New Band To Burn One To-Hezzakya

No time for irony. No time for unclever metal parodies. No time here for lame-ass nu-metal rap/funk bullshit. No time for emo-screamo-homo-lamo. There's only room for the die-hard and the dedicated and the deliberate and the drop-D and the deadly. They cut to the quick with the time-honoured and passionately reinvented traditions of turbo-distorted power-chords charging their way through minor keys, propelled along by crashing cymbals that are worked too hard to stop shimmering, impossibly huge bass drums sounding the march of the doomed, and startling vocal assault that is nothing short of the archangel's clarion call to the burning skies above Ragnarok. Clad in hardass black, their sweat-soaked faces blotted out by shaggy manes, dwarfed by the screaming black towers of shuddering amplification, standing sentinel behind them at inhuman volume levels – designed to interrupt heartbeats and shatter brainpans in the finest custom of Black Sabbath and Kyuss. This is Hezzakya. Hezzakya are one of Vancouver's highest-ranking rock contenders in the metal-power sweepstakes. Named after the phonetic spelling of Hezekiah (the kickass King of Judah), and whose name translate as "The Lord Has Strengthened," this Hezzakya is no dusty historical footnote to be yawned over. This Hezzakya is the five-headed God of the Riff, whose modern name translates into "The Chord Has Strengthened." Hezzakya's reputation has been forged in the molten furnaces of Vancouver's stoner-rock elite, having shared many stages and incinerated many audiences alongside the likes of Grass City, the Next Hundred Years, and Black Betty. HEZZAKYA has toured to Kamloops , Calgary, Whistler, Victoria, Portland, Tacoma and Seattle and has always been extremely well received by all the fans, bands, and promoters. HEZZAKYA's future goals are to break into the American market and get back in the studio in April to record more crushing songs with hopes of releasing another album.

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My Take

Back in 1989, I was working in a record store and we got in a promo from a band called Soundgarden. When I first heard the vocals, I was in complete awe. They were strong and soaring and first brought to mind Robert Plant, but better. The music was heavier than anything I had heard in a while, then along came Kyuss. Well, the rest they say is history. Anyways, the point that I am trying to make is that if you combined the vocals of Chris Cornell with the stoner rock heaviness of Kyuss you would get Hezzakya, especially on the song "In Her Garden". The songs on their debut "Drug Metal" are a well-balanced mixture of groove-oriented heaviness although it sounds as if they changed vocalists midway through the album to a more whiskey-soaked drone. The Chris Cornell-style vocal hit me much harder because it made the music feel more passionate. Still, the well-written songs will fulfill your thirsting for your daily dose of stoner rock.

3.6 out of 5

Track Listing For "Drug Metal":

1. In Her Garden-(MP3)
2. Hands Of Stone-(MP3)
3. Broken Horse-(MP3)
4. Alone In Texas-(MP3)
5. Muted God-(MP3)
6. Spirit Gun-(MP3)

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