Last time we caught up with American vocalist David Reece, he was an angry man. His last album, 2021’s Blacklist Utopia, featured some pretty fired-up raging against the machine lyrically but it was fused to the man’s by-now trademark melodic Euro metal riffage. It was actually a pretty nice mix if truth be told, and one that cemented our hero’s reputation as one of the most dependable lead throats then doing the rounds.

Fast forward three years, however, and Dave’s even angrier; so angry, in fact, that he’s all-but-eschewed the melodic metal and gone full-bore, balls out grind. And damn the torpedoes.

That’s not grind in the ‘Napalm‘ sense, you understand; But he has significantly upped the heaviness quota here, to a sort of Halford-or-Bach-pretending-to-be-Pantera level, unleashing the full-force of his wounded bull roar on tracks like Twilight of the Gods and Archbishop of Anarchy whilst his backing band hammers away enthusiastically in support. Consequently, Baptized By Fire isn’t the most immediate record release that David Reece has ever been associated with – but I’m sure it’s one of the most artistically fulfilling…

But give it time; After a while, the album does give up some of it’s secrets, revealing, after several hours of careful absorption, the first and last pairs of songs here to be amongst some of the best work Reece has committed to tape yet alongside standout cut Wrong Move, a storming anti-establishment anthem that’s hard to deny as Dave warns about the risks to right thinking freedom lovers around every corner…

If you’re mostly a fan of Reece because of his tenures with Bonfire or Sainted Sinners or his work on Accept‘s ‘sellout’ album Eat The Heat, then this step up in intensity might well take you by surprise and take a bit of getting used to. But give it a chance, I implore you – let it’s baptismal waters trickle off your forehead and down inside the sleeves of your shirt… you might just be converted, like I was!

Baptized By Fire releases on March 1st.