From My Collection #50: Exciter – Heavy Metal Maniac

Welcome to another edition of From My Collection. As I type this entry, my ears are ringing, my neck is sore, and my voice is shot. That can only mean one thing. I saw Judas Priest last night. How ironic that this week’s essay covers a band who was named after a Priest song, Exciter. Not only that, but I’m going to see them tonight, one night after seeing Priest. As the old song goes, it’s a small world after all! I’ve been wanting to do a FMC on Exciter for quite sometime, and while Violence & Force is my favorite, today is all about my introduction to these Canadian speed kings, Heavy Metal Maniac. This album holds a very unique spot in metal history, one that should be more recognized by headbangers. We’ll explore all that and more in this week’s edition of From My Collection.

The seeds for Exciter were sown in 1978, the same year Judas Priest released the song of the same name on their fourth studio album, Stained Class. Only the weren’t initially Exciter. They formed as Hell Razor, the name of which goes back at least a year further to 1977. Guitarist John Ricci played in a band called Hell Razor, which eventually disbanded. In ’78, he decided to form a new band under the name, and did so with bassist Allen Johnson and drummer/singer Dan Beehler. Come 1980, the band renamed themselves what we all know and love them as today: Exciter.

A couple years later, the band recorded their debut demo tape, World War III. Raw, energetic, and unrelenting, the demo caught the attention of Shrapnel Records founder Mike Varney, who included the title track on his 1982 compilation, U.S. Metal Vol. II. The irony of course is that Exciter hailed from Canada, but I digress. I highly doubt the headbangers who purchased this classic comp were keeping track of such discrepancies. Their inclusion on the comp went over so well that it led to Shrapnel signing Exciter and releasing their debut album, Heavy Metal Maniac.

Heavy Metal Maniac was released on June 14, 1983. Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All would come out a little over a month later on July 25, 1983. Taking this into consideration, it’s very possible that Heavy Metal Maniac was the last proto-thrash release before the genre officially took hold in the latter half of the year. Ironically, the entire album was recorded nearly a year earlier in August of 1982, and had been circulating as a demo tape entitled WWIII Heroes before Shrapnel properly released it under the Heavy Metal Maniac moniker. Would HMM hold this unique distinction had it been released in ’82 alongside the likes of Venom’s Black Metal, Raven’s Wiped Out, and Accept’s Restless and Wild? We’ll never know.

What we do know is timeline aside, Heavy Metal Maniac is one of the most important albums bridging the gap between speed and thrash metal, both historically and musically speaking. The album opens with a doomy, atmospheric intro entitled “The Holocaust”, before segueing into the high speed rage of “Stand Up and Fight”. Although it’s not violent enough to be labelled thrash, lacking the mosh sections and machine gun riffing, it sure comes close with its punky drumming and ripping guitar work. There’s no doubt the earliest progenitors of thrash were taking notes.

From there, it’s the iconic title track, which has since become an underground metal hymn. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always heard a slight boogie tinge to the guitar riffs, swing of the drums, and Beehler’s vocal delivery. Mind you, I don’t mean boogie in the 70s Status Quo sense, but rather in the metallized way Raven and Vardis adopted the formula during the NWOBHM, albeit on steroids in this case. The heaviness continues with one of my favorite Exciter songs, “Iron Dogs”. While Exciter is best known for pushing the boundaries of speed and extremity within metal, the pummeling “Iron Dogs” proved they could lay it down Sabbath style with equal conviction.

Side A closes with the NWOBHM derived “Mistress of Evil”. The lyrics aren’t too far removed from Venom, but the arrangement and musicianship is akin to Saxon at their fastest (i.e. “Machine Gun”, “Fire in the Sky”, “20,000 Feet”). Simple and straightforward as this song is, it’s as anthemic as it is menacing, welcoming as it is foreboding. Every time I hear those riffs, I pull out my air guitar and shred in unison with Ricci. Don’t pretend to be cool. You know you do too!

As we flip over to side B, we’re greeted by another proto-thrash blitz in “Under Attack”. True to its name, Exciter goes for the jugular in this 4 minute tour de force, with Beehler unleashing a double bass drum clinic, especially during the larger than life chorus. This man definitely comes from the school of Les Binks and Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor. “Rising of the Dead” keeps the pace and energy up, bursting at the seams with electric riffs, pulverizing rhythms, and yet another mega chorus, accentuated by an explosive outro with nods to Di’Anno era Maiden.

Just as they did on side A with “Iron Dogs”, Exciter proves that they can do more than break the speed barrier on side B with the 7 minute “Black Witch”. The cult metal epic opens slow and doom-laden, dragging at Sabbathian speed with the primal production aspects (or lack thereof) of Venom. Aside from a face melting guitar solo halfway through, it mostly stays in this vein with the exception of an atmospheric, acoustic tinged pseudo-prog outro. As compelling of a closer as this would be, Exciter goes OTT for one last blast of speed metal supremacy in “Cry of the Banshee” to close out this pioneering affair.

While Exciter never “made it” commercially speaking, their influence on thrash and extreme metal as a whole cannot be overstated. In 1984, they’d tour alongside Motörhead and Mercyful Fate in one of the most legendary metal packages of all time. A year later, they’d embark on a headlining tour of the States. The opening band for that jaunt? A newly formed band from San Francisco called Megadeth. Today, Exciter are still playing clubs and festivals all over the world, spreading the speed metal gospel and damning the non-believers. To that I say “Long Live the Loud”!