In1977, guitarist John Ricci used to play in a band called Hell Razor. In 1978 Hell Razor broke up, but after a short period of time Ricci decided to reform the band, and so he recruited bassist Alan Johnson and drummer Dan Beehler, members of a speed metal band called Jet Black. Beehler took up vocal duties, and in 1980 the band changed their name into Exciter. They took the name "Exciter" from the Judas Priest song.

 

A bunch of records are or were on the worldwide market with very big sells (Over a million record has been sold so far on the entire discography) In February 2014, Exciter announced that John Ricci had retired and that the band would be continuing without him, with no original members on board. However in April that year, Ricci instead announced that he had reformed the original line-up alongside Dan Beehler and Alan Johnson.