JOB FOR A COWBOY

The hype machine has been turning about Arizona's JOB FOR A COWBOY for several months now. A group of kids barely out of high school with a name that hardly befits a death metal band and an album that debuted at a staggering #54 on the Billboard chart (selling 13,000 copies in its first week),it just does not seem to add up, does it? Well, it does, as "Genesis" is a technically impressive slab of modern death metal that recalls bands like DYING FETUS.

While not any kind of watershed release or an album that will blow minds, it is nonetheless deserving of some degree of praise for being a disc that will appeal to fans of well-played and heavy as fuck death metal. With melody an after thought at best, most of the songs, such as "Strings of Hypocrisy" and "Martyrdom Unsealed", are fast paced blasts of white-hot modern death with swirling licks and the guttural, though not overly so, vocals of Jonny Davy, accented with sinister shrieks. At 30 minutes, the album works as series of quick kicks to forehead with the only breaks two creepy atmospheric interludes ("Upheaval" and "Blasphemy") and a slow, doomy piece called "The Divine Falsehood" that is a major departure from anything else heard on the album. The song is also an indication of the potential yet to be revealed on future albums.

Whether "Genesis" is more deserving of the aforementioned first-week sales figures compared to some of its elder comrades is debatable. But that is neither here nor there. The fact of the matter is that "Genesis" is a strong modern death metal release and one that is sure to result in boundless anticipation for the follow-up.