Job for a Cowboy are well and truly back with brand new music after a hiatus that followed their 2014 album release, Sun Eater.
Bassist, Nick Schendzielos, announced back in 2016 that new music was being written with hopes of a new release in 2017. However, the band went on a break after 2016 sinking these plans. Fast forward to 2019 and three members of the band formed Deathgrind spin-off project Serpent of Gnosis, which hinted at Job for a Cowboy’s return with new music and live performances.
Fast forward again to May 2020, and the band hinted at a reunion by posting a clip from the 1995 film Mortal Kombat on Twitter (Now X). The band’s producer, Jason Suecof, also revealed that they had started recording new music, although the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the process.
Finally, in February of 2024, Moon Healer is here… and what a record it is. Right off the bat, ‘Beyond The Chemical Doorway’ and ‘Etched in Oblivion’ open the floodgates with a sonic assault of tech death, prog death and grind elements with furious double peddle attacks and tight bass lines. Everything is finely produced but remains heavy and retains the raw elements of its parts.
The disgustingly heavy ‘Grinding Wheels of Ophanim’ follows and delivers a devastating gut punch. Grind and Deathcore are not for everyone, that much is a fact but I challenge anyone to listen to this track and not nod their head at the very least.
‘Into the Crystalline Crypts’ is a sublime example of prog/melo death and is possibly the biggest standout on the album, a track that reminded me of the likes of Blood Incantation and Rivers of Nihil. On that note, JFAC’s sound has evolved since the viral days of Doom and its breakout track ‘Entombment of a Machine’, there is a more refined, deliberate and visceral feel to the music being produced by the band nowadays when compared to their more feral, chaotic early days, not that there is anything wrong with their early style, that DNA still runs through into this album but the delivery just hits differently.
Moon Healer is, in my opinion, the strongest album to date from JFAC. An incredibly enjoyable listen for fans of the genre and a shining example for those less familiar. It’s a replayable slab of heavy that’s going to take some beating in the album-of-the-year race.
Moon Healer is available now via Metal Blade.
