EXCITER — Heavy Metal Maniac (review)

EXCITER — Heavy Metal Maniac album cover Album · 1983 · Speed Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Warthur
Staaaaaaaaand by for Exciiiiiteeeeer! It's a ballsy move for a band to name themselves after a Judas Priest song - especially a Priest song which makes it sound like Halford is acting as a hype man for the band in question. But if anyone's earned the right to the name, it's drummer-vocalist Dan Beehler's crew of Canadian speed metal pioneers.

Taking the fastest and most brutal Priest and Motorhead offer as their starting point, Exciter offer on their debut album a selection of songs which turn the brutality and speed of their influences up to 11, and helped to blaze a trail both for speed metal and early thrash. With Priest eventually turning to speed metal for an injection of extra power on Painkiller, the feedback loop eventually came full circle, but Priest never went quite this darkly chaotic in their production as Exciter do here.

In heavy metal's 1980s arms race, it's hard to pick apart who was at the front of the pack at any time - but it feels like any chronicle which skips over Exciter is missing a beat. Set it against any other album from 1983 and it more than holds its own - listen to it by itself and it still makes you want to get out there and break stuff.
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