Exciter was heavily influenced by a variety of bands, including Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Deep Purple, Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Rush, Jethro Tull and Grand Funk Railroad.

[6] It consisted of vocalist and drummer Dan Beehler, guitarist John Ricci, and bassist Allan James Johnson.

Varney included one song from it, "World War III",[8] on the compilation album US Metal Volume II in 1982.

Exciter was forced to switch to a new label, Music for Nations, when Megaforce sold its contract[13] and travelled to London, England for a tour that was cancelled at the last minute and then again to record their third album, Long Live the Loud.

It was decided at this time that Dan Beehler (who had handled both drums and vocals since the band's inception) would not sing any more.

New vocalist Rob Malnati was hired, and made his debut on the band's self-titled album (a.k.a.

The band's first recording with this line-up was the song "Born to Kill" which appeared on a compilation album titled Capitol Punishment, which was released in 1991.

At the beginning of 2003, a new line-up was announced, with Ricci and Rik Charron returning along with new vocalist Rob Degroot and new bassist Paul Champagne.

Exciter participated in a number of European summer festivals in 2005, including the Tradate Iron Fest in Italy, Bang Your Head in Germany and Metalcamp in Slovenia.

As well, Waters remastered these titles and new booklet info, including comments from the original 3 band members, as well as additional photos were added to the re-releases.

[17][18] He was quickly replaced in October of that year by Kenny "Metal Mouth" Winter from New York.

The band played only one headlining show in Toronto, Canada in August 2007, thanks to an intense rehearsal and recording schedule involving a weekly 23-hour trek from New York City to Ottawa by Kenny Winter.

Twice delayed in December 2007 and January 2008, the band's tenth album Thrash Speed Burn was released in February 2008 in Europe and in March 2008 worldwide.

[citation needed] The band's first European show for the tour, with the then-current line-up, saw their debut at the Atarfe Vega Rock Festival in Granada, Spain.

In April 2014, Ricci began claiming that the retirement statement was false, however the former band members maintain that at the time of the press release, the information it contained was accurate.