Description

Most would agree that Canadian thrashers Exciter were short-changed by the speed metal gods during their 1980s heyday. Worthy contributors to the genre’s early development, their legacy was nevertheless completely overshadowed by the likes of Metallica and Slayer, who went on to fame and fortune while Exciter were duly forgotten. Still, cruel fate’s unfair selection methods hardly warrant an obvious cash-in like 2004’s New Testament — a collection of Exciter’s metal-thrashing classics (and some of their latter-day, not-so-classics) re-recorded in the studio by the group’s latest incarnation of founding guitarist John Ricci and late-’90s regulars Jacques Belanger (vocals) and Rick Charron (drums). Then again, a man’s gotta eat and it’s only fair that these aging but hard-working veterans be allowed to reap the fruits of their life’s work, right? With all that in mind, New Testament offers an interesting assortment of rehashed “hits” from the extensive Exciter catalogue — so long as they featured Ricci, who was himself absent from the group for a seven-year period. Thankfully, this only encompassed two albums and means that you get nine songs (“Violence & Force,” “Heavy Metal Maniac,” “Long Live the Loud,” etc.) from Exciter’s first three, truly landmark albums, and six more (“Rule With an Iron Fist,” “Rain of Terror,” “The Dark Command,” etc.) from those decidedly sketchier ’90s efforts. Purists will of course take issue with the re-recordings, but if the songs themselves are all you care about, not the particular version, then New Testament can very well serve as something of a greatest-hits album.

Track list:
1. Rising Of The Dead
2. Violence & Force
3. Rule With An Iron Fist
4. Rain Of Terror
5. Brutal Warning
6. Victims Of Sacrifice
7. The Dark Command
8. I Am The Beast
9. Pounding Metal
10. Stand Up And Fight
11. Heavy Metal Maniac
12. Blackwitch
13. Burn At The Stake
14. Long Live And Loud
15. Ritual Death