Job for a Cowboy

Stupid, stupid, dumb and stupid, but all commentary on the band’s name aside, this kind of buzzing bunch of shorthairs (okay, one dude’s got long locks) prove they’ve got some skills to pay the bills on their Metal Blade debut. Opening track "Bearing the Serpents Lamb” grinds with the best of them, conjuring up images of NYC death metal long hairs; it’s pretty impressive for five 18 to 20 year olds from Arizona. And despite me really not wanting to like it because it reeks of another Metal Blade attempt to find the hippest new thing, the band’s intense energy, Red Chord-ish hardcore/grind edge and, mainly, adherence to heavy old school death metal wins me over every time. The disc appears to be some kind of almost concept record about Big Brother or something but whatever — the ultra-heavy technical death/grind of "Altered from Catechization” and the plodding death of "The Divine Falsehood” render any plot useless. Clearly, these dudes have studied their Immolation and Suffocation discs, and no death metal purist could deny they’ve impressively put what they’ve learned into practice. It’s cool to think where this band’s going to go in the years to come. Just can the name, guys, we’ll forget it ever even happened.