POWERRAGE - Beast CD HRR 1053CD, slipcase, booklet Jacques Belanger - vocals John Ricci - guitars Todd Pilon - bass Lucas Dery - drums 01 Dark Wings 02 Cremation Damnation 03 Dragon Man 04 Haunted Hell 05 I Torture I Kill 06 The Devil is Screaming 07 Damned and Cursed 08 The Black Mass AVAILABLE

“I am really excited about 2026,” says John Ricci. And the legendary guitar player has every right to be excited. While the metal public did not hear very much from him after the live work with the original Exciter line-up between 2014 and 2018, Ricci is now back with his own band. Besides him, Powerrage consists of bassist Todd Pilon (formerly of Witchkiller), drummer Lucas Dery and last but not least vocalist Jacques Bélanger, who previously sang on three Exciter albums: »The Dark Command« (1997), »Blood Of Tyrants« (2000) and »New Testament« (2004). »Beast« is the name of the debut album by Powerrage, due to be released via High Roller Records. “My last show with Exciter was in August 2018 in Singapore, after that I just needed to chill out for a while,” John Ricci starts his story. “In 2022, I was approached by friend Todd Pilon to start a new band. So, then came the process of putting a new band together which was a lot of hard work (which most musicians will tell you). In the end, however, the line-up for Powerrage came together rather quickly, except for drummers. When I decided to start again from the beginning (after 40+ years with Exciter), I called up Jacques Bélanger and asked him if he was interested in playing music with the new project and he said yes, he was totally into it. As I mentioned, finding the right drummer was difficult. We auditioned a few drummers until we found Lucas who answered my advertisement ‘looking for drummer’.” In contrast to John Ricci, Jacques Bélanger and Todd Pilon, Lucas Dery is the unknown quantity in Powerrage. The guitarist explains: “Yes, Lucas is an unknown (for now) but that will change (laughs). Even though Lucas does come from a different drumming background, he’s adapted to the metal style very well. Being a good musician is about attitude, and Lucas has the right attitude and drumming skills. His style, I would say, is classic metal drumming (double bass approach and great fills).” With John Ricci and Jacques Bélanger there are two former Exciter members in Powerrage but John likes to make one thing perfectly clear: “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.” He continues: “»Beast« is a new beginning for me. I put a lot of thought into writing the best music and please the metal community and possibly some Exciter fans. The band and I are very positive about the new music. The songs on the record are strong and definitely headbanging anthems. 2026 will be a new adventure.” 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,” concurs the legendary axeman. “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. I guided Jacques through every vocal line, every lyric. He would normally not sing like that at all, but my vision was a darker approach. I’ve always liked dark/doom metal for the longest time and now it was time to incorporate some of that in my new riffs. I would mimic in the studio what I wanted in the vocals and Jacques would reproduce it. I wanted a mix of evil growls and high screams and Jacques has the talent to do that.” The lyrics on »Beast« are indeed also quite dark, evil and heavy. Just like John Ricci envisaged them to be: “Yes, the lyrics are simple and to the point. Like many musicians, I’m a horror movie fan, especially vintage horror movies, which made a real impression on me. In the lyrics, I was trying to find a good balance of the right words and evil delivery from the vocals. I was trying to create a vibe between the music and vocals.” Very successfully, it must be said. Whereas stylistically Powerrage does not sound anything like Exciter whatsoever, one thing hasn’t changed, and that’s John Ricci’s approach of guitar playing. The grand master explains: “My guitar was the usual style that I play: big power chords, lots of whammy bar, high-piercing notes (laughs). I’m not a very technical player; I’m more of a ‘feel player’. When you play guitar, you must play notes in the right place in the song. I’ve always played a driving metal style, the energy comes from inside, you have to be pissed off when writing metal music (laughs again)!” Whereas Powerrage is a brand-new band, the name, according to John Ricci, goes way back: “I had the name Powerrage in mind since the 1970s. I think power and rage is what metal is about. If you think this way, then you can write classic heavy metal riffs. You need to be in a particular state of mind when you are writing heavy metal music, that’s when all the creativity happens (laughs). Powerrage is the only name I thought about, other names were suggested but Powerrage described the band perfectly.” Fortunately, Powerrage ended up issuing their debut album on High Roller Records, but initially this wasn’t an easy task. “In 2024, we did a two-song demo, and it sounded good,” starts John to explain. “I suggested to the band that we shop it around to see if there was any interest. I sent the demo all over the world to 20 different labels, but no response. At one point I was talking to a friend of mine, Annick (Giroux) in Montréal, and she suggested I send the demo to High Roller Records, and they responded right away with an offer! I was so relieved that our hard work was appreciated by a label.” “When it was time to record the album, we decided to do it the same way as the demo,” continues Ricci, “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. And there are no other songs besides the eight songs I wrote. It takes time to write good songs and have no fillers on the album. You don’t want the listener to skip a tune when listening to the album, you want to keep them engaged and listen to every song.” For the band, “Dark Wings” is the leading track on the album: “It was a group decision to have the first track ‘Dark Wings’ start the album: it’s powerful, dynamic and has great vocals which describes Powerrage. Yes, when you hear that song, it entices you to listen to the rest of the album.” Another stand-out number on »Beast« is “Haunted Hell”: a very slow, heavy and atmospheric composition, carrying on where Exciter’s “Black Witch” has left off back in 1983, but much more doom-laden … “’Haunted Hell’ was the first song I wrote,” says Ricci. “Even hell can be haunted with a more evil identity. That was the idea behind the song, something more evil than evil. When that song was completed and we’d jam it in our rehearsal, we’d all look at each other and we knew we had something great.” Also great is “I Torture I Kill”, although it’s way faster, at times a bit punkish even. Was punk/hardcore an influence on Powerrage at all? When I think of the one and only Amebix for example … “Punk music in the 1970s was an influence on me,” comes the closing answer. “Actually, when I came up with the Exciter style, it was a mix of punk and NWOBHM. Therefore, that guitar playing approach is with me to this day. ‘I Torture I Kill’ is exactly that. It’s intense.” MATTHIAS MADER