Somewhere within the human psyche, there
is a primal fear embedded in our being. Things unknown and unexplainable hold a
terrifying grip on our minds, but none more so than the occult. The idea of
people offering homage and sacrifice to powers of incomprehensible evil is certainly
disturbing, but the thought of inviting that horror into our world flirts with
the unfathomable. The incantation, a musical invitation of horror into our
realm, captures the fright of the unknown, using sound to set our hearts
running wild and our minds spiraling out of control. The dark hymns of occult
forces dispel the innocent and invite the dreadful, and deathcore monsters Job
For A Cowboy have effectively recreated that emotional effect with their song
“The Divine Falsehood.”
A deep cut from their debut album Genesis, “The Divine Falsehood” mimics
in sound the first rumblings of the end of the world, and thus fits perfectly
with the apocalyptic concept of the album. Though the energy is brutal and the
lyrical themes are demonic, Job For A Cowboy has made a point to state that
they “aren’t a satanic band” and that they “have nothing against Christians,”
but rather just thought they had a “cool concept.”[1]
However, “The Divine Falsehood” could easily be on the soundtrack to the Book
of Revelation, for its detuned guitars and guttural vocals are dark enough to
have been generated in the deepest parts of the abyss.
By Job For A Cowboy standards, “The
Divine Falsehood” begins rather slowly, opening with syncopated hits as Jonny
Davy begins his recitation, introduing the musical themes of a pounding drum
beat underneath heavy but simple guitar chords. Early on, the music seems to
collapse each time Davy finishes a line of his lyrics, playing with the release
of tension, but as the song gathers power about it, the instrumentation
suddenly dives into a constant dark groove. The momentum is established, but rather
than blasting into speed metal madness as is JFAC’s signature, the band keeps
their playing simple, foregoing the mores of their genre to maintain a wicked
atmosphere.
Though Ravi Bhadriraju and Bobby
Thompson provide some intense guitar and Elliot Sellers smashes his drums, the
band’s true purpose in this song is to accompany the sinister poetry of Jonny
Davy. With a musical backdrop behind him, Davy continuously recites his six
lines of lyrics as if they were a mantra or prayer. His roaring vocals keep in
line with both Job For A Cowboy’s genre and the occult theme, yet his voice is
even-toned from beginning to end, furthering the feeling of a prayer. Each time
he returns to the beginning lines, his delivery seems to grow in reverence and
voracity, as he screams: “I stood in the sand from the mouth of the sea and I
watched a serpent rise from its depths.” With each refrain, he names and
describes a demon that “all dwellers of earth shall pray and worship,” inviting
it to assume rule over this “declining and now decaying world.”[2]
The band falls into its own malevolent
trance with each return, their composition growing in both darkness and energy,
and together with Davy’s sinister prayer, “The Divine Falsehood” paints a
musical image of the end. Job For A Cowboy’s choices not only work in a musical
sense, but also address all the imperative concepts built into the idea of
religious experience. The constant repetition, the hypnotic beats, the growing
energy that borders on manic fervor—all these are staples in our minds of the
religious fanatic communing with their god, and JFAC has tailored this song to
induce all the same emotions, the same fears, and the same madness that we
associate with the occult. Furthermore, their ridiculously heavy sound reminds
us that this incantation is not the murmurings of some homeless madman, but the
summoning of a creature that yearns to bring about the end of the world.
Few bands are so audacious to compose a
song made to entirely embody an idea, but with “The Divine Falsehood,” Job For
A Cowboy executes this very feat without ever straying from their concept. Their
intelligent choices in energy, tempo, and repetition meld deftly to leave us
with a song that doesn’t feel like a song, but rather a chant straight from the
murky swamps of H.P. Lovecraft’s “Call of Cthulhu.” Job For A Cowboy encases
thousands of years of fear and horror in a four-minute jam, using their music
to conjure a thundering apocalypse in our minds, and thus making “The Divine
Falsehood” both an awesome and horrifying listening experience.
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