JOB FOR A COWBOY – MOON HEALER

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Feb 122024
 

(Moon Healer is out on 23 February on Metal Blade Records)

2024 looks set to be an interesting year for comebacks, and few of those, I’d imagine, will attract as much interest – or generate as much divisive discussion – as the long-awaited new album from resurrected Death Metal revenants Job For A Cowboy.

That’s right, I said “Death Metal” rather than “Deathcore”, because it’s high time we all acknowledged that, whether you like them or not (and I’m sure there are many who don’t) the band haven’t been “Deathcore” since the release of Genesis way back in 2007.

Not only that, but in the years preceding their hiatus – culminating in the challenging technicality and churning intensity of the career-defining Sun Eater – it became clear that the band were more interested in pushing their sound in an increasingly unorthodox and unpredictable direction, rather than giving in to any outside pressures to conform to anyone else’s ideas of who they should be.

And although it’s now been almost (but not quite) a full decade since they last saddled up, there’s no question that on Moon Healer these cowboys have continued to ride even further down the proggy path laid out by its predecessor.

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: AUTOPSY, THE BREATHING PROCESS, BRODER, CATTLE DECAPITATION, CRUST, HEILUNG, JOB FOR A COWBOY, KALANDRA, OPHANIM, PLAGUE OF THE FALLEN, VASTUM, VEMOD

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Oct 282023
 


Autopsy – photo by Nancy Reifert

Prepare for… a lot of sentences that begin “Prepare for….”

It’s a little way for me to say very little about what you’ll hear but without me feeling like I’ve done nothing to induce listening or to thank the bands.

The shorthand is necessary because the past week produced so damn much music I’d like to recommend, and because I got lots of suggestions from other people, including my compadres Andy Synn and DGR. Their picks and mine, which produced a mix of bigger bands and more obscure bands, are arranged here in alphabetical order by band name.

Prepare for… lots of twists and turns…. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 18

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014  4 Responses »
Jan 142015
 

 

Welcome to Part 18 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

I failed to post another installment in the list yesterday, due to the annoying distractions of the job that, unlike this one, actually pays me for services rendered. However, I’m resuming the rollout today with two songs by bands who are among the best-known in the American extreme metal scene and who both released very strong albums in 2014. The cover art for both albums is also wonderful.

JOB FOR A COWBOY

Andy Synn review JFAC’s new album Sun Eater for us, and I thought he hit the nail on the head:

The struggle for credibility and acceptance by the Death Metal elite has been a long and arduous one for Job For A Cowboy. Their Deathcore roots and that name certainly tend to prompt a rather knee-jerk reaction from a certain section of the Death Metal community, despite the fact that the band’s purposeful progression from internet darlings to legitimate contenders has been an absolute joy to behold. Continue reading »

A SMORGASBORD OF DEATHLY DELIGHTS: EMETH, ABYSMAL DAWN, JOB FOR A COWBOY

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Nov 072014
 

 

(Andy Synn delivers three reviews for three very strong new albums — with accompanying full-album streams.)

Let me level with you. At the start of 2014 I was convinced that this was going to be Black Metal’s year. There have been so many frankly awesome albums from across the kvlt-spectrum, from the Post- to the Progressive to the Necro, that, in truth, I just didn’t see how Death Metal was going to keep up.

But as the months have ticked by I’ve seen a slow and steady resurgence from the DM crowd. From the progressive wizardry of bands like Allegaeon and Beyond Creation to the shameless brutality of Aborted and Beneath… from the old-school ugliness of Cannibal Corpse and Vader, to the megaton grooves of modern legends like Misery Index and Decapitated… it’s been an incredible fight back… and that’s without even mentioning the wealth of underground and underappreciated deathsters toiling away in relative obscurity!

Now, since I’ve been so busy over the last couple of months, there’s been a number of recent releases I’ve simply not had the chance to celebrate properly. Which upsets me. On a deep and fundamental level. And this simply will not stand.

