Job For a Cowboy ride again! The Arizona deathcore-turned-death-metal vets have announced their first album in nearly a decade, Moon Healer, due February 23rd via Metal Blade (you can pre-order it here). The LP was produced by past collaborator Jason Suecof, and it's their first with new drummer Navene Koperweis, who has also played with JFAC vocalist Jonny Davy in the side project Fleshwrought.
The forthcoming album includes recent single "The Agony Sweeping Storm" as well as the just-released "The Forever Rot." BrooklynVegan's Andrew Sacher says the new song is a nearly-seven-minute journey that closes the record, and it takes JFAC in all kinds of mind-bending, unexpected directions. It sounds like they're not just making a comeback, but taking a step forward.
"The evolution of our sound has become a big part of the band," Davy commented. "As we mature as musicians, our tastes and interests naturally expand. With age comes more experience and ideas that we wouldn't have considered in our earlier years.
"I envision this as a death-metal album born from the mystical confines of an alchemist's laboratory. The music acts as potent potions, inducing hallucinogenic journeys that unlock the secrets of the universe."
He continued, "The concepts in the album follow someone attempting to explore a different human existence. They considered themselves a pseudo-alchemist. They obsessed over esoteric methods to access altered states of consciousness through various pathways, including a focus on the pineal gland, a small endocrine gland within the center of the brain is believed to potentially play a role in entheogenic experiences. They cooked mind-altering consumables. But contrary to what others viewed as their descent into delusion, they were under the belief that they were unlocking the gateway to some form of profound enlightenment."
Shedding some light on why the band took a hiatus, Davy added, "I had to take a step back in the band for family. It was the catalyst that eventually created a fork in the road for all of us. We all drifted into our separate paths. Fatherhood, additional music projects, academic degrees, and careers outside the band took priority and life's focus."
"...As most bands have at one point or another found themselves in the situation of having to meet strict deadlines, this was not the case for Moon Healer. We started laying the groundwork for this album in 2018. Being as busy as we were in life, we managed to slowly chip away. This slow pace gave us significantly more time to analyze and dissect what we were doing, which in turn helped make a better album."
Stream "The Forever Rot" above, and check out the album art and tracklist below.
Moon Healer tracklist:
1. Beyond the Chemical Doorway
2. Etched in Oblivion
3. Grinding Wheels of Ophanim
4. The Sun Gave Me Ashes so I Sought Out the Moon
5. Into the Crystalline Crypts
6. A Sorrow-Filled Moon
7. The Agony Seeping Storm
8. The Forever Rot
This article was originally published on BrooklynVegan.com and has been edited by Revolver.
