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Josiah: Procession
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Elektrohasch Records (ELEKTROHASCH 138)
 Procession is the farewell album by this English heavy 70’s styled hard/stoner rock band and includes five new studio tracks recorded between 2006 and 2008 as well as five live tracks recorded in Sweden in 2007. The band has previously put out four albums all of which I have reviewed. The band’s guitarist/singer Mat Bethancourt has already managed to release several albums by his other projects (The Beginning, Kings of Frog Island, Cherry Choke) so he must be quite an active fellow. Josiah’s pretty heavy, seriously ass-kicking sound has been influenced by at least Jimi Hendrix, Grand Funk Railroad and Blue Cheer, and like its predecessors, Procession continues in the quite straight-forward, genuine style respecting the classic power trio values.
The album begins with a couple of two-minute-long tracks, the instrumental, rather slow and heavy ”Procession” and the fast rock piece “Broken Doll” that follows seamlessly. Mat gets to play some tasty solos right away, but these tracks really have nothing new and special to offer. “Thirteen Scene” rocks in the style of Blue Cheer, and it also has some hooks. “Dying Day” is one of my favorites on the album and even reminds me a bit of Pentagram. Some great solos! “Dead Forever” is a little heavy boogie styled number and apparently one of the very last Josiah recordings. There is a slower, heavy riff in the middle and the ending goes faster again while the killer guitar solos blast away. The album’s live section rocks in a really energetic way and the sound is good as well, although just suitably raw. “Looking at the Mountain” is mid-tempo 70’s hard rock, “Time to Kill” a faster attack that is starting to get quite close to Motörhead. The mid-paced ”Silas Brainchild” is perhaps the best of these live tracks including some excellent riffs from somewhere in between Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer and Jimi Hendrix. Yet again we’re in for some really great soloing! The almost seven-minute-long “Malpaso” begins and ends in a fast rocking mode, but there is some slower, atmospheric going in the middle. Also the longer ”I Can’t Seem to Find It” is true early 70’s styled hard rock jamming. This band definitely worked very well live and the studio material rocks like hell as well, although for some reason I never totally fell for the band, maybe because their music was quite straight-forward and not really that psychedelic. A great band, anyway!
www.josiahrock.co.uk |
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