Rock Candy
Rock 'n' Roll Doctor
Another excellent 80s Christian rock/metal band seemingly lost in the sands of time. As a result, information on Joshua seems rather scarce (I'll admit, I stole most of it off Scott Waters' excellent site), so I'll share the (few) things I know about them.
Formed by super-shredder Joshua Perahia in 1980, the band's first release was 1982's The Hand Is Quicker Than the Eye, which was a classy slab of AOR-tinged hard rock. Perahia knew how create quality songs packed with catchy hooks, not just turning each song into a vessel to flaunt his chops. Not to call him a slouch or anything however, the man's playing is frankly, mental (Think along the lines of Vinnie Vincent), with Japanese metal magazine Burrn! voting him "World's Fastest Guitarist" in 1982. It's not just Perahia's show however, vocalist Steff Fontaine putting in an excellent performance. Fontaine has a perfect voice for AOR, his smooth vocals ranging somewhere between Lou Gramm and Chad Brown. You really have to wonder why this didn't become huge, it certainly had the quality to rule the charts.
Another excellent album followed in 1985, albeit by this time Fontaine had jumped ship to briefly replace Peter Goalby in Uriah Heep. Replacing him for this new album Surrender, is the operatic wailer Jeff Fenholt (Bible Black, Geezer Butler Band, ED3N). The album is another slab of solid melodic hard rock, but like THIQTE before it, commercially, it never really did anything outside of Japan. A shame really, given the strength of the material, it deserved much better. The album was released in 1992 on CD with several bonus tracks (and several subsequent times, each time with different artwork), but all of the instruments were re-recorded, apparently due to Perahia’s dissatisfaction with the production values imposed on him originally, by limited time and funds.
In 1988 a third album followed, again with a new singer. Rob Rock of Impelliteri, M.A.R.S. and Axel Rudi Pell fame takes over the microphone from Fenholt, and certainly makes sure his predecessor isn't missed! Many people consider Intense Defense the best of the three 80s albums Joshua produced, and I despite disagreeing slightly, it certainly makes a strong case. Another quality album of vastly underrated melodic hard rock.
Perahia and co. have released a few albums here and there since, but I'll confess I haven't really made an attempt to track their progress since. If it's anywhere near as good as their 80s output, I'll have to remedy that sometime in the near future!
Now, do we have any fans here at CRF?
Formed by super-shredder Joshua Perahia in 1980, the band's first release was 1982's The Hand Is Quicker Than the Eye, which was a classy slab of AOR-tinged hard rock. Perahia knew how create quality songs packed with catchy hooks, not just turning each song into a vessel to flaunt his chops. Not to call him a slouch or anything however, the man's playing is frankly, mental (Think along the lines of Vinnie Vincent), with Japanese metal magazine Burrn! voting him "World's Fastest Guitarist" in 1982. It's not just Perahia's show however, vocalist Steff Fontaine putting in an excellent performance. Fontaine has a perfect voice for AOR, his smooth vocals ranging somewhere between Lou Gramm and Chad Brown. You really have to wonder why this didn't become huge, it certainly had the quality to rule the charts.
Another excellent album followed in 1985, albeit by this time Fontaine had jumped ship to briefly replace Peter Goalby in Uriah Heep. Replacing him for this new album Surrender, is the operatic wailer Jeff Fenholt (Bible Black, Geezer Butler Band, ED3N). The album is another slab of solid melodic hard rock, but like THIQTE before it, commercially, it never really did anything outside of Japan. A shame really, given the strength of the material, it deserved much better. The album was released in 1992 on CD with several bonus tracks (and several subsequent times, each time with different artwork), but all of the instruments were re-recorded, apparently due to Perahia’s dissatisfaction with the production values imposed on him originally, by limited time and funds.
In 1988 a third album followed, again with a new singer. Rob Rock of Impelliteri, M.A.R.S. and Axel Rudi Pell fame takes over the microphone from Fenholt, and certainly makes sure his predecessor isn't missed! Many people consider Intense Defense the best of the three 80s albums Joshua produced, and I despite disagreeing slightly, it certainly makes a strong case. Another quality album of vastly underrated melodic hard rock.
Perahia and co. have released a few albums here and there since, but I'll confess I haven't really made an attempt to track their progress since. If it's anywhere near as good as their 80s output, I'll have to remedy that sometime in the near future!
Now, do we have any fans here at CRF?
