ACCEPT frontman Mark Tornillo, who takes original vocalist Udo Dirkschneider's place on the band's new album, Blood Of The Nations, is featured in a new interview with Metal Exiles. An excerpt is available below.

Q: You made a comment about not wanting to fill Udo’s shoes and after listening to the record, I believe that you have kicked his out of the limelight. Did people actually think you should sound like Udo?

Tornillo: "I have been compared to him obviously before this and some other singers as well but I try to do my own thing. At this point obviously I am going to try to make them sound as much as the originals as possible because the fans deserve that but when it comes time for the new songs I have to be my own guy."

Q: One of the big surprises I guess for Accept is how quick the music industry snapped to attention when you guys announced that you were going to do a new record. Were you surprised at how quickly the industry thought the band was still viable?

Tornillo: "It just blew us all away; we did not expect it to happen like this. We are all very grateful and it is turning out to be a hell of a ride."

Q: I know the guys in Accept are great songwriters so what did you bring when you came on board?

Tornillo: "When I first came in I had no idea how we would work but it turned out to be a total collaboration among Wolf, Peter and I. Peter only lives about 40 minutes so we got together and wrote a lot and Wolf came up from Nashville quite a bit as well. I wrote about 90% of the lyrics as well as using some of their ideas. I had a lot more input than I thought I would have, let’s put it that way. I did not know how it was going to play out but they are a great bunch of guys to work with."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Accept recently announced their European tour for 2011 and are now confirming additional shows. Due to popular demand, Accept will be coming to Scandinavia as well. Tour dates now include:

January

14 - Osnabruck, Germany - Halle Gartlage
15 - Bad Arolsen / Kassel, Germany - Outback
16 - Antwerp, Belgium - Hof ter Lo
18 - Paris, France - Elysee Montmartre
19 - Biarritz, France - L`attabal
21 - Madrid, Spain - Venue TBA
22 - Pamplona, Spain - Venue TBA
23 - Barcelona, Spain - Venue TBA
25 - Pratteln, Switzerland - Z7
27 - Milan, Italy - Magazzini
28 - Tuttlingen, Germany - Stadthalle
29 - Geiselwind, Germany - Eventcentrum Strohofer
31 - Stuttgart , Germany - LKA

February

1 - Vienna, Austria - Arena
2 - Budapest, Hungary - Diesel
4 - Katowice, Poland - Venue TBA
5 - Warsaw, Poland - Venue TBA
6 - Gdansk, Poland - Venue TBA
8 - Hamburg, Germany - Große Freiheit
9 - Cologne, Germany - Live Music Hall
10 - Munich, Germany - Tonhalle
12 - Zlin, Czech Republic - Masters of Rock Cafe
13 - Athens, Greece - Gagarin 205
15 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Trädgårn
16 - Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller
17 - Stockholm, Sweden - Arenan
19 - Helsinki, Finland - Helsinki Metal Meeting