16. Exciter Heavy Metal Maniac 1983 (Shrapnel)
Speed metal
The year zero for thrash metal.
The Lowdown
Speed metal had taken metal to a new extreme and its British examples like Tank and Raven with their rough `n` ready style, had a take that was somewhat different to that put out by a band like Anvil who bordered on more aggressive territory (check out reviews by these bands again courtesy of The Batlord’s index) therefore it was fairly obvious I think that the two styles would start fusing together, which would result in thrash metal as far as some of the speed metal bands were concerned and bands like Savatage and Exciter are the first two examples on this year’s list and were both bands that had entered into the turbulent territory of being either speed metal or thrash metal on a number of their tracks. Exciter were a Canadian metal band from Ottawa having formed under the name of Hell Razor before changing to Exciter, who operated as a three piece outfit like Tank and Raven, but in Exciter’s case vocalist Dan Beehler was also the drummer, a combo that I’ve never fully embraced but there are exceptions. They released their debut track “World War III” which appeared on the metal compilation
U.S. Metal, Vol.2 before issuing their debut album
Heavy Metal Maniac. The album starts with what sounds like hissing wind on the short “Holocaust” with its ambient but dominant guitar and this leads into the tracks “Stand Up and Fight” “Heavy Metal Maniac” and the best of the bunch in the blistering “Mistress of Evil” easily one of the best metal tracks of the year, these are all speed metal tracks driven on by the relentless and exciting riffs of John Ricci, whose electrifying riffs are a real characteristic of the band. This song is matched though by the “Rising of the Dead” which would’ve sounded so ****in cool on any number of 1980s zombie flicks. The band’s punk influences blend in with the beef of the band on a heavy and dense sounding track like “Iron Dogs” which lasts almost 6 minutes and again one of the best on the album along with its matching track “Black Witch” which demonstrates how well the band do when they slow things down, even though this track speeds up immensely at its final. Dan Beehler who could’ve been a weak link here isn’t and is solid across the whole album on both drums and vocals, and even gets to sound like Rob Halford in certain places like on “Under Attack”. “Cry on the Banshee” closes the album in frenetic style and future editions of the album would include “World War III” and “Evil Sinner”. Now I’ve referred to these above tracks as speed metal, but in reality they could easily pass as thrash metal due to their aggression and certainly approach the Slayer and Metallica debuts in terms of style, even though Exciter here display a far more one-dimensional approach to things than say Metallica do despite the fact that both bands were doing similar things, but the more varied approach of Metallica due to their outstanding musical dynamics is one of the reasons why they’re further up the list. Exciter were also ahead of rival bands like Annihilator, Slaughter, Sacrifice and Razor in releasing their debut, making the band about as essential as Anvil when it came to the Canadian influence on both the speed and thrash metal genres in this period. Overall I’d classify
Heavy Metal Maniac as a violent and aggressive sounding thrashy speed metal essential, whose low production values work in the album’s favour. Also of note Exciter are the second band here after Steeler, to feature on the new guitar orientated label Shrapnel which had been founded by producer Mike Varney, who had also produced the Steeler album. On a footnote at the time of writing, I love this album more than ever and now wish I`d put it higher up on this year’s list, but when you put things in lists this type of **** happens, even though I may try and rectify this once the year has been completed and as Martin Popoff would say knock it back!
Dan Beehler- Drums/Vocals
John Ricci- Guitar
Allam Johnson- Bass
Production- John Belrose