Valkyrian Music

Wolf Hoffmann
Headbanger’s Symphony
Heavy metal, Neoclassical metal
Released: 1st July 2016via Nuclear Blast Records

After nearly twenty years Accept guitarist, Wolf Hoffmann has finally returned to his solo project work. Headbanger’s Symphony is an album that Wolf has been working on for a few years now, while on a break from Accept. This is a really beautiful record, whilst much heavier than 1997’s Classical, it still has a calm dignity to it and the simple beauty of the music is worth the price alone.

The sheer scale of the production on this album is absolutely massive. Everything feels big and you really can get swept away in the beautiful sounds.  Wolf’s guitaring is simply amazing as well.  The subtle little tonal shift and the quick quivers are simple yet really effective. There is absolutely no space wasted on this record. The Czech National Orchestra sounds simply divine with every passing second creating a near-perfect framework for Hoffmann to play with and he utilizes the time well.  I had to compare to anything it’s like the instrumental prog-rock of the the early 70’s, just in it’s imagination and the wandering spirit of the music. The whole album just feels epic.  Headbanger’s Symphony takes classic works of art and plays around with the ideas and the end result is a feast for your ears.

At the same time, the album will appeal to metal heads just fine as well.  Don’t think that this is some high brow art form.  At the end of the day it’s a musician playing around with ideas and with the music. There is plenty of energy and intensity to keep you hungry for more long after this is over.  It’s an album that will take your imagination to some strange and wonderful places. With great use of familiar classical pieces and blends that with contemporary metal for a greater experience than either could provide on their own. If you’re at all into symphonic metal music, you owe it to yourself to check this out. If you just want to hear what Wolf from Accept get’s upto away from the band, this is worth checking out.  Me… I’m just a music nerd so this was kinda up my alley from the get go.  

4/5

Mick Birchall

This entry was posted on 11th July 2016 at 9:41 am and is filed under Uncategorized with tags classic metal, headbangers' symphony, Heavy Metal, Nuclear Blast, Solo album, Wolf Hoffmann. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.