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.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Le bannissement Atmospheric Black Metal
CANTIQUE LÉPREUX
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tarantula Heart Sludge Metal
MELVINS
Buy this album from MMA partners
God Damned You To Hell Traditional Doom Metal
FRIENDS OF HELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Absence Melodic Death Metal
THE ABSENCE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Unextinct Technical Death Metal
HIDEOUS DIVINITY
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Fallen Ashes - Wage War (Official Lyric Video)
FALLEN ASHES
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Unreality (Single) 2024
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Cold Hands
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
IRON MONKEY - Misanthropizer (Official Music Video)
IRON MONKEY
Bosh66· 10 days ago
??? (Losing ART) - "????" (Official Music Video) [HD]
漂浮者樂團
Bosh66· 11 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed