Recon was a Christian metal band active in the late 80s and early 90s. They were one of the earliest true “power metal” bands in the Christian scene. They played a traditional form of heavy metal that was augmented and supplemented by progressive tendencies and tempos that sometimes approached speed metal.
The band released a pair of cassette demos, first in 1989 and then 1990, and also had a song featured on the most excellent California Metal II compilation where I first heard the band. Vocalist Vett Roberts sang in a high-pitched operatic style not too unlike Jimmy Brown (Deliverance) or Geoff Tate (Queensryche), or possibly even a more musical version of King Diamond (Merciful Fate). Also notable was guitarist George Ochoa, who was also in Deliverance and has collaborated with a plethora of other Christian metal acts including Worldview, Crystavox, and Mortification.
Our song selection today is taken from the one and only full-length album the band ever released, the excellent Behind Enemy Lines. Originally released in 1990 on legendary Intense Records, there are several re-issues both on CD and vinyl, first via Magdalene Records, and later several alternate pressings from Roxx Records.
“In My Dreams” has a haunting melody, and is about as heavy as you can get as a quasi-ballad. The song is written from the perspective of someone who experiences Christian victory in normal life’s waking hours, but is asking God to be with him in his dreams, where fear and emptiness seem to be in control.
I know Your Name in life
Help me speak it in my dreams
I’ve often wondered if the song was hypothetical or written from a place of experience. Either way, it’s a killer tune. The version we’ve shared here is from the re-mastered reissue from Roxx Records, and it’s a lyric video too, so you can get a fuller view of the song and lyrics.