Fast as a Shark

"Fast as a Shark" opens the album, 3:49, with "Get Ready" (3:41) on the single's B-side in November 1982. Hoffmann told the Talk Is Jericho podcast that Stefan Kaufmann had the crazy idea of playing double bass drums all the way through, that Hoffmann wrote the riff and the weird middle section, and that they wanted an intro that was the opposite of what follows so listeners would think they had the wrong record. They took a children's record that producer Dieter Dierks had sung on as a child, from the collection of Dierks's mother, and used a wordless section of the German folk song "Ein Heller und ein Batzen", damaging the record in the process; the song is associated with the Nazi era, especially in Poland, and Hoffmann said the band was unaware of that at the time and created somewhat of a monster. BraveWords reports that Kaufmann had the song idea, that the band finished it together and that Hoffmann says he contributed the intro and the chorus; it has no deep meaning, he said, but was born out of fun and a little bit of shock value, meant to shock parents.

Hoffmann said in 2022 that it was maybe the first thrash or speed metal song ever and, looking back, he guessed it was true. Dirkschneider believes it was the first speed metal song. Charlie Benante of Anthrax got his gig by playing it at his audition. Martin Popoff ranked it 33rd in The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time. Destruction covered it in 2024 on No Kings - No Masters, and Schmier called the original still the best version; Witchery, Helloween, Rage and others have also covered it. It appears in the films Demoni and Lords of Chaos and the game Brutal Legend.

Setlist.fm counts 855 performances, the second most played song. The Wacken performance of August 3, 2017 with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra is track 18 of Symphonic Terror. A 2026 re-recording on Teutonic Titans 1976-2026 features Philip Anselmo, Kirk Hammett, Mikkey Dee and Billy Sheehan with Hoffmann and Tornillo, with its intro redone oompah-style; Hammett said it was a real honor to pay back the great inspiration Accept had for him. Our upload gives only the title, so the version is not known.