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Medieval Death LP and free DVD + Mordicus “Rights ‘n Trials” LP. Official videos, audio, info.
Check the exclusive video showing this LP for sale
Check the exclusive video showing this LP for sale
Medieval Death LP and free DVD + Mordicus “Rights ‘n Trials” LP. Official videos, audio, info.
Joshua is a Christian metal band that formed in 1980. The band broke up and re-formed many times under differing names, but has remained centered around guitarist Joshua Perahia. Despite being based in Los Angeles, California, they are best known internationally – in Europe, Japan, and South America.
This was the final album from Joshua and it was probably their best. It is reported that the album took a better part of a year to record with a $700,000 budget. Strangely after RCA invested this time and money they actually dropped the band reportedly because they included the phrase “This album is dedicated to the Glory of God” in the liner notes. I have no idea how the album went over, but wow is that a dumb reason to drop a band but that’s record companies for you. They do some really stupid things. Unfortunately this silliness probably played a part in the band splitting up. Rob Rock, Greg Shultz, and Emil Lech went on to form the band Driver and Joshua Perahia changed the name of the band to Jaguar. Unfortunately neither band had any commercial success. Back to the album though, it is a very good Hard Rock/Metal album and you can hear the dollars spent in the production and engineering. This album absolutely sounds better than anything released commercially at the time and it’s a pity it was not better received in North America because it really deserved to be.
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Full-length, RCA/BMG
October 1988
1988 Christian released master piece feat. Rob Rock on vocals and Joshua Periah on guitar – perfectly balanced mix between the commercial US metal (Driver, Warrior) and the classic AOR sound!
line up:
Rob Rock Vocals
Joshua Perahia Guitars
Greg Shultz Keyboards
Emil Lech Bass
Tim Gehrt – Drums
Label: RCA – PL 71905
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Germany, Europe
Released: Sep 1988
1. Reach Up 04:43
2. I’ve Been Waiting 04:27
3. Only Yesterday 03:38
4. Crying Out For Love 04:16
5. Living On The Edge 04:10
6. Tearing At My Heart 03:47
7. Remembering You 05:06
8. Look To The Sky 04:21
9. Don’t You Know 04:09
10. Stand Alone 05:02
Joshua musical style was somewhere between Stryper hair metal sound and the harder-edged power metal of Barren Cross. The band played melodic hard rock similar to bands like House of Lords or King Kobra. The songs are upbeat, keyboard-driven melodic rockers, with the obligatory power ballad thrown in. The songs are well-written, and the lyrics, while Christian in nature, are ambiguously so. They’re positive, but not overtly religious. Whether this was an attempt for the crossover success that Stryper achieved, or the band was just trying not to alienate potential listeners, it seems to work pretty well. Intense Defense is much more accessible to the average listener than albums by Joshua more evangelical peers in Whitecross or Petra.
Joshua real asset, and the main reason I picked up the disc as a Japanese import 17 years later, is vocalist Rob Rock, who performed with Impelliteri and Warrior before launching a successful (for this type of music) solo career. Rock has a soaring voice that is perfectly suited for melodic hard rock and heavy metal, and it is his performance here that sets Joshua apart from some of the rest of the pack.
Christian rock and metal fans should definitely seek out this album, as it is a notable entry in the genre. It should also appeal to fans of melodic hard rock and heavy metal in general and Rob Rock fans in particular.
5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest AOR album of all time (or so they say) Joshua Perahia is an American guitarist in the Hard Rock/Glam metal/AOR fields of rock; he is perceived by many to be the fastest guitar player/shredder in the world surpassing the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen and Chris Impellitteri. What is undeniable though is that from the early 80s to 2001 he released a total of five ground-breaking hard rock albums; “Intense defense” is his third studio album originally released in 1988. This line up is set to include iconic singer Rob Rock (ex Axel Rudi Pell, Impellitteri, Solo), bass player Emil Leigh, drummer Tim Gehrt and Greg Schultz on keyboards. Even under the strictest perspective “Intense Defense” stands as a very good hard rock album offering a number of great tracks such as “Only yesterday”, “Look to the Sky”, Crying out for love” and “Don’t you know”. On a personal level what I found really interesting is that many British rock/metal journalists consider and have adamantly stated that “Intense Defense” is the greatest AOR album of all time. Sure “Int. Defense” is a powerful statement in rock but it is by no means flawless; Rob vocals although technically perfect could be considered as typical and not as colorful. Joshua guitar playing is nothing out of the ordinary throughout this album; it has to be pointed out that Joshua was never one to reach his speed limit in every song but throughout “Intense defense” there is literally no evidence of his “legendary” shredding speed (as was more than apparent on his previous releases). Overall “I.D.” stands nowhere near its predecessor “Surrender” (1985) which was simply a barrage of speeding melodies and a masterpiece of a composition. If Joshua has indeed recorded the greatest AOR album of all time then this would be “Surrender” not “Intense Defence”
5.0 out of 5 stars Righteous (Rob) Rock!
