JOSHUA: Intense Defense LP [Great hard Rock, fast and technical guitar player + Rob Rock on vocals] CHECK SAMPLES!

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.

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

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's musical style was somewhere between Stryper's 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's more evangelical peers in Whitecross or Petra.

Joshua's 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.