It is laborious to consider that Process For A Cowboy began because the deathcore band that birthed the notorious “preheat pizza roles” meme with “Entombment of a Gadget” and a vintage Spongebob Mashup with “Knee Deep.” The band’s development out of the 2005 Doom technology has been marked by means of a transparent want to disprove the naysayers who derided them as stylish MySpace children. As Jonny Davy become the one founding member, Process For A Cowboy effectively transitioned right into a staple of recent loss of life steel. However as their earlier album Solar Eater suggests, they nonetheless had extra to specific. Now on Moon Healer, Process For A Cowboy completes their revolutionary imaginative and prescient. This album is full-on loss of life steel for nerds, and it is laborious to disclaim how cast it’s.
Suffice it to mention that Process For A Cowboy‘s newest free up is prog-death steel, now not tech-death. As a gap commentary of intent, the outlet monitor “Past The Chemical Doorway” comes thru with advanced grooves and atmospheric chord progressions to compare Tony Sannicandro‘s dazzling guitar solos and Nick Schendzielos‘s acrobatic bass strains. There is nonetheless room for blast beats, sweep selecting, and breakdowns, however it is transparent that Process For A Cowboy needs to do greater than shred. This want to push themselves as arrangers will pay dividends right through the album.
In contrast to many prog bands, Process For A Cowboy assists in keeping the vast majority of those songs underneath 5 mins. This relative restraint permits cuts like “Etched In Oblivion” to make their commentary with out getting too indulgent. It is usually right here the place Sannicandro and rhythm guitarist Al Glassman forsake chugs in want of winding mazes of dense cohesion and dissonant texture (and critically, pay attention to Schendzielos‘s bass. It is so scrumptious). Coupling that with the evolving syncopations of drummer Navene Koperweis leads to songs extra comparable to Gorguts or Cynic.
Koperweis‘s fusion pedigree (established by means of his stint in Animals As Leaders) has a in particular necessary have an effect on on Process For A Cowboy‘s rhythm construction. He meshes swimmingly with Schendzielos’ slap bass originally of “Grinding Wheels Of Ophanim,” however in a broader sense, his unpredictable chops let everybody within the band lean into eccentricities. Even so, he maintains a admire for time-tested excessive steel tropes as neatly. So, Process For A Cowboy can riff the place it counts and pull off memorable motifs simply as simply as they are able to disclose right into a wormhole of oddity.
Process For A Cowboy shines probably the most after they stability their revolutionary dispositions with headbang-worthy awesomeness. However even then, a reduce “The Solar Gave Me Ashes So I Sought Out The Moon” does not merely divide into “the heavy section” and “the prog section.” A few of that is owed to Davy‘s vocal supply, which stays as savage as ever. He is aware of how you can play great with nimble fretwork and drum licks, however his growls nonetheless beg for some low-end nastiness. This blurred line between brutality and complexity shall we deeper cuts like “Into The Crystalline Crypts” flex spectacular chops and concord from those musicians whilst now not getting slowed down in pretentious noodling.
Whilst now not simple listening in any way, Moon Healer does arrange to retain difference from monitor to trace. It is particularly transparent in “A Sorrow-Stuffed Moon” that those guys know when to get out of one another’s method. The guitar solos occur all through the easier riffs, however each guitarists knowingly stratify their concepts to let the bass take over the melody.
In the similar method, Koperweis can lock in with everybody with blast beats and double-kick grooves as simply as he can throw in curveball fills and time adjustments. On this method, the extra “steel” portions really feel like a cathartic free up after the detours, just like the jackhammer depth and mosh-ready backbeat of “The Agony Seeping Hurricane.” Process For A Cowboy hasn’t totally misplaced contact with the savage roots, as an alternative the use of funky math-rock breaks and alien melodies to enlarge their sound.
Saving their longest for remaining, Process For A Cowboy is not about to wonder somebody with “The Perpetually Rot” at this level. They have grown ok with this new shape, now not feeling the want to throw a bone at old-schoolers or transfer issues up for no reason why. The sonic drift of Moon Healer stays consistent, guiding the listener throughout the uneven waters with grace and dynamics besides. Whilst it will be fascinating to look how the pit warriors reply to this doubling down on prog, Process For A Cowboy is anything else however stagnant.