1988 Intense Defence was the third album from Christian melodic rock band Joshua, which featured shred artist Joshua Perahia. I don’t know how I missed this one when it was originally released, because I was very much into Christian hard rock at the time, and Intense Defense would have been right up my alley.
Unlike previous Joshua albums, which focused on hyperfast guitar shredding, Intense Defence was a more melodic, less metal offering that was somewhere between Stryper hair metal sound and the harder-edged power metal of Barren Cross. It reminds me of what House of Lords and King Kobra were releasing around that time. The songs are upbeat, keyboard-driven melodic rockers, with the obligatory power ballad thrown in. The songs are well-written, and the lyrics, while Christian in nature, are ambiguously so. They’re positive, but not overtly religious. Whether this was an attempt for the crossover success that Stryper achieved, or the band was just trying not to alienate potential listeners, it seems to work pretty well. Intense Defence is much more accessible to the average listener than albums by Joshua more evangelical peers in Whitecross or Petra.
Intense Defense real asset, and the main reason I picked up the disc as a Japanese import 17 years later, is vocalist Rob Rock, who performed with Impelliteri and Warrior before launching a successful (for this type of music) solo career. Rock has a soaring voice that is perfectly suited for melodic hard rock and heavy metal, and it is his performance here that sets Joshua apart from some of the rest of the pack.
Christian rock and metal fans should definitely seek out this album, as it is a notable entry in the genre. It should also appeal to fans of melodic hard rock and heavy metal in general and Rob Rock fans in particular.
Ken Tamplin wrote none of the songs on this album. He blackmailed the guitarist to add his name on 3 songs or he would sue to stop the album from coming out on RCA Records. The production company in Germany who also produced The Scorpions, demanded that Joshua Perahia give Tamplin the credit “OR ELSE”. Perahia wrote the songs himself as he was never into collaborating with other musicians as he admits in magazine articles because he became very distracted and would “lose focus” when others threw their two cents in while writing melodies. He mentioned how difficult it was to concentrate on his songs with someone flapping their gums. It does make perfect sense for many people like him. His 7 albums have continuity & are derivative of “THE BANDS SOUND” proving he wrote his material alone, even though he changed band members for every album to keep JOSHUA fresh & new. It makes no sense how different singers claim to have written songs in JOSHUA when the bands sound for over 40 years is synonymous with Perahia’s writing. Tamplin was never the lead vocalist in JOSHUA. Rob Rock was for Intense Defense. Jeff Fenholt was the singer on SURRENDER. Tamplin was not even in JOSHUA for their first album. Tamplin sang lead vocals for one show only in 1983 because they lost their lead singer. Tamplin did not leave JOSHUA but instead was “FIRED” for causing so many problems during their SURRENDER tour in 1986. I read where Ken Tamplin was spending all his “down time” on tour with non-stop gossiping against Perahia, as he had hopes to take over the band. Eventually in 1986, Perahia fired the entire band to continue his belief in keeping the band fresh by changing the members for every album, like Santana. That is why the fired members formed Tamplin’s band called Shout. If you want the real truth about these “JOSHUA” stories you can read them in many rock magazine articles like “BURRN” Magazine from Japan where JOSHUA has many hits, or European magazines like “ETSY”, “Rock Scene”, “Heavy Metal”, Metal Forces”, or “Metal Edge” magazines. You won’t find many articles here in the states because the best metal is in Europe & Japan where these guys were so popular.
Medieval Death LP and free DVD + Mordicus “Rights ‘n Trials” LP. Official videos, audio, info.
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