Hezzakya

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ancouver Canada's Hezzakya set about to explore both new and old-school sonic territories when they launched themselves a scant few years ago under the membership of long time friends Mike Steiger (guitar), Sayad Nassir (guitar), Nat Green (drums), Cam Williams (vocals) and Sean Moore (bass). The band explored the very beginnings of the heavy metal movement going all the way back to its roots with psychosis-inducing hard rock, the styles of which are rarely seen today and left to bands like Black Sabbath or Kyuss. In 2005 their self-produced album the appropriately titled Drug Metal, released on a fraction of what other bands spend on clothes (as the bumf declared) lacked the fine polish of a high priced professional job at a major label but was nonetheless enough to secure them interest in the independent music world. The album came complete with snails paced beats, heavy grinding bass guitar and a vocal snarl reminiscent of Rob Zombie but without the dance beat, a style now traditionally only heard on so-called Classic Rock stations. In 2006 a line-up change would see Brad White on bass and Rob Krys on vocals soon before the act would break up in 2008; several members, including Nat Green, to start Black Smoke Rising.