Fast metal atoms, generated when irradiating copper, zinc, and nickel compounds with 10 ns, 532 nm laser pulses in high vacuum, are investigated. The metal-atom intensities are observed to be more than an order of magnitude higher when irradiating compounds as opposed to the pure metal samples. At laser power densities below 10(9) W cm(-2), the metal-atom velocity distributions are generally well described by shifted Maxwellian distributions. At laser power densities exceeding 10(9) W cm(-2), the velocity distributions become distinctly non-Maxwellian for most investigated systems. Very fast Rydberg atoms are observed at the highest laser power densities and are attributed to three-body recombination collisions following plasma formation.