Prior to receiving a promo copy of Job For A Cowboy’s sophomore full length offering, Ruination, I was completely unfamiliar with the band or their previous offering.  The only thing I knew is these guys started off as a deathcore band and picked a really fucking stupid band name.  That and the cover art for Ruination is extremely similar to that of Coldworker’s Rotting Paradise with a torso with a goat skull sitting on a throne with apocalyptic imagery around them.

If Job For A Cowboy were once a deathcore outfit, you wouldn’t know it listening to this effort.  Ruination is 40 minutes of Vader, Decapitated, Nile and Morbid Angel-flavored death metal spread out over ten mid-to-slow-paced tracks.

The riffing on Ruination is pretty much straight forward Vader and Decapitated, played at half speed with half the technical proficiency.  After giving the album several full listens it’s pretty obvious that the music of Vader plays an especially large influence for Job For A Cowboy.  Despite a few Nile-worshiping riffs, and a couple of breakdowns, spread out here and there, the song structures are very similar to Vader’s late 90s outputs (especially Black To The Blind), only much slower in tempo.

The triggered-to-fuck drumming of Jon Rice only makes the Vader and Decapitated comparisons more evident.  He’s nowhere near as fast nor technical as the late Doc or Vitek, but it’s pretty obvious these guys aren’t trying very hard to be an original death metal outfit.  Add to all of that the vocals of Piotr Wiwczarek… no, sorry, make that Jonny Davy, and you have, in essence, exactly as I’ve described countless times already… Vader at half speed!  Granted Jonny tosses in a few high pitched shrieks here and there, but for the most part he sticks the vocal staccato of Piotr pretty accurately.

To be honest, I always found the music of Vader to be among the most boring, predictable and unimaginative in death metal.  After hearing Vader’s songs copied nearly note for note and played at half the speed with half the technical proficiency on Job For A Cowboy’s Ruination, I think I’ve uncovered the new band to hold the crown of “Most Unimaginative And Boring Death Metal Act.”  Granted, Job For A Cowboy playing death metal is probably a lot better than Job For A Cowboy playing deathcore, but that doesn’t mean this album is any good, it just sucks less than it could have.  I’ve listened to Ruination, beginning to end, on several occasions and after each listen I couldn’t tell you anything about the album that stood out to me.  Not once did I feel compelled to bang my head, nor tap my foot.  The songs are so unmemorable I can’t even remember any single song segment after the album stops.

Over the next few weeks reviews will pour in from major publications who will claim this is an “instant classic of modern death metal.”  This is typical of major publications whose knowledge of extreme music is limited to a handful of albums released on the major metal labels.  You should also take note of the size and number advertisements in their magazine.  Magazines need advertising money to stay afloat, so they’re much more eager to suck up to the major labels when the major labels are pushing specific releases hard.  They may consider lowering the amount of advertising next month if you say the album they’re pushing hard is boring, so, as always, the discs getting the big push always get the big scores, even if they’re totally undeserving of the praise and attention.

Believe me, I’ve been dropped from more promotional lists than anyone else covering extreme music.  I’ve actually been added, and dropped, by Metal Blade Records no less than four times in the past 13 years!  I don’t buy into the hype, I listen to the music and review it based on it’s own merits and really don’t care what the press release says or anyone else has to say about it.  If it’s good, it’s good, if it sucks, it sucks.  Period.  Record labels really don’t like that attitude, it hurts album sales.  It probably doesn’t help that I tend to question the band, the label, and their fans’, sexuality when an album is really terrible.  In this instance, however, Job For A Cowboy aren’t “gay”, they’re just really unimaginative and boring.

I always encourage people to listen to the music rather than listening to the hype.  There have been countless underground death metal releases far superior to this that won’t sell anywhere near as much simply because they aren’t getting the big label push that Job For A Cowboy are.  These releases, while amazing, receive little to no media attention simply because they aren’t backed by a major label who have deep pockets to spend on magazine advertisements or get them added to bigger tours.  Seek out these “underground” gems and avoid Ruination like the fucking plague.  It’s really not worth the time, money or effort.

Review byTeufel