I
am now a pretty strong supporter of a lot of metal music, my experience with
the genre was quite limited until my senior year of high school. My main focus
had always lain in pop-punk, and ska had only recently joined that tier of
interest when that pivotal third-hand mix CD landed in my hands. It was only in
my seventeenth year that metal took on any distinction to me, and the very
first disc to do so was Job For A Cowboy’s debut EP Doom. Despite having no understanding of death metal, I found that
I loved the brutally heavy atmosphere that bled from the record, an estimation
that was sustained through college. However, returning to it seven years after
my first encounter, I’m somewhat shocked at how small my opinion of this
once-revered record has become.
Though less
than a half hour long, Job For A Cowboy wastes absolutely no time in presenting
the straightforward brutality that defines their sound. Elliott Sellers
crunches his kick drum under masterful blast beats and polyrhythms, against
which the strings lay out speedy harmonies and gritty chugs. The instrumental
section is dominated by the interlocking play of guitarists Ravi Bhadriraju and
Andrew Arcurio, who effortlessly trade off the spotlight with frantic and
intelligent riffs and screeching pinch harmonics. Against this wall of sound are
the squealing vocals of Jonny Davy, who growls and screams with such intensity
and darkness that it sounds as if his lungs are housing a legion of demons.
If there
was any doubt that the members of JFAC were either competent or hardcore, it is
quickly erased in the first thirty seconds of the murderous “Entombment of a
Machine.” Those first thirty seconds are loaded with pinch harmonics,
mortar-like drums, and screeching vocals, all leading up to a blood-curdling
scream that sets the entire record in motion. The swirling chaos that ensues in
this tune is heady and disturbing, as Davy tears from his very core the story
of a sentient machine that by all accounts should have been destroyed. His
final screams of “I saw it die / I watched it die”[1] are horrifying in their
energy and delivery, almost conjuring this AI creature before the listener.
“Entombment
of a Machine” is a disgustingly heavy tune that, years after my first listen,
still shakes me to my core with its unbridled ruthlessness. And while I have no
qualms about calling all of Doom
brutal, unfortunately, that brutality is all that holds up on this record. Every
song is absolutely heavy, so much so that there is really no distinguishing
between them. The band explores absolutely no dynamic in their writing—there’s
a ton of tremolo picking and double-bass, but not much else. Sellers’ drums are
undeniably killer, but the fact that marks every single turn with his ride and
accent cymbals makes his drumming feel habitual rather than exciting. Similarly,
Jonny Davy’s growls are so dark and devilish, but when he screams a cappella in
“Suspended by the Throat,” it’s absolutely laughable. Worst of all for me is
the bass work of Brent Riggs, simply because it is nonexistent. The low end is
completely indistinguishable from the guitar mix, and even when he momentarily
grabs the spotlight in “Relinquished” and “Suspended by the Throat,” he doesn’t
even stand out.
Similarly,
the lyrical content on this record, though surprisingly poetic in some places,
falls far short of the level it had held when I was seventeen. A few songs
proffer original concepts and themes—“Entombment of a Machine” explores the
fragility of humanity in light of technology, and “Knee Deep” blends the ideas
of addiction and the Oedipus complex into a cohesive tale. However, the vast
majority of Davy’s lyrical contributions play into the tropes exhausted by the
death metal genre. His imagery is in fact so steeped in the violent and gory
that each word might as well be soaked in blood. Worst of all, there is no
subtlety or finesse to the application of those mores: “The Rising Tide” opens
with the line “Blood begins to spill from an open sea / Dead bodies churn
within the tide,”[2]
while the entire record is closed with the blatant “Tonight you’ll die /
Suspended by the throat.”[3] Though the direction that
Davy takes with his verse is to be expected, after even a bit of analysis, the
few ideas and images that are strong are simply not strong enough, and leave
the whole lyrical section of the record feeling contrived, if not immature.
If there
is weakness on this record, it stems from two things: the band’s immaturity
at the time the record was made, and the ostensible success the record
immediately garnered. Between the truly polished sound of Doom and the fact that, despite negative reviews, it launched Job For A Cowboy into the upper
echelons of the metal scene,[4] it is hard to remember
that this whole record was written when the members were in their teens.[5] In an interview with Loudwire, Davy remarked that “with our
band, we got popular and we got a lot of recognition before we even put out a
full length, which is weird; from a little ‘Doom’ EP. I think a lot of people
already have their opinion on that and don’t give us a chance because of that.”[6]
Doom has remained a highly-scrutinized record for almost ten
years[7] because of its genesis in
youth and inexperience, and as such, doesn’t always get a fair assessment.
Although there are a bunch of weak points on the record, I am loathe to lean
too hard on them, because they were born of honest enthusiasm for music, which
is more than most polished musicians can offer. This complete belief is the
nucleus of the record, and bleeds through every note. JFAC has confidence, so
much so that they put out a deathcore record, pig squeals and all, at a time
when that genre was subject to constant ridicule and disdain.[8] The initial expression of
self that is burned onto the edges of every track is so real, even the silly
moments prove themselves as worthy.
I fell in
love with this record at a time when (if you can believe it) I was even less
mature than I am now, and thus, despite finding the years have removed some of
the importance that this EP once held, I find that it still means a whole lot
to me. Even though every decision on this record is predictable, I can easily
chalk that up to the immaturity of JFAC, who was hardly out of high school when
they penned these songs. Furthermore, I find that the youthful approach taken
on this album lacks not an iota of the brutal honesty that every band should exude. Job For a Cowboy pumps everything they are into the core
of Doom, and the sound of that truth never
taints or fades because it is the most eternal—and the most human—sound that
exists.
Tunes to Check Out:
1) Entombment of a Machine
2) Knee Deep
3) Relinquished
Tunes to Check Out:
1) Entombment of a Machine
2) Knee Deep
3) Relinquished
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