The Metal Fields - Reviews

Exciter - Unveiling the wicked

In 1986 the canadian thrash commando, one of the most underrated bands I know, published their smashing album Unveiling the Wicked.
Trademarks of the Exciter sound were at that time the shouting vocals of Dan Beehler, the singing drummer, and the powerwall of sound that John Ricci and the rest blasted.
Starting with Break down the walls. Beehler shouts his soul out..hear him when he screams "break down the walls"...the music is not as fast as most US Thrash Bands did at that time. But like I said, the band counts with a lot of power that nearly let the speakers explode. The song ends with the noise of breaking walls. Brainstorm is an intensive short instrumental leading over to Die in the night. It continues the way like the album started, big screams in the refrains, the guitars appear with good hooklines and at least with a couple of nice harmonies. (I hate) school rules is like the title says....an agressive midtempo rocker with a lot of hate in the lyrics and Beehler transforms that into the song perfectly. Shout it out is taking no prisoners, that means no way to slow down..ever and ever going straight forward with the same style thats like a red line through the whole album. Banging after banging, no time to breathe. Amazing guitar work again and hammer drums straight in the head. And then...suddenly the album slows down for a second. Invasion, a guitar solo lead...fantastic played...leads to the song Waiting in the dark. No misunderstanding, the song is not slow or quiet, but it is not with the speed and the power like the songs heard before. A break where you are able to lean back for a moment without shaking all your heads, legs, arms...whatever. The following songs Living evil and Live fast die young brings the album back to the race track. Power...unbelievable shouts...magnificiant guitars.
Mission Destroy ends the album like it started. First the wall did explode..now the band is back on the final mission of this album...to destroy.
For me Unveiling the Wicked is the best ever written and played US Thrash Metal album of the 80's. It is unbelievable that the band didn't reach a breakthrough with this album. Worse is that a lot of fans not even know much about this album.
So if you ever get the chance to lean or buy this album...do it !! A real forgotten jewel of the past.

Points: 9/10

review by Kerb