Job For A Cowboy

Despite the way death metal and hardcore tend to terrify the uninitiated, Job For A Cowboy's fusion of the two (but mostly the metal side, lately) sounds admirably varied and flexible, and rarely lets technicality choke the fun out of it. The Arizona band's second album for Metal Blade, 2009'sRuination, has some polished elements (triggered drums, etc.) that don't prevent vocalist Jonny Davy from slathering it all in a mix of low growls and volatile screams that both press the rhythms ahead and heave against them. Guitarists Bobby Thompson and Al Glassman never get stilted in chugga-chugga metalcore clichés, either, instead slashing back and forth with a tenuous balance of precision and sweaty abandon. 

Updated 04/20/2010