ACCEPT released their fourth album, "Restless and Wild," on October 2nd, 1982 in continental Europe, self-produced at Dieter Dierks' studio in Cologne after four albums cut at Delta-Studio. It reached the US and UK the following year. The album is known above all for its opening track: after a fake folk intro that skips like a broken record, "Fast as a Shark" detonates, and Stefan Kaufmann's double-kick drumming is now widely treated as a direct precursor of thrash metal, arriving before the debuts of both METALLICA and SLAYER. It is the first ACCEPT album on which Udo Dirkschneider sings every track and the first crediting manager Gaby Hauke as a songwriter. Wolf Hoffmann played all the guitars alone, and got the mandolin-like tone on "Princess of the Dawn" by recording at half speed and playing it back normally. AllMusic called it the band's creative breakthrough.
