Bangalore Choir
On Target

Finding oneself catapulted from total anonymity to the spotlight as a singer for one of the most well-known heavy metal bands must be quite the stroke of luck. Then, being dismissed from said band amid a couple of years filled with insults, quarrels, and misunderstandings must be quite the blow. Returning home with your tail between your legs, forming your own band, releasing a great hard rock album, only to watch it go completely unnoticed, must be the final coup de grâce for one's career.

Such concentrated misfortune is nothing less than the life of Mr. David Reece during the years '88-'92, the blonde American singer who found himself having to replace none other than Udo Dirkschneider at the mic for the German Accept, with whom he released “Eat the Heat,” an album whose flop was attributed almost solely to the newcomer and marked the temporary end of the band. After a hellish tour (it's said that the tensions within the band were such that, backstage at one show, there was a “friendly exchange of opinions” between Reece and bassist Peter Baltes, resulting in the cancellation of the remaining dates), good old David returned to America where he decided to put together a new band, recruiting Ian Mayo on bass and Jackie Ramos on drums (the rhythm section of the newly dissolved Hericane Alice), completing it with Curt Mitchell and John Kirk on guitars, and giving it the curious name of Bangalore Choir.

“On Target,” for a long time the band's first and only work, is a blend of hard rock that's at times biting, at times melodic, full of catchy choruses and stadium anthems, effective riffs, melodic solos, and, of course, the customary ballads. Nothing less than a perfect mix of what '80s rock should be, excellently played and produced, yet fatally too late: not even a couple of well-known names among the collaborations (Bon Jovi and his faithful Aldo Nova) could save this work from almost total anonymity. It's a shame because the album is full of well-played and valid tracks: from the opener “Angel in Black” (co-written with Steve Plunkett, who would later re-record it with his band Autograph) to the melodic “Loaded Gun,” then moving to the sweet ballad “Hold on to You,” the gritty rock of “Freight Train Rollin’,” and the anthemic “If the Good Die Young (We’ll Live Forever)”—whose title already hints at its intention as an exhilarating anthem—culminating with the rousing “Just One Night”, after just under 40 minutes accompanied by Reece's warm voice, clearly more at ease as a Coverdale imitator than in the uncomfortable shoes of Colonel Udo's replacement.

A little gem swept away by the force of the grunge movement that was about to peak in those years but deserving of being rediscovered, especially given the fact that the band is back on track (though extensively reworked: of this “On Target,” only Reece and Mitchell remain) with “Cadence,” a new work released under the sprawling Frontiers Records, a label specialized in giving a second life to those who, like Bangalore Choir, have reaped much less than their abilities merited.