Now that the post-New Year's warmth has warn off and my re-issue session has ended, it's time to concentrate on stuff that is coming down the pike in the next few months. But first, there is one more re-issue to contend with.
Exciter: Exciter
This is a re-issue of the fifth album from the bunch of Canuck thrash nuts. It surprised some fans that they waited this long for their self-titled release. Then again a certain other band from SF did it and was quite successful. What separated Exciter from many of its peers was its willingness to drift away from pure-thrash and try some heavy rock boogie. The track "O.T.T." could be off a whole myriad heavy rock albums of the time.
The only thing that takes some getting used to is the helium-filled vocals of Rob Mainati. Think, Geoff Tate of Queensryche or Rob Halford of Judas Priest (who provided the name for the band) only higher, getting dangerously close to that nutter from Nitro, Jim Gillette, who could break glass with his high notes. Once you get over that hump, this is quite an enjoyable heavy rock/thrash romp. Exciter excited lots of people and it's not hard to see why. This re-release of a re-release contains the bonus track "Termination".
So if you like a bit of 80s thrash with heavy rock nuances, then this might be for you. Check out their previous releases as well while you are at it.
Iommi: Fused
I am a bit late to the party on this one having completely missed acquiring it when it came out in 2005. What a fool I feel. I have never been that big a fan of Glenn Hughes' solo work, finding his penchant for overly-clever funkified rock a bit tiring at times.
However, he seems to work well with other strong personalities whether it be in Deep Purple, in the awesome Hughes Thrall, or with Tony Iommi (in and out of Black Sabbath). Then again Iommi is well versed with dealing with reformed drug addicts with big personalities isn't he?
This is far less Sabbath and far more mainstream heavy rock. Iommi has a great deal of fun trying out new stuff. It comes together perfectly on songs like "What You're Living for" that would not be out of place on a release from Queensryche. That is not to say that the band doesn't drift towards Sabbath territory, of the Tony Martin led variety, on songs like "Face Your Fear". The album ends with rather fun "I go Insane" which is almost Floyd-esque prog at times.
Article comments