Mark Tornillo
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Mark Tornillo (born June 8, 1954) is an American singer and songwriter best known for serving as the frontman of heavy metal band Accept. He joined the band officially in May 2009 as
Udo Dirkschneider Udo Dirkschneider (born 6 April 1952) is a German singer who first rose to fame with the Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Accept (band), Accept. After leaving the band in 1987, he formed the band U.D.O., in which he has also enjoyed commerci ...
's replacement. He also became the main lyricist of Accept, replacing the band's long-time manager
Gaby Hoffmann Gabrielle Mary Antonia HoffmannStated on ''Finding Your Roots'', November 21, 2017 (born January 8, 1982) is an American actress. She made her film debut in ''Field of Dreams'' (1989) and found success as a child actress in ''Uncle Buck'' (1989 ...
.


Career and style

Raised in
Brielle, New Jersey Brielle is a borough located in southern Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, along the Manasquan River. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 4,982, its highest decennial count ever and an increase ...
, Tornillo graduated from
Manasquan High School Manasquan High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grade from Manasquan, in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the lone high school of the ...
in 1972. Both of his grandfathers were musicians and because of that he had musical training from a young age, including classical piano lessons for nine years. Hearing
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
at the age of 7 or 8 inspired Tornillo to become a musician. Before gaining fame as a singer he also played bass in bands. Before he joined Accept, Tornillo was in the group T.T. Quick. The band arose from the fertile club scene in Tornillo's native
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
and picked up enough of a following to successfully tour across the state as well as play in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
. His vocals appeared on multiple releases by the band in the 1980s and 1990s. Although T.T. Quick folded around the turn of the millennium, it eventually reunited in May 2013 at Rock N' Roll Heaven and the Old Bridge Metal Militia's concert, serving as a
charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...
fundraiser, helping the victims of Superstorm Sandy. Despite the fact that Tornillo replaced him, vocalist Dirkschneider has praised the other singer, stating that even if Tornillo "has problems" with "the old songs" he "has a good voice" and a method of "singing different". In a review for '' Blind Rage'',
music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...
Gregory Heaney remarked that "with Tornillo on vocals, Accept still sound the way you remember them sounding when they were at the height of their power". He concluded that "even the lapsed, ''Balls to the Wall''-era metalheads out there will feel as though they're picking up with the band right where they left off." Tornillo talked about how he came to join the band, saying it was "just a freak thing". He also said that he was a fan of Accept prior to joining, "I was a fan back in the '80s, in the early days. TT Quick covered Accept songs before we had a record deal. I actually turned a lot of people on to Accept. We would cover 'Son Of A Bitch' and 'Flash Rockin' Man'. People would say, 'What is that?' 'That's original stuff that we wrote.' 'No! aughsThat's a German band called Accept.' But yes, I was a fan by all means. Still am." He then said that he was nervous as being Udo Dirkschneider's replacement, "I was extremely nervous, especially due to the Internet because the Internet, you know what everyone's thinking right away. It's not like the '80s or the old days where you never got to hear what the audience thought. You just read the magazines and so did they and that was it. Now, with the Internet it was quite obvious that people were not happy with this decision, so I was, like ,'Uh...okay! Here we go. It's on.' That's why we decided right off the bat that we would go in and record, try and make the best possible album we could make, which was 'Blood Of The Nations'. Instead of just going out and resting on the laurels and playing their old material, we had to be a viable, new band. And we tried our damnest to be and I think it's working. 'Blood Of The Nations' surprised a lot of people and I felt a whole lot better after that came out, for certain. But yeah, it was trying, let's put it that way." Tornillo has appeared on six studio albums with the band to date: '' Blood of the Nations'' (2010), ''
Stalingrad Volgograd,. geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area o ...
'' (2012), '' Blind Rage'' (2014), '' The Rise of Chaos'' (2017), '' Too Mean to Die'' (2021) and ''
Humanoid A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and '' -oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. By the 20th century, the term came to describe fossils which were morphologically similar, but not identical, to those of ...
'' (2024). He also appeared on the live album ''Restless and Live'' (2017). After joining with Accept, Tornillo has since made a guest appearance on the release '' White Devil Armory'', "Mark Tornillo Credits" ''
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
''. Retrieved October 23, 2011.
the seventeenth studio album by the metal group Overkill, released on July 21, 2014. Tornillo is the singer in a cover band Gotham with Paul Crook (ex-Meat Loaf) who play artists like Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie and Korn and also make classic rock/industrial mash-ups.


See also

* Accept discography


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tornillo, Mark 1954 births American heavy metal singers Accept (band) members Living people Manasquan High School alumni People from Brielle, New Jersey Singers from New Jersey Songwriters from New Jersey American people of Italian descent