You know Fergie Frederiksen, the vocalist of TOTO in their Isolation album. You should know Tommy Denander, the 'man-in-every-Melodic-Rock-album' Swedish musician. These two, collaborating on this year's Baptism By Fire, propose nothing more - or less - than what they are actually made to offer to music fans; nice, yet predictable, Melodic Rock/AOR tunes. The review can, as well, stop right here.
This project was announced - officially or not - to occur for the last three or four years. Don't blame it on anything else than - I guess - Tommy Denander's overloaded schedule. Please, take the time and look at his works in his official site; you'll summarize his involvement to (really!) dozens of  bands/projects/solo attempts! And, weird enough, the man still occupies himself into the AOR/Melodic Rock/Westcoast genre. How fresh songs can he still compose, to tell the truth? On the other hand, Denander's repute in the music business gives him the opportunity to always enlist the who-is-who of (in general) FM Rock music for his albums.
Hence, in Baptism By Fire we see - except from Fergie Frederiksen himself - the familiar 'faces' of none other(s) than Michael Thompson (MICHAEL THOMPSON BAND), Steve Porcaro (TOTO), Eric Z Daniel (ROBIN BECK, RADIOACTIVE, JIMI JAMISON), Thomas Vikstrom (TALK OF THE TOWN), Jon Johansen (IGNITION), Ricky Phillips (STYX, BAD ENGLISH) and Jim Peterik (SURVIVOR, PRIDE OF LIONS). Need more?
The beautiful, colourful cover guides us to an equally interesting 'inner lobby'. There you will find twelve non-ballad but mid-to-up-tempo songs in (obviously) the AOR/Melodic Rock vein. For whoever's occupied with Frederiksen's past deeds (TOTO, TRILLION, LE ROUX) this album will be swallowed rather smoothly; the man's passionate yet 'warm' voice is top-class again, even if he does not seem willing enough to push his throat to the limit (why should he, anyway?). The spirit of the songs is not as cheerful as you maybe would wish, but by no means can the album be judged as boring; 'predictable' may be a more suitable word.
The motive for purchasing Baptism By Fire eventually seems to be Frederiksen's tenderness in singing. Let alone the fact he only sung in only one TOTO album, and needs to be treated good for the rest of his career!