Job For A Cowboy – "Moon Healer"

So... the moon has a throat infection, but that Tool dude is healing it, or...?

Apart from their silly name, I never understood all the hate towards Job For a Cowboy amongst true metalheads. At least not until very recently when I actually went ahead and listened to that first 2005 EP of theirs, on which they're said to have single-handedly founded the entire deathcore genre.

But again, I never understood all the hate towards deathcore, either. It's not annoying by any stretch; it's just a bit boring and predictable. Tedious at worst, sure, but still packing a punch to be reckoned with. In a world where reggaeton exists, if you're spending energy hating on deathcore of all genres, you'd better have actively murdered at least a few reggaeton "artists" to keep a healthy balance of things. In fact, we should all be actively murdering reggaeton "artists". But I digress.

Anyway, if you're a new listener starting with this album, you might have a hard time believing that JFaC is the same group that made aforementioned EP. Sure, it's been 19 years. But since then, while other groups have remained more or less the same, these guys have undergone a musical evolution of almost Bowie-esque proportion.

"Moon Healer" is the album I've heard the most times before reviewing it – by far. We're talking at least 10 times. And I still can't wrap my head around it. Which is revealing a lot up front about the nature of this album and the band behind it.

One of the things that strikes me both initially and throughout is that the bass guitar has a life of its own, playing in runs and arpeggios rather than the root notes of every chord slavically like you'd hear in thrash metal and more traditional metal. And that has a lot to do with the fact that there aren't a whole lot of traditional chord progressions going on here.

This band is on a mission to experiment, challenge, and diversify. And they're damn good at it.

The riffs seem to be imagined as potentially infinite elaborations upon what Opeth were doing on masterful albums like "Blackwater Park" ('01) and "Deliverance" ('02). And there seems to be no limit to how many different riffs, bass variations, and drum variations JFaC are able to cram into one song. This album is just as exploratory, curious, daring, and experimenting as it's heavy and brutal.

In fact, maybe I shouldn't use a word like "song" here, but rather composition. That is, had it not been for the clear impression that, rather than feeling composed, "Moon Healer" has a distinct stream-of-consciousness kinda vibe going on throughout – an impression supported by its thematics dealing with various facets of everything mind-expanding.

Several bass guitar passages are pure slap bass. But not in the simple, lowbrow style of Fieldy from Korn; rather in the equal parts playful and skillful style of Les Claypool from Primus. This is rare in any kind of metal – and just as rare are the passages where the guitar plays arpeggiated chords over a blast beat. In fact, the guitar is almost discreet at times, surely delivering the distortion and applying heavy axe chops when needed, but the drums and the bass are just as important – and just as interesting.

It's impossible to keep up with a composition like "The Sun Gave Me Ashes So I Sought Out the Moon". Impossible to count both the meters and the number of different sections. There are so many different parts that it seems devoid of rhyme or reason. This is musical expressionism and surrealism at the same time.

One might rightly object that something like this is too much of a good thing and that it's not gratifying from a traditional songwriting perspective. And it'd be a legitimate objection. But this band is on a mission to experiment, challenge, and diversify. And they're damn good at it.

Even though one might lose focus during listening, one would simply have all the more reason to come back and give it another shot. If you're musically curious and open, you'd want to.

The most polarized composition might be "A Sorrow-Filled Moon" (yeah, that moon is kinduva thing here), being equal parts near-impossible and near-atonal prog and sneeringly profane, brutal death metal. On one hand, it often evolves in the merciless staccato figures of early Decapitated. And on the other hand, this is, in and by itself, just as much jazz as it's anything else.

Indeed, a lot of "Moon Healer" sounds like improvisation. – Which is a bit of a paradox, because... Leaving music like this to circumstance, at this level of complexity and irregularity, it wouldn't take a lot before everything might start to come undone. I imagine that these guys must agree on things at a level of meticulous detail here. But on the other hand, of course, they could very well simply be skilled enough to allow for a certain amount of improv.

If I had to compare with one band, I'd have to stick with Opeth. JFaC do borrow a lot from Opeth in their heyday. So if you were tripping on aforementioned Opeth albums back then like the rest of us, "Moon Healer" might not interest you as much as it could've. But still, these guys are fucking superb at what they're doing.

Just like the latest release from Psycroptic, this is not an album I'm gonna be spinning a whole lot going forward. But for the sheer level of musicianship and creativity, I can't give it anything less than a 5/6 rating. And even though one might lose focus during listening, one would simply have all the more reason to come back and give it another shot.

If you're musically curious and open, you'd want to.

Rating: 5 out of 6

Genre: Progressive metal / death metal
Release date: 23/2/2024
Label: Metal Blade
Producer: Jason Suecof et al.