John Ricci, Originalgitarrist der legendären kanadischen Speed Metaller Exciter, hat mit seiner Soloband POWERRAGE mit der Singleveröffentlichung `Dark Wings´ ihr gemeinsames Debüt „Beast“ angekündigt, das am 24. April herauskommen wird. Heute ging die zweite Auskopplung `Dragon Man´ als Lyricvideo an den Start. Die Band besteht neben Ricci aus Todd Pilon (Ex-Witchkiller), Drummer Lucas Dery sowie Sänger Jacques Bélanger, welcher die drei Exciter Alben :“The Dark Command“ (1997), „Blood Of Tyrants“ (2000) und „New Testament“ (2004) eingesungen hat.

John Ricci führt aus:

“Well, with this band I didn’t want to be another Exciter. It was time to move on. Even though Exciter was based around my guitar style, and it was a successful formula, I wanted to start from scratch and start all over again. Starting over and not depending on your past accomplishments is definitely a very difficult task but I feel confident enough I can make it happen.”

„It’s hard to pin down but listening to the eight songs on »Beast«, you will get a large dose of very heavy, early doom/death metal, as well as some classic Exciter and also a lot of early Mercyful Fate. Does this description make any sense at all? “Yes, I agree with you about the comparisons you mentioned. Doom influence yes, Exciter classic riffing yes, but Mercyful Fate influence? I would say that was not intentional. It was just the way I visioned the vocals; it was a coincidence.”

“When it was time to record the album, we decided to do it the same way as the preceding two-song demo.  Live off the floor in our rehearsal studio. My longtime friend/producer Manfred Leidecker and engineer George Henderson set up a mobile studio and recorded the music, but the vocals were recorded in Manfred’s studio (under a more controlled environment). The album was mixed and mastered by Dan Swano at Unisound. I wrote everything on »Beast«: music, lyrics, melodies. Powerrage is 100 % my musical vision. All eight songs are brand-new, no rehashed riffs from my Exciter days.”

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