Canadian thrash metal pioneers EXCITER have announced the addition of guitarist Daniel Dekay (DIEMONDS, Banger TV) to the group’s ranks. A longtime friend of the EXCITER family, Dekay was a natural choice and a perfect fit to keep this thrash machine pounding.

Dekay joins forces with original members Dan Beehler (vocals, drums) and Allan Johnson (bass) to round out this lineup of the band which is already working on new tunes with plans for a full-length studio record.

Last month, original EXCITER guitarist John Ricci left the band “due to certain professional and personal differences.”

Just this past June, Ricci seemed excited about the prospect of writing and recording new EXCITER material, telling The Jimmy Cabbs 5150 Interview Series: “We’re being really careful about the new music that we put out because it has to stand up to the old stuff. We feel kind of pressured. We don’t want to put out a weak record, and we’re taking our time to make sure the music is going to be just as explosive as it was back in the day when we were making albums together.”

The original EXCITER lineup recorded three classic albums in the 1980s — “Heavy Metal Maniac” (1983), “Violence & Force” (1984) and “Long Live the Loud” (1985) — before Ricci left the group and was replaced by Brian McPhee.

EXCITER‘s latest album, “Death Machine”, which featured Ricci as the sole remaining original member, was released in October 2010 via Massacre Records.

Ricci, Beehler and Johnson reunited as EXCITER in 2014 and had been playing sporadic shows ever since.

Photo by Theo Rallis

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