“Exciter” by Judas Priest

"Exciter" kicks the door in on Stained Class, Judas Priest's 1978 album: it's the opening track, and it's an early specimen of what came to be called speed metal. Rob Halford and Glenn Tipton wrote it, and even the drum intro has a story: according to K.K. Downing, Les Binks stumbled onto it by accident at a soundcheck on the Sin After Sin tour.

Halford sings lead with Tipton adding backing vocals, Tipton and Downing handle the electric guitars, Ian Hill plays bass and Binks drums; the band produced it with Dennis MacKay, and Neil Ross engineered. It left a mark on the metal that followed, too: a Canadian heavy metal band went so far as to name themselves Exciter after it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.