Accept
Restless and Wild
[Portrait/CBS]


Accept used to be one of the coolest metal bands around. After this LP they released "Balls to the Wall", which had some decent tracks, but the song "London Leatherboys" made everyone question if Udo and the band were fags. After that, I believe it was "Metal Heart" which was worse, going into poser metal territory.

With all that said, what about 1983's "Restless & Wild"? Well, if you were running with a pack of longhairs in jeans and leather, especially in the summer of '84, you know this was the only album to listen to over and over, besides Venom's "At War With Satan"!

While constantly called Judas Priest clones, even mimicking their stage moves, this is what I prefer over "Defenders of the Faith". The album opens up with some scratchy german polka record for ten seconds before being scratched to oblivion, and a really cool fast riff rips your head off. "Fast As A Shark" is what I consider power metal, hell, maybe even proto-thrash. The twin guitar melodies blew me away, even to this day, as it sounds they ripped off a classical piece for the solo. (By the way, if anyone knows if the Fast as a Shark 12"single was a different mix than the album, let me know). Udo Dirkschneider's vocals were thick, throaty. phlegmmy. He said to achieve it he had to smoke a pack of cigarettes and drink booze before each show (which sounds cooler than Alice Cooper in the early 70s drinking milk while he recorded albums).

Title track "Restless and Wild" is headbangin/fistbangin metal. They don't write them like this anymore (well, Bewitched comes close).... ok I could go on and on, but if you enjoy late 70's/early 80s Judas Priest/heavy metal with a decent production, you should get this...as for other Accept albums....buyer beware (I never bought them all, the first couple albums I was disappointed in).

Side 1- Fast As A Shark/ Restless and Wild/ Ahead of the Pack/ Shake Your Heads/ Neon Nights
Side 2- Get Ready/ Demon's Night/ Flash Rockin' Man/ Don't Go Stealing My Soul Away/ Princess of the Dawn.


© 1999 mlotek