Accept - Restless and Wild

Accept is an underrated Heavy Metal band from Germany. The best way to describe their sound is Judas Priest with a gruffer singer and a little bit of AC/DC thrown in for good measure. They have the twin guitar attack down to a tee and the riffs vary from simplistic AC/DC type riffs to speed metal assaults! Their 1982 album “Restless and Wild” is definitely one of their greatest albums and one of the first speed metal albums. NOTE: There are two diffrent covers to this album one a European version another the American version I'm using this one because it looks cooler =)

Band - Accept

Album - Restless and Wild

Year - 1982(3?)

Genre - Heavy/Speed Metal

Country - Germany

The album starts off with some weird German music but quickly comes to an end and you hear quite the scream! Then the speed metal assault Fast as a Shark kicks in! Great, fast riff and an awesome, melodic chorus. The solo is very classically styled as are most of the solos from Accept. Another thing that stands out in this tune are the backing vocals. They’re just really cool… After that relentless tune we’re treated to the title track. Great mid paced, heavy riffing in this tune. The vocals are great, very restless and wild indeed and more well done backing vocals in this tune as well. Ahead of the Pack is another fast tune. More great riffs and catchy chorus section in this one. I really love the riffs in this song and how much they compliment the vocals and fill out every bit of the sound. The bridge section is awesome, lots of great soloing and the complimentary twin guitar attack! Shake your heads is a midpaced rocker with some atypical riffs throughout. Not a very interesting song in my opinion. Perhaps I would “shake my head” more if the song was better… Though, the chorus section and the drumming are quite heavy. It gets better during the solos of course, but that’s to be expected from Accept. Next up is Neon Nights, not to be confused with Neon Knights… that’s a different song entirely. This tune starts of with come clean classical guitar playing, then goes into a cool phaser/warp effect thingy that sounds quite awesome! This is another midpaced tune, it’s a bit of a balled (though the guitars are very heavily distorted still) with some emotional singing which is a change from Udo’s more maniacal singing from the first three tracks. Great solo section, more classical styled soloing as a matter of fact parts of the solo are actually classical pieces.  Afterwards it speeds up to a proper fast head banging speed! Just to end… Oh well. Next up is Get ready, the tune starts of with the Living After Midnight drumbeat… yeah you know the one. Anyway, it’s a bit of a commercial sounding song; the main riff is very “party metal” feel to it as does the rest of the song. Not a bad song per say, but I doesn’t really sound like the same band. Next Demon’s Night kicks in! Now we’re back to some proper Accept! Great song, mostly midpaced throughout the verse but speeds up during the pre-chorus and chorus sections. More great riffs and aggressive yet catchy singing! Next up is Flash Rocking Man. It’s another relentless, fast tune. The main riff is actually one of the most common speed metal riffs out there; the bridge has some very thrashy sounding riffs. At the end is a very badass scream that’s could put Helford to shame, sometimes… maybe. Don’t Go Stealing My Soul Away is a very hard rockish AC/DC sounding tune. The chorus is catchier then the plague! Not much to say about it, good solo catchy chorus. Finally we get to the epic tune of the album, Princess of the Dawn! It’s a midpaced, moody tune with lots of great soloing throughout. Its definitely one of the best songs on the album. The song and album end very abruptly though, like right in the middle of the very last “princess of the princess of the princess of the dawn.” It’s weird.

Overall, a great album from a rather unknown band. The guitar work is simply amazing! Both riffs and solos are top notch and pretty unique and new for their time. The songs are composed brilliantly and very varied throughout the album. We get a good mix of fast, Speed Metal tunes, more midpaced Heavy Metal songs, some epic numbers as well as two songs that are more on the hard rock side. The tunes also have a great mix between aggression and catchiness. Some of the vocal lines and riffs are just catchy as shit! Udo is a very underrated singer. In my opinion he is one of the best in metal simply for this album alone! He sounds crazed and vicious at times but emotional at others. The drumming is very good but the bass is a bit buried. The bass playing is never anything particularly interesting just the same riffs as are being played on guitar Overall an awesome album from an awesome and underrated band, I implore you to track this album down as well as their next release, Balls to the Wall. Speaking of Balls to the Wall, that album will be coming up soon so stay tuned!

Here are three tunes for you to check out.