Lunar healing

A much awaited announcement - Moon Healer, JFAC's upcoming new release in February 2024. In the mean time, here's the second song from this album:

Pic: Metal Blade

The other cowboys are back

Heck, yeah! Darn glad these chaps are back in it. Job for A Cowboy was the few death-core bands, or whatever fashionable label they put on people playing this kind of music, that I respect & enjoy listening to. Nine years of waiting & hoping, folks, we have this first single off their new album. One of my criteria for liking a band / musician is to show mastery in the music. It's not just being technical; we know too well how some technically adept individuals failed to appeal through their music. Leaving this here for the initiated to get to know the band:

Pic: JFAC FB

Cowboy at Mustaffa's

Seriously, I came across this one at Mustaffa Center. If you have time to trawl the shelves there, you'd find some hidden gems. The CDs there are not arranged according to genre so you might find a heavy metal release behind a Backstreet Boys number. Let's see what else I bought in addition to this one: Erasure, Depecehe Mode, Dream Theater, John Pizzarelli... $16.90 each. Yes, I'm the type who still buy CDs. I can't have it any other way.

JFAC: The art of dropping a notch (& still sounding in-your-face)

This is perhaps 2014's best metal release, well at least for dweebs like me who demand an above-average instrument technicalities in addition to a crushing delivery. There is no doubting the technicalities here, everyone in the band wielding an instrument is beyond good; they showcased their introversions with good taste- well done. All this without sacrificing what Job For A Cowboy stands for- intensity & not relenting to any current hype; a rare breed these days considering everyone's interested in jumping into the bandwagon & getting recognized. 

If you're an ardent fan, the first thing that hits you is the tempo here- no, the band didn't wimp out but speed isn't necessarily the order for everything. You'd hear very commanding, slower passages (Sun of Nihility), akin to what a doom outfit would churn out. The other thing that would hit you is how heavy things are in whole, that's right, it's not about a mad rush from beginning to end but the guitar dudes especially, took their time to craft out some heavy palm-muted passages. So putting these two considerations together, we get a very deserving JFAC release. All this with a touch of prog-esque passages every now & then.

After listening to this album a few times, I seriously have no idea what the future would be like (music-wise) when one grabs a JFAC release. However, one thing's for sure, with every new album, the guys in this band-despite numerous line-up changes since Doom-are not about to let their guards down when it comes to aggressive potency. This is definitely my lift-me-up album for 2014, especially so when I went deep into the dumps after listening to Cynic's Kindly Bent to Free Us.

New CDs

Just got these new releases:

• Job for a Cowboy: Demonocracy. I used to ignore these guys, namely because their earlier albums were devoid of solos. I thought they weren't as competent as guitar players, banking on intense riffing to get by until I watched some clips of Ravi & Bobby giving guitar tutorials. Subsequently, Bobby was the cover artist for the Ibanez 2011's catalogue so that meant much to me. Sadly, Bobby & Ravi are no longer in the band but Alan Glassman & new shredder Tony Sannichandro did extremely well to propel the band's establishments.
• Jeff Loomis: Plains of Oblivion. The highly anticipated 2nd release by Loomis; not as cutting as Zero Order Phase but there's much thought in this product. Loomis' collaboration with Ihsahn in Surrender is fantastic to say the least.

Job for a Cowboy: Gloom

I started out not quite liking these guys; they belong to this current breed of metal bands whose musicianship lacked the punch/ intensity because their song structure is somehow juxtaposed with some displeasing phrases bordering on commercial appeal. But what constitute this commercial qualification is rather hazy, it's down to the individual appeal & JFAC's debut LP, Genesis, wasn't a hit with me.

Things changed thereafter, Ruination proved just that. The band now peddles this death-grind structure which encompasses great technicalities for us guitar dweebs, in short, the chaps in this band can play guitar... very well indeed. I just purchased JFAC's EP, Gloom, & to my ears, the band just tuned things up a notch. Here's an official Youtube reference (Misery Reformatory is the opening track in Gloom):

 

One more thing- you might remember this guy on the cover of this year's Ibanez catalogue? It's JFAC's Bobby Thompson...