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21 сен 2025
DAVID REECE Rules Out Second IRON ALLIES Album With HERMAN FRANK: 'I Don't Wanna Work With The Guy'
"There's a weird thing with that whole ACCEPT family — excluding [original ACCEPT singer] Udo [Dirkschneider], I must say — and I know why," he explained. "It was created by the old management, which was really good at dividing everyone and pitting everybody against each other. Really evil. And the only one that wasn't part of that dark side was Udo. We're good friends now, since '88. I could call him today, if he's home, talk to him and his boy. But some of that, it created a distrust of everybody around. And that's how managers keep control. They cause this dissension of getting everybody freaked out so they can basically make you do what they want. And I've noticed in a lot of those guys, in those outsiders that are doing their own thing, that's still there. You still hear about it. And I started feeling that."
Circling back to his current relationship with Frank, Reece added: "He writes great riffs [with his long-running band] VICTORY. It's funny 'cause when he came here and said, 'If we do this [IRON ALLIES project], it's gonna be heavy metal,' and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But if you look at VICTORY, it's kinda like [Reece's] BANGALORE CHOIR; it's more of a pop-rock band. And he's happy. He's got a great singer. Gianni's [Pontillo] great, and I wish him well. But no, I don't wanna work with the guy. I mean, I don't hate him. I just don't want that unease. I wanna be happy. I wanna focus on what I'm doing and not worrying about, 'Oh, God, things are cool today,' and then you walk into rehearsal and it's not cool. I mean, screw that, dude."
Back in October 2024, Herman was asked by Dionne about the possibility of a second album from IRON ALLIES. He said: "We will see. I'm always working. I do have my own project, Herman Frank, and I'm writing for other people, so I'm quite sure that IRON ALLIES will have a second album, for sure. We've played on a couple of festivals — [Belgium's] Graspop [Metal Meeting] is one of the biggest festivals all in Europe — and we have been in Czech and stuff like that, in Switzerland and Germany. So I guess it was a good start. And I do love David's voice. That kind of gives a different shape, different style into rock/metal or metal/rock. It's not the typical classic metal or rock singer screaming. He's singing. He knows how to sing. And I do love his lyrics. So, yeah, for sure."
IRON ALLIES' debut album, "Blood In Blood Out", arrived in October 2022 via AFM Records.
When "Blood In Blood Out" was first announced, Frank said in a statement: "This record cannot be compared to anything David or I have produced in our past. It's at the same time standing on its own, while sounding like it came from the one and the same mold. You could say: the two of us have sought and found each other."
Although these two exceptional musicians had known each other for a very long time, sparks really started to fly during Frank's visit to Piacenza, Italy, where the American-born Reece has been living after marrying an Italian woman.
"We hit it off right away because David — like me — is not only an old warhorse, but a total music lover," Herman said. "It's only with this unswerving passion for music that you can last as long as we have in this shark tank.
"I love David's voice, that unique blend of metal, rock and blues. Also, he's an awesome lyricist and as a U.S.-American he obviously has a much greater range of vocabulary than non-English-speaking singers."
"In a way, 'Blood In Blood Out' is the motto of IRON ALLIES," Herman explained. "This band was formed as a blood brotherhood, and no one gets out of here without shedding blood.
"Blood In Blood Out" was recorded at Horus Sound Studio in Hannover, Germany with co-producer Arne Neurand. Joining Frank and Reece on the IRON ALLIES album, which was mixed and mastered by Dennis Ward, were drummer Francesco Jovino (U.D.O., PRIMAL FEAR, VOODOO CIRCLE, JORN),bassist Malte Burkert and rhythm guitarist Mike Pesin.
Frank said: "We left nothing to chance. All positions were perfectly cast."
In October 2021, Reece discussed his collaboration with Frank in an interview with the "Heavy Metal Mayhem" radio show. He said: "The ironic thing about Herman and I, we played festivals many times and not even met each other. And here we are, part of the same band and their history. And we would miss each other by, like, two minutes. We always wanted to see each other, but something came up [and] we never really got to meet. So Herman and I started talking, and we said, 'Yeah, let's put a band together. Who do you wanna get?' We talked to [drummer] Mike Heller from FEAR FACTORY a few times, and that didn't really work out. And then I said, 'I've got Francesco Jovino, dude, on my [solo] album. This guy is a beast.' So then we got the band together."
Regarding the musical direction of IRON ALLIES, Reece said: "It's got some of those elements of old [ACCEPT circa] 'Restless And Wild'. It's got Dave's voice — [as heard on my solo albums] 'Cacophony [Of Souls]' and 'Blacklist [Utopia]'. It's ripping shit, man. I'm really excited about it."
According to Reece, part of the motivation for putting IRON ALLIES together is the negative publicity surrounding their respective departures from ACCEPT. "They badmouth him, they badmouth me, there was this back-and-forth all the time, and then [Herman] said, 'You know what? Screw it. I'm gonna call David Reece,'" David explained. "And I'd never really talked to him. He just came down to Italy and we got to actually meet face to face. We went out to a great dinner, hung out for about six hours. He was just driving around Europe, relaxing, 'cause he had just finished another VICTORY album and his solo album, so he needed a break."
Herman joined ACCEPT in 1982 shortly before the release of the band's "Restless And Wild" album and exited the group for the first time after the arrival of 1983's "Balls To The Wall" LP.
When ACCEPT reunited for festival appearances in 2005, Herman handled second-guitar duties alongside founding axeman Wolf Hoffmann, with Stefan Schwarzmann sitting behind the kit.
Frank and Schwarzmann were involved in ACCEPT's comeback with singer Mark Tornillo and appeared on the reunited group's first three studio albums: 2010's "Blood Of The Nations", 2012's "Stalingrad" and 2014's "Blind Rage".
Five years ago, Herman told All That Shreds about his decision to exit ACCEPT in December 2014: "It was just time to leave the band. Let's put it this way: I wanted to do music the way I started to. I wanted to have my own band. I wanted my own music and just wanted to just play my own leads. Not to follow somebody's guitar. I was getting too old for it. It's fine to be a backup, but after a couple of years, it's time for a different thing."
Reece was recruited for ACCEPT's "Eat The Heat" LP in 1989 following the departure of Udo Dirkschneider. Reece's higher-pitched delivery was in sharp contrast to Dirkschneider's distinctive style, and overall, the album was a critical and commercial disappointment. Midway through the "Eat The Heat" tour, differences between the band and Reece had come to a head, leading to the altercation between the singer and bassist Peter Baltes in Chicago. By the end of 1989, ACCEPT had hung it up.
David spoke about the circumstances that led to his dispute with the bassist during an interview with Metalliluola. He explained: "Peter had told my girlfriend I was having an affair. And I asked him, 'Did you tell her?' And he said, 'Yes.' So I slapped him. That ended it. It was bad before that, the communication. Ticket sales weren't good. We were opening for W.A.S.P."
He continued: "I think they really thought that getting the American [singer] in, they were gonna break the United States. But ACCEPT aren't really huge in America, like [in Europe]. That's why they hired me — they wanted a change. And the tour was going kind of slow. We did a headline tour first in the States, [playing in the] clubs. That was good. And then we went out with W.A.S.P. and METAL CHURCH, and it was half[-filled] rooms. So they were feeling the stress of that, and the communication was bad. So it was building."
David went on to say that he is sorry for assaulting his former bandmate. "Peter and I are friends now," he said, adding that "it was a bad decision" that was made while he and the rest of the group were under "a lot of stress. Being in a band, it can be a lot of drama. He had no right to tell her, and I had no right to slap him. So, I regret it."
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