One of the great pre-thrash, traditional metal records of all time. Their fourth, and the first to really make headway in the English speaking world. Most heads would probably pick this as their peak album. It's best known for the furious opening cut, "Fast as a Shark," surely one of the bellwethers of the speed/thrash sound, but the whole album is great. Accept were a bit too obscure for the local party contingent growing up, but in certain circles this got a lot of drinking/bone cruise cardeck play, and has aged well. We're looking at the US pressing, which wasn't released until ’83. These guys looked pretty intense; four Teutonic rockers fronted by a stubby, gnome-like singer in battle fatigues who screamed and growled like a maniacal drill sergeant. As with most good heavy records before the modern era, the band had a sense of dynamics and included softer passages and songs to accentuate the hard parts (a songwriting/arranging skill mostly lost today). I had the previous album, 1981's Breaker, but only liked a couple of songs and didn't keep it. The demo for this LP is reviewed in my book (it's slightly different). The band (formed in 1968!) is still around, and based in the US, but now has the ex-singer for Jersey rockers TT Quick as their frontman, Udo having long since gone on with a solo career.
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