So, to compensate, here’s three albums, arranged in order of release and all available to stream right now, that have been making the tail-end of 2014 a darker, deathlier place for me! Continue reading »

JOB FOR A COWBOY: “SUN OF NIHILITY”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Sep 232014
 

 

I confess that this crept up on me. I didn’t know Job For A Cowboy were so close to releasing a new album, but as you can see above, it has a name (Sun Eater) and a fantastic album cover. It also has a release date (Nov 11, via Metal Blade). And within the last hour we got our first taste of the music through the premiere of a song named “Sun of Nihility”.

At the moment I’m unable to listen to the song. I could tell you why, but then I’d have to kill you, and we wouldn’t want that, would we? So even though I’m quite curious to hear how this band’s sound has progressed (because in light of their history I’m expecting some continued changes), I’m deferring my own gratification in order to gratify you.

At least I hope it will be gratifying. Please feel free to leave a Comment and explain whether you are gratified or disappointed. When I’m able to listen to the song I’ll toss in my two cents. The music is below. Continue reading »

DYING FETUS / JOB FOR A COWBOY / REVOCATION — LIVE IN BIRMINGHAM, SEPT. 18, 2012

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 202012
 

(Andy Synn journeyed to Birmingham, UK, to take in The Womb To Waste Tour and wrote this review of the experience. Andy has also provided us with video of each band’s performance.)

So here’s the thing. Myself and my good buddy Tim (also of Bloodguard fame) decided, kind of at the last minute, to head to this show over in Birmingham (those who pussied out know who they are, but I won’t shame them by naming them…). Now Birmingham isn’t all that far from where we live, except in rush-hour, which pretty much doubles your travelling time. I’m telling you this to explain why we missed Cerebral Bore, who I know have a fair few fans on this site. As it stands, we got there just as they were starting their last song, so I took the chance to hit the empty bar and check out the merch stand, before finding a good spot to watch Revocation.

 

REVOCATION

Revocation being the only band I hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing live before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, particularly as the band’s insane fusion of day-glo techno thrash, proggy song-structures, and black/death hybrid heaviness is the sort of foolhardy mixing and matching that often leaves me cold in the live arena. Thank god then for the band’s boundless confidence and enthusiasm, which certainly helped each song come across as more than just a series of good ideas thrown together, every track delivering an array of heavy, head-banging riffs, wild, madcap drumming, and sizzling solo work, while jumping around all over the metal map. Continue reading »

JOB FOR A COWBOY’S NEW VIDEO FOR “TARNISHED GLUTTONY” MAY NOT HAVE BOOBS, BUT IT’S STILL BRILLIANT

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  29 Responses »
Aug 082012
 

Job For A Cowboy’s 2012 album Demonocracy got high marks from our Andy Synn, who called it this band’s best album yet: “Preconceptions be damned, this is a fine slab of dark, meaty death metal.”

The album’s closing track, “Tarnished Gluttony”, is a dynamic turn from much of the rest of the album — a long, slow, crushing piece that exudes a sensation of apocalyptic doom. Today, Blood Disgusting premiered a nearly nine-and-a-half minute official video for that song (the music in the video adds a dirge-like instrumental segment to the album’s song, as accompaniment for part of the story until the music on the album track resumes again).

The video puts an imaginative Lovecraftian spin on the song that isn’t present in the lyrics, yet there is still a thematic linkage, as the band’s frontman Jonny Davey explained in a statement that we’ll quote after the jump. Much of the video moves in slow motion, matching the slow pacing of the song, and the integration of the visual story and the terrifying music is beautifully done.

