Excel is a crossover thrash band from Venice, California, founded in 1983 by singer Dan Clements and guitarist Adam Siegel. They were influenced by 1970s punk rock musicians like the Germs and Black Flag, and heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath, Trouble, Slayer, Corrosion of Conformity and Cryptic Slaughter. They were also influenced by street art, Excel is known for painting graffiti on the streets of the cities where they make their tours, hence there are many different logos of the band.
Excel came out of the West Side Los Angeles crossover thrash scene as did many others in California like No Mercy, Beowülf, Suicidal Tendencies and Cryptic Slaughter, and sometimes with other performers on the thrash metal scene like Testament, Overkill and Megadeth.
Excel has recorded three studio albums, three split albums, five demos, three singles and two live albums; the band broke up in 1995 but in 2001 they released new versions of their first two albums: Split Image and The Joke's on You, with some bonus tracks. In August 2009 they edited a special collection of eight DVDs of their tours around Europe and Los Angeles and published them on their official MySpace. As of January 2012, Excel has re-formed.