ACCEPT Releases Music Video For 'Samson And Delilah' Featuring Violin Vixen AVA-REBEKAH RAHMAN

Legendary German/American metallers ACCEPT have released a new music video for "Samson And Delilah", a song that originally appeared on the band's 2021 album, "Too Mean To Die". The performance footage was filmed on February 18, 2023 in Filderstadt, Germany during ACCEPT's "Too Mean To Die" European tour.

Says ACCEPT: "On our sellout 'Too Mean To Die' European Tour, we were lucky enough to have a stunning guest artist. For a few shows, violinist Ava-Rebekah Rahman joined us to perform a never heard version of 'Samson And Delilah' to a mesmerized audience! It's now available to be seen by everyone on our YouTube channel and will also be released on all music streaming platforms 2nd June! Enjoy Metalheads!"

When Rahman's participation in ACCEPT's February 2023 shows was first announced, the band said in a statement: "Ava has performed all over the globe as a Soloist from Carnegie Hall to the Berlin Philharmonic. We first met and collaborated with her on our 'Symphonic Terror' tour in 2019 where she 'duelled' with [ACCEPT guitarist] Wolf Hoffmann on many musical pieces and we couldn't think of a better fit for a hot musical Delilah!;-)"

In April 2022, Rahman announced via Instagram that she had been romantically involved with Hoffmann for the previous three years, calling it a "mad, crazy messy, blissful, soaring, heart-breaking heart-healing union and love". She added: "We came together through music… He asked me to be the solo violinist on his #Symphonicterror tour. We first fell for the way each other played .. the others musicality, phrasing, the handling of our instruments, the tone….the sound of souls inside the music. To say we have am insane musical connection is an understatement! As a professional musician, I know how rare it is to have THAT chemistry with another colleague. Let alone between a classical violinist and metal guitarist! The chemistry of not even needing to to read or look at the other to play in perfect unison. Familiar yet thrilling. Little did we know at the time we would end up in the most extraordinarily loving relationship of our lives as man and woman… Especially as he had been with a partner for 40 years and I had built a whole life with someone else. It wasn't an easy ride to get where we are but Life truly is full of wonder when we keep opening our hearts over and over again…"

Wolf had previously been married to Gaby Hoffmann, who had served as ACCEPT's longtime manager, designer and lyricist virtually since the band's inception.

In July 2019, it was announced that Gaby was officially retiring, with an official statement on ACCEPT's web site explaining that she was "a bit tired after many years of intense activity, and she needs some rest and time for herself. It's not a farewell," the statement added. "Her heart will still be with us, but she won't engage in professional activities anymore."

In a 2014 interview with MusicInterviewCorner, Wolf credited his then-wife with coming up with the visual imagery for ACCEPT. He explained: "Well, my wife and our manager, Gaby, has a lot of these ideas over the years; she's responsible for a lot of the lyrics and a lot of the album covers, a lot of ideas. Everything around the band, really, in one way or another way goes back to her ideas. She's really the invisible, silent force behind this band. Sometimes we're just like puppets on a string and she's guiding us from above. A mind controller."

Asked if it's an advantage being married to the band's manager, Wolf said: "Of course it is. It can be a disadvantage too, because you've gotta do what she says a lot of times."

After then-ACCEPT bassist Peter Baltes denied that he was jealous about the fact that Wolf was married to ACCEPT's manager, Hoffmann said: "This has been going on for so long. I mean, I've known Peter for, what? 40 years now. Can you imagine? We've been playing and writing songs together for all these years, so something seems to work here."

Baltes exited ACCEPT in November 2018 after 42 years with the band.