JOB FOR A COWBOY — Moon Healer (review)

JOB FOR A COWBOY — Moon Healer album cover

Album · 2024 · Technical Death Metal

3.5/5 · 2024-02-29
siLLy puPPy

Like a prickly saguaro in the Sonaran desert, Arizona dwellers JOB FOR A COWBOY have been a part of the landscape for well over two decades now, first emerging as a electrified unhinged deathcore band and then settling into a more tech death with proggy accoutrements comfort zone. With the debut EP “Doom,” the band proved it has the testicular fortitude to compete with the big boyz of death metal and on the full-length debut “Genesis” found the band deemphasizing the core attributes in favor of a more traditional death metal style with techy overtones. The band kept the ball rolling for the next four album by upping their game and honing their chops which culminated with 2014’s “Sun Eater” which showcases a maturity beyond the confines of traditional death metal but then suddenly went silent.

JOB FOR A COWBOY has remained on unemployment for an entire decade now and presumed MIA but given the Lazarus qualities of 2024 seeing many artists long lost for decades suddenly jumping back into the world of musical output, so too has JOB FOR A COWBOY with its fifth album MOON HEALER which finds the band in full employment mode and crafting a wicked slide of modern tech death metal with a voracious appetite to claw their way into the modern world. Basically a continuation of where they left off, this band surprisingly has not experienced a major lineup change with the same team of Jonny Davis on vocals, Tony Sannicandro and Alan Glassman delivering dueling guitar and bassist Nick Schendzielos however newbie Navene Kopeweis of Animals As Leaders, Animosity and Sleep Terror takes hold of the drummer’s seat to unleash his percussive fury.

A gritty no nonsense style of tech death, JOB FOR A COWBOY’s death metal ethos has not mellowed a bit in the last decade with a feisty bravado that showcases the angst of classic tech death in the midst of a slickly produced modern rendition. Dropping the bomb right away with “Beyond The Chemical Doorway” the band demonstrates its commitment to sticking to the JOB FOR A COWBOY playbook with twin guitars muddled with raw crusty distortion and delivering caustic riffing sessions that stand outside the thundering rhythmic drive of the bass and percussion. Skirting the fine line between the traditional melodic styles of old school death and the nerdier modern disso-death varieties, JOB FOR A COWBOY delivers the dissonant chord strumming of the latter while keeping the tasty guitar licks and leads finely tuned into near neo-classical diamonds in the rough.

The band has actually never sounded better. More tight, more emphatically dedicated to its craft and sounds quite happy to be back in the game of death metal ferocity. Lead vocalist Jonny Davy demonstrates a wide breadth of screams, growls, grunts and guttural gymnastics in tandem with the musical processions. The instrumental interplay and attention to dynamics go a long way as well making MOON HEALER an album you can sink your teeth into. It seems that the prog attributes are exaggerated a bit as this is not a prog metal album in the least. While rampant experimentation and the ability to shift gears in myriad directions goes a long way in sparking the creative infusion that these musician’s have fueled, the compositions don’t drift off into crazy psychedelic prog oriented off-world planetary orbits in the way more recent bands like Blood Incantation, Morbus Chron or Fallujah have dished out. These guys are more direct in their approach.

Overall MOON HEALER is a nice re-introduction from long lost friends who have fallen off the radar in the ever-changing world of fast paced death metal. These guys may have fallen on hard times but have bounced back stronger than ever. Feeling confident and refreshed and ready for a new feisty assault on the senses, JOB FOR A COWBOY manifests its own destiny in a series of eight rabid slices of tech death ready to rape your very soul. The album is quite satisfying on many levels but ultimately the one ingredient that the band has failed to master is the art of extremely original tracks that stand out from the burgeoning hordes of modern death metal. A very competent album that ticks off every possible box and then some but lacking enough creative infusion to make the album stand above the best of what the 21st century has to offer. For those seeking the more traditional tech death sounds laid down in the last 20 years this album has a lot to offer but just don’t expect a long awakening from a band that found its true calling as it’s pretty much business as usual however business is good.