Canadian thrash metal pioneers EXCITER will embark on a summer 2024 North American tour with MIDNIGHT
Support on the run of dates will come from WRAITH and HELLWITCH.
EXCITER 2024 tour dates
July 18 – Morro Bay, CA – The Siren
July 19 – Santa Ana, CA -La Santa
July 20 – San Diego, CA – Brick By Brick
July 21 – Phoenix, AZ – Nile
July 22 – Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad
July 24 – San Antonio, TX – The Rock Box
July 25 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
July 26 – Austin, TX – Come And Take It Live
July 27 – Dallas, TX – Echo Lounge
July 29 – Minneapolis, MN – Turf Club
July 30 – Chicago, IL – Reggies
July 31 – Cincinnati, OH – Legends
August 1 – Brooklyn, NY – Meadows
August 2 – Boston, MA – Middle East
August 3 – Montreal, QC – Foufounes
August 4 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
Back in August 2022, guitarist Daniel Dekay discussed EXCITER‘s long awaited new album with Metal Crypt, saying: “I think we were hitting a good streak with writing and demoing prior to the pandemic, and then the pandemic hit. Al, Dan and I live in different provinces in Ontario and Quebec in Canada. There was a travel ban between provinces. Old-school heavy metal sometimes means old-school mentality, which means not fully embracing technology. For us to write music and record music, we need to be in the same room. The pandemic really put a very fast stop to us getting together to work on music. By the time we were able to get back together in the same room, it was already time to get back to working on a live set.”
He continued: “There are a handful of songs that are in various stages of completion. Some are done with vocals and solos already, some don’t have any leads, some don’t have any vocals. There are songs in all sorts of different stages. Plus, Dan Beehler has a million song ideas in his brain and Al Johnson has a million song ideas in his brain.
“The intention is still to release a full-length record and to give the fans what they want,” Daniel added. “Even in my contributions, I do like to make EXCITER my own in the style that I play John‘s songs and the style I play Brian McPhee‘s [former EXCITER guitarist] songs. I do try and make it my own, but at the end of the day, for a new record, I want my influence to be felt, but I want it to be true EXCITER for the old-school fans because they deserve that, and the intention is still to put out a full-length record. I just don’t have more of a timeline and we have to get through these live shows first. Then we can get together. We do it the old-school way. We like to be in the same room.”
Asked who was covering the majority of the songwriting for the new EXCITER record, Daniel said: “Dan and Al completely. Dan and Al get together and flesh out songs. It’s incredible. Dan Beehler is a drummer who doesn’t play guitar, but he’ll hum riffs to you. He hums a riff. He’s, like, ‘Yes, I want a picking part to sound like, [humming a rhythm] I’m like, ‘All right.’ You flesh it out that way. It’s very old school, man. It’s very, very cool. Dan and Al telling me this is how they wrote songs in the ’80s. Someone would come to the room with an idea or Dan would have an idea and hum it out, and John would play it on guitar, or Dan‘s brother, Richard, was the fourth member of EXCITER. He would help out with songwriting and songtitles and lyric ideas and all sorts of stuff. It’s always been a cool collaborative effort. Dan and Al really, they get together and bless their souls, man, they get together, and they come up with some crazy cool ideas. Then they send me their ideas that they recorded at the jam space together and I add on from there. It’s a really cool collaborative process, but they’re definitely predominantly the songwriters. They know what they want and I’m happy to facilitate their vision however I can.”
Regarding a possible new label home for EXCITER, Daniel said: “Yes, there are three labels that e-mail me weekly asking when I’m going to have a record to send them. I don’t know which of the three labels that we’ll end up with. Maybe it’ll be a fourth label. Yes, there’s significant interest. Literally weekly I get a check-in from someone at a label asking if I have a record for them yet. They’re willing to make offers without even hearing a song. It’s pretty funny. Yes, there’s lots of interest. I’m sure that we’re going to find a great home for the album. We’ll go with whatever feels right.”
Following the release of EXCITER‘s first three acclaimed albums – “Heavy Metal Maniac” (1983), “Violence & Force” (1984), and “Long Live the Loud” (1985) – guitarist John Ricci departed from the band in 1985.
In 2010, Ricci resurfaced as the sole original member of EXCITER with the release of their album “Death Machine” under Massacre Records.
However, in 2014, Ricci reunited with former bandmates Dan Beehler and Allan Johnson, marking the return of EXCITER. Together, they embarked on a series of sporadic shows, reigniting the flames of their heavy metal legacy.
Despite this reunion, John Ricci‘s tenure with EXCITER has seen its share of departures, with his latest exit from the group marking another chapter in the band’s tumultuous history.
