forcing us to do what we do. We do it for the love of music. Travel is a necessary evil and nobody is really complaining at the end of the day. I can tell you a secret; I don’t like musicians that are always complaining making their lives sound so hard. At the end of the day it’s a pretty sweet gig to have."

Though their focus is on recording the new album, Accept do have some live dates coming up. They play in Sioux Falls, S.D. on March 3 and St. Charles, Ill. on March 5. In April they have a gig in Austria before heading to South America for a couple weeks. For their complete tour schedule, go here.

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