Exciter-s/t

1988/1995/2009
Magnetic Air/MVD

I remember buying this one on vinyl twenty plus years ago. The original cover had a patch with the Exciter logo on a black leather jacket this album is sometimes known as . My hope was that it be a return to the style of their first three releases. I think that the band had begun to go more mainstream on 1986's "Unveiling the wicked". Unfortunately that was a trend that continued on this the band's fifth album which is sometimes known as "O.T.T." . Drummer Chuck Beehler gave up vocal duties to new member Rob Malnati as the band became a quartet for the first time. That decision made little sense to me. Nothing against Malnati, but Beehler's screaming vocals helped define Exciter's sound. Malnati can hit similar levels, but he also has more of a hard rock voice and he just does not have the touch that Beehler did. To accompany his voice the band spent about 2/3 of these tracks sounding like an accessible, big hair rock bands ala Dokken. Not that there is anything wrong with Dokken. However Exciter had established themselves as one of the founders of speed metal. With this change in style on this album they were going soft and they seemed to be taking step back what they previously established. I think by 1988 that they found themselves falling behind in he thrash genre and being replaced by bands they had influenced just a few years earlier. Yet instead of progressing and building on their sound instead they chose to slow down and try to make mid-tempo anthems. Some are decent, but some are just rather ordinary and even a little old by 1988 standards. All in all it is a rather average album at best. Exciter would eventually get back to their roots and they are still going at it today.