Actually, the whole thing is just brilliant, though there’s a graphically gory sequence that may affect where you choose to watch this. Credit goes to director  Michael Panduro (the man who direct Cephalic Carnage‘s “Ohrwurm” video) and actor Morten Klode. Panduro is quoted as saying: “As a commercial director, I’m a complete failure. The band asked for just one thing and I couldn’t deliver. Indeed, this video has no boobs.” No, it doesn’t, but it’s a riveting thing to watch nonetheless. Continue reading »

JOB FOR A COWBOY: “DEMONOCRACY”

 Album Reviews  16 Responses »
Apr 042012
 

(NCS writer Andy Synn reviews the new album by Job For A Cowboy, which is scheduled for North American release on April 10, 2012 through Metal Blade, plus we have the three songs from the album publicly released to date.)

Looking back at their career thus far, it’s definitely been an upwards trajectory for Job For A Cowboy. Some might say that’s due to where they started from; Doom is definitely showing its age these days, although still surprisingly spritely in places. Good but not great (despite what the more entrenched fan-boys might claim), the EP was largely a product of its time, seeing a talented band of youngsters riding the crest of the myspace/social networking wave and combining their burgeoning (though undeveloped) talents with new methods of marketing and self-promotion. Though castigated by many for this, there’s no shame in it, particularly as the group have used every subsequent release in an attempt to prove their worth as one of American death metal’s up and coming contenders, improving their instrumental skills and technical abilities at every turn.

If the massive growth demonstrated between the release of Doom and Genesis was an early sign of the band attempting to justify the hype surrounding themselves, then the even bigger leap between Genesis and Ruination was definitely the product of a band “finding themselves”. Having laid these solid foundations, Gloom served the key purpose of an EP perfectly, showcasing some different shifts in direction around this established core. And there we have it, a consistent upwards trajectory that has demonstrated both growth and drive, often in the face of an intransigent metal community

So how does Demonocracy fit in? Continue reading »

TUESDAY VIDEOGRAPHY

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 212012
 

This morning I woke up, dressed hurriedly, slugged caffeine, drove a friend to the airport, and drove back — by which time it was 4 a.m. I feel like a reanimated corpse, but only partially reanimated. The only upside to this agony is that it gave me time to snoop around in search of new music, which I found in the form of videos from De Lirium’s Order (Finland), Job For A Cowboy (U.S.), and Horseback (U.S.).

DE LIRIUM’S ORDER

I came across this band because their drummer, Ukri Suvilehto, is also the live session drummer for Before the Dawn, which is one of our favorite bands. Also, they are from Finland, and you know what that means.

WIthin the last couple of days, De Lirium’s Order debuted a video for a song called “Autistic Savant”. It’s the opening track from their latest album (their third), Veniversum, which is being officially released today. According to the band, “the video was shot in freezing conditions, minus 30 degrees Celcius, in an abandoned factory located in Joensuu, Finland.” This may explain why they’re playing so fast.

Whatever the reason, the song is very cool and so is the video. The music is a proggy, techy take on melodic death metal, with lots of spidery picking and hammering percussion, a resonant melody, and in the mid-section, a soft piano bridge leading to attention-grabbing solo’s by both of the band’s guitarists and a bass solo! I think this is a band we need to know better. Continue reading »

JOB FOR A COWBOY: “NOURISHMENT THROUGH BLOODSHED”

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  24 Responses »
Feb 272012
 

Anyone who thinks Job For A Cowboy is still a deathcore band didn’t hear the band’s 2011 EP, Gloom. You can simulate listening to it by reading Andy Synn’s NCS review (here). Or you can check out a song from JFAC’s forthcoming album, Demonocracy, because that’s what we have for you in this post.

The new, 9-track album, produced by Jason Suecof, is scheduled for release on April 10 by Metal Blade, who is accepting pre-orders for it now (here). It catches the eye with an album cover by Brent Elliott White, and it includes the return of two musicians who made their first JFAC appearance on Gloom — guitarist Tony Sannicandro and Cephalic Carnage bassist Nick Schendzielos, who replaced Brent Riggs last year.

Gloom revealed a band who were unabashedly leaving their deathcore roots behind and instead connecting with their death metal forebears, and even incorporating elements of black metal and doom on certain songs. What then does Demonocracy hold in store? Continue reading »

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