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I was quite excited (no pun intended) when I saw that Exciter had a new album out, until I realised it was a best-of. This one however is not just the original recordings put together on one CD, but rather a re-recording of old and not-so old Exciter classics with the current lineup - pretty much what bands such as Saxon and Testament have done in the past couple of years. Comments on the actual songs are better left to reviews of the original albums, so what's left to discuss here is how good the re-recording is (a "normal" best-of wouldn't even have that.) Overall this is pretty good (although I don't think there's any way to beat the original version of "Violence and Force" :)) - the lineup might differ from the original recordings, but this is still the same namesake band, so they had to keep faithful to the original. Jacques Bélanger does a damn good job on vocals once again, although I think the majority of fans still prefer Beehler on vocals for the old classics (face it: He's not coming back, so you might as well learn to like the "new" guy if you don't already.) If you are going to see the band live this year, this gives you an idea of how they perform the old classics.

There isn't much point commenting on the song selection, as everyone will have a "where's this or that song" no matter what they put on here. What I can say is that as a whole this sounds pretty good - everything flows well together and the 66 minutes go by without realising it (let's face it, there's no stinker here, all are killer songs.) If anything, I find the production a bit linear at times but nothing to lose sleep over. All in all, this is a pretty good collection of songs but not essential unless you really want to hear the re-recorded versions. Newcomers to the band can find a good overview of the band's history, although I have my doubts at introducing a band through re-recordings rather than original - hey, it's your choice. :) Let's hope this is a precursor to a new full-length of original material.

It's a best-of, so no rating. ;)