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Job For A Cowboy - Sun Eater review




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Reviewer:
8.0

95 users:
7.68
Band: Job For A Cowboy
Album: Sun Eater
Release date: November 2014


01. Eating The Visions Of God
02. Sun Of Nihility
03. The Stone Cross
04. The Synthetic Sea
05. A Global Shift
06. The Celestial Antidote
07. Encircled By Mirrors
08. Buried Monuments
09. Worming Nightfall

I will admit that I was never a Job For A Cowboy fan. They were OK but I found them to be too noisy at times, too faceless at others and, very often, just average. Just another modern death metal band, for the most part.

And then they released Sun Eater.

This is one hell of an ambitious sounding album. It pushes Job For A Cowboy to a new level.

Firstly, this album sounds absolutely sumptuous. Death metal seldom sounds this great. The mix and production are extremely well balanced with every component fitting in perfectly. Even the drums are slightly lower in the mix and allow the guitars and bass to shine.

Nick Schendzeilos's bass playing is especially a treat. It harkens back to the formative age of progressive and technical death metal in the 1990s and evokes the likes of Tony Choy, Steve Di Giorgio and Roger Patterson.

Then there's those stunning guitar solos and riffage galore. Interestingly enough, at times the riffs and overall vibe are reminiscent of early Mastodon or Opeth's more brutal moments. Overall it still sounds like Job For A Cowboy, but more mature and more confident.

The music itself is more mid-tempo and melodic than many previous efforts. Unlike so many bands such as Revocation that flounder in mid-tempo stuff, Job For A Cowboy do it in style for the most part. Songs like "Encircled In Mirrors" are downright catchy, not a term used often with technical death metal.

As with anything, there are some minor criticisms. Some of these are related to general issues with modern death metal and especially the more technical side of it. Due to the massive variety of riffs within each song, it means that sometimes the songs tend to blur into each other. In the 1990s this was often avoided through instrumental interludes such as on Testimony Of The Ancients or Blessed Are The Sick, but this isn't really used much in the 21st century and certainly not on this album. In any case Sun Eater offers enough delicious music to make this a minor issue.

On Sun Eater, Job For A Cowboy have finally released an album that cements them not only as a top tier death metal band but perhaps even a top tier metal band. Even if the success of Sun Eater is nowhere close to the musings of this scribe, at least they have gained one new fan.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 10
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 8
Production: 10

Written by deadone | 08.12.2014




Comments page 2 / 2

Comments: 43   Visited by: 305 users
10.12.2014 - 23:13
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by Guest on 10.12.2014 at 23:10

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.12.2014 at 16:59

techno (tech) thrash.

That's a new way of hearing it for me.



technical thrash was called techno thrash in the Eighties/Nineties.
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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11.12.2014 - 09:53
drilltooth

Cool artwork though....
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11.12.2014 - 21:35
WinterMadness

They may not be deathcore anymore, but now it seems they're just jumping on the Sumeriancore bandwagon with all this modern overproduced, drum-triggered "prog" death metal and/or deathcore. Even the album art smacks of that genre. Wonder if they'll change their logo soon to something minimalist and/or spacey.
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11.12.2014 - 22:14
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by WinterMadness on 11.12.2014 at 21:35

Sumeriancore ...



What figment of your imagination is that non-existent genre?
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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11.12.2014 - 22:17
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 11.12.2014 at 22:14


What figment of your imagination is that non-existent genre?

Apparently:

"A sub-genre that describes deathcore bands who are signed to Sumerian Records or bands who have stylistic similarities to these bands. The genre is a mix of technical death metal, deathcore and mathcore. The derivation of the word is unknown, though the most typically accredited source is MetalSucks.net. The website coined the word in early May 2009 when they were discussing the latest Born of Osiris release, one of Sumerian Records's most well-recognized and longest-tenured bands."

Just another trying-to-be offensive non-genre like mallcore, or whatever it is.
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11.12.2014 - 22:28
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by Guest on 11.12.2014 at 22:17

Just another trying-to-be offensive non-genre like mallcore, or whatever it is.



yeah must indeed trying to be offensive since Job For A Cowboy clearly play Metal Blade Core
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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12.12.2014 - 00:13
WinterMadness

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 11.12.2014 at 22:14

Written by WinterMadness on 11.12.2014 at 21:35

Sumeriancore ...



What figment of your imagination is that non-existent genre?

I don't use it pejoratively, it just fits. All these new modern-sounding bands that fall somewhere between djent, deathcore, and death metal, with high production values, triggered drums, vocal layering, lots of prog cliches, etc. Most of those bands are on Sumerian Records.
I forget where I personally heard the term, I didn't know it went back to 2009 haha.
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12.12.2014 - 08:17
-Morbid-

This review makes it harder for me to resist picking this one up for a bit. I was impressed with the early release track I heard, but I've got plenty of stuff to listen to and not a whole lot of cash so I was putting this one off for a bit alongside the new Revocation...

While they have never been stellar I've always sorta liked these guys and thought that they have shown some moments of greatness. I've always felt people sorta ragged unfairly hard on these guys for the deathcore label and stupid name, so I've been hoping they would do something that bucks some of the "haters" and it has sounded like this album is something that will come close to doing that (from what I've read a few places so far, anyway).
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12.12.2014 - 13:12
Rating: 6
Ilham
Giant robot
I really don't understand the "sumeriancore" nonsense, this is miles away from all the deathcore Sumerian Records put out. JFAC never sounded less deathcore than this.

I have to say I'm not very fond of this album, I was just curious to see how they evolved.
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12.12.2014 - 15:41
Rating: 6
Ilham
Giant robot
Written by deadone on 12.12.2014 at 15:16

More idiotic over categorisation.

I would say over-simplification, rather the opposite. Lumping all the bands from Sumerian (who do have a few things in common but are still very different from each other) into one shitty label that misrepresents and minimises them is something, but giving that same stupid label to JFAC who have nothing to do with them is even more stupid. This album is really decent. You'd think the systematic "eww deathcore suxxx" tirades would disappear with such a change in sound but... obviously not.
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12.12.2014 - 19:47
Lionthrone

Oh look, more garbage comments and back-and-forth bickering over labeling, having nothing to do with the band at-hand. Color me surprised.
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13.12.2014 - 20:31
Totenlieder

Written by deadone on 12.12.2014 at 01:38

So what do people actually think of it?


I think this album is good.
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Blut & Krieg
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28.09.2015 - 13:02
Rating: 9
Danny Thomas

I was caught off guard by how much I love this album. it's a bit different than their previous albums. the tempo changes a lot, and the sound and feel is different. I found myself hooked through the entire album, whereas i generally get bored with their albums midway through.
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Our children are dead. Burnt in the ruins that were left by war.
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