If the "!" lines are getting in the way, why not substitute them out before you split the record?

  my @bangs = $record =~ m/^[^\n]*\![^\n]*\n/mg;
  $record =~ s/^[^\n]*\![^\n]*\n//mg;
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Update: I have fixed the above pattern to avoid the evil ".*" (per Death to Dot Star!). Since the "!" lines have information, I gather the assumptions Enlil and BrowserUK made about whitespace are incorrect. I have added a capturing match to take care of keeping the information.