After being sacked by Accept, not long after the release of their 1989 album “Eat The Heat’’,singer David Reece went back to his home country America and started a new outfit called Bangalore Choir. Their debut-album “On Target” fitted perfectly into a scene that was dominated by bands such as Skid Row, Quiet Riot, Ratt and XYZ. Melodic heavy rock with plenty of energy, with some radio friendly tracks and a cocky attitude. The future looked bright.
But shortly after the release a certain thing called grunge came up in force and suddenly the above-mentioned bands and their genre were not hip anymore, let alone wanted. The band did not last long although throughout the years there were a few more releases by the group. Releases that went unnoticed, as did the next band that David started called SircleOf Silence. With guitarist Larry Farkas and drummer Jay Schellen (later active in Asia) two excellent albums saw the light of day but to no avail.
GUN FOR HIRE
After that David Reece more or less became a gun for hire. If you needed a singer for hire, he would be available for bands and projects. It provided him with a living and quite a CV as well. He eventually ended up living in Italy and became a member of the German outfit Bonfire. That did not last long as he clashed withband leader Hans Ziller, leading to a departure again. But together with Bonfire-guitarist Frank Pane and bass player Malte Frederik Burkert a new project was started under the banner of Sainted Sinners, producing a couple of excellent classic rock albums. And in between David worked with German guitarist Andy Susemihl, kept being available as hired gun and made several solo-albums as well. He was also involved in the supergroup Iron Allies with guitarist Herman Frank. Their album ‘’Blood In, Blood Out’’ was a masterpiece of modern, guitar driven heavy metal. Look him up on Wikipedia and you will be astonished about the amount, of releases and involvements.
BANGALORE CHOIR RESURRECTED
Just as I was expecting a second Iron Allies record David surprisingly decided to reform Bangalore Choir, without any original members involved. In August last year “Rapid FireSuccession: On Target Part II” on BraveWords Records appeared. A cannonball of an album with 16 songs, all killers and no fillers.I am not sure what happened between the band and their record company but fact is that the new album, entitled “Payload” is being released by German label El Puerto, a label that has worked with the singer before and that also released his latest solo-album “Baptized By Fire”.
BACK TO THE ROOTS
The twelve songs on “Payload” make one thing clear and that is that David Reece has gone back to the roots, to the early days of Bangalore Choir. This is a mix of potent heavy rockers, melodic structures, scorching guitar work but there is also plenty of room for a few ballads. Although David Reece is in his mid- sixties now, he has not lost his identity as a singer nor any of his power or feeling for melody. He has such a recognizable voice. He has renewed his working-relationship with Andy Susemihl and involved bass player Gorka Alegre, drummer Tommy McWilliams and guitarist Steve Gordon for the recordings, songwriting and production.
“PAYLOAD”
If I am brutally honest thelevel of “Payload” is not as high as last year’s Bangalore Choir album. In general, the songs are good and the performances of the musicians are certainly above par. What I do miss are songs that really get you super excited. “Tear You Down”, “Breakdown Unforgettable” (a cool mid-tempo rocker) and ”Won’t Fool Me Again’’(a sensitive ballad) are certainly up there with David’s vocalsleading the waybut not all tracks grab me by the short and curlies, something that was not the case last year.
Still, at the end of the day we can say that “Payload” is a far above average melodic heavy rock album with those early nineties rock vibes reasonably intact.
Report by Michel van de Moosdijk
