Chances are, most of you are familiar with Excel as the band Dave Mustaine fingered as victims of a Metallica rip-off. Sure, “Enter Sandman” sounds a little like “Tapping into the Emotional Void,” but taking into account the fact that nothing comes from nowhere as well as the number of times Megadeth blatantly picks Diamond Head’s pocket on Rust in Peace and the more obvious point that no one in their right mind should be listening to a fucking word that tumbles out of Mustaine’s yap.
I’d like to take the next few hundred words/couple of minutes of your time to discuss the band in the dim spotlight. This, because whether Superman flies at supersonic speed and rewinds the world back to the mid-80s or we stay right where we are because Christopher Reeve can’t do any counter-clockwise flying around the planet (because he died ten years ago), the fact of the matter is that Excel ruled, rules and will continue to rule long after we’re all Lord Worm food.
Most of us who cut our teeth on double-cassette decks and vinyl back in the day, know that when it came to crossover, you’d have to look far and wide to find anyone who did it with as much salutary homage to both sides of the genres they were crossing over as this Venice Beach quartet. They went from mid-paced metal mosh plod to simple four-chord hardcore while throwing in various stops along the way that recalled technical thrash, peppy punk and caffeinated NWOBHM (“Insecurity,” title track) and did it in such a way that it all flowed and sounded completely natural. The lack of metallic heft (HM-2 or otherwise) that guitarist Adam Siegel’s sound employed generally kept more close-minded metalheads away. But listen closely and you can hear just as much Bay Area thrash and Slayer as you can Suicidal Tendencies and Crumbsuckers (“Never Look Away,” “The Joke’s on You”).
The beauty of hindsight is that it illustrates what the deal breakers for would-be fans on both sides of the fence might have been; essentially, and facetiously, that which prevented the band from breaking out in “Enter Sandman” proportions. Beyond the alienation that still existed back in the mid-80s with the melding metal and hardcore (outsiders still ran the risk of an ass-kicking by showing up on an opposing clique’s turf, especially in the L.A. area) and the ‘is-it-metal-is-it-hardcore’ guitar sound, vocalist Dan Clements’s voice could have been construed as a turn off. His was distinctive in its booming quality and off-key tinge.
Despite not being a trained singer, he got by on a lot of heart and incisive lyrical wit (“Social Security”). That he was always very liberally placed in the mix, couldn’t have helped. Combine that with his anti-skate rat image (dude had nicer hair than Sebastian Bach) despite being in a band that hailed from the skate punk scene and he alone posed a conundrum that probably didn’t help anyone sitting on the fence make a decision. Clements’ voice aside, the comparative lack of profile Excel attained in relation to bands of the day from all stripes remains a mystery, especially when you listen back to tracks like “Looking for You” and “Your Life, My Life” and hear how much of an influence they had on all four of the Big Four.
For fans, this Brad Boatright re-mastered version brings a brightness and clarity that didn’t entirely exist on the album’s original form. As well, Southern Lord has tacked on a massive amount of bonus material including the Welcome to Venice compilation tracks and the Personal Onslaught and Refuse to Quit demos, which old-school tape traders probably remember hearing at the tail end of a TDK-90 cassette after Reign in Blood. Also included is 32-page booklet with tons of photos from the era and a poster of the original album art. All in all, a thorough and exhaustive tribute to one of the greatest, yet polarizing, albums from the original wave of crossover releases.
8.5/10
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