Ruination is the second studio album by American death metal band Job for a Cowboy. The follow-up to their first studio album Genesis, Ruination was recorded at AudioHammer studios in Sanford, Florida with producer Jason Suecof and was mixed by Fredrik Nordström. It was released July 7, 2009 through Metal Blade Records. The album sold around 10,600 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 42 on The Billboard 200 chart. Following the departure of guitarist Ravi Bhadriraju, who left Job for a Cowboy to go back to medical school—being replaced by Read more on Last.fm.
I think I land solidly between the two reviews posted so far on this album. The musical prowess of Jon Rice alone is enough to give the respect due to JFAC. Two things are detrimental to enjoying ‘Ruination’ to me:
1. While I agree that metal doesn’t always need a melody, the alternative is a groove. Neither really takes place the majority of the time here. Fantastic, speedy drumming is interesting for a few minutes, not 40.
2. I heard ‘Doom’ first. I know everyone is supposed to hate that album (even the band itself does), but it showed their ability to write grooves, build tension, and create their own niche. Now, it just seems they’re on a long road to eventually making a great album. They’re certainly closer with the new ‘Gloom’, but not quite.
Everything that the previous reviewer argues makes this record great is exactly what I would argue makes it garbage. It’s heavy metal cotton candy: it’s the sweetest thing ever for about sixty seconds, then it disintegrates and you want nothing more to do with it.
I listen to a lot of metal, be it black, sludge, Norwegian black, thrash, speed….you name it….I’ve got it in my case. The conclusion I’ve come to recently after listening to their new album, Ruination, from top to bottom…Job For A Cowboy makes Cannibal Corpse look like The Cranberries. This is not Metallica, not Slayer, not Lamb of God. This is metal for the folks who’s aggression outweighs their need to hear catchy metal riffage. In fact, in the some ten tracks on Ruination, there isn’t one catchy, hummable riff. In its place, there’s a constant, machine gun timed double bass drum sputtering under two downtuned guitars that sound like opposing shards of glass being thrown at odd intervals. Top that off with a dose of minimal bass (what else is new) and Jonny Davie’s guttural roar/death rattle, and you have a metal album so oppossite of anything resembling mainstream metal, that it begs to be respected, studied and played loud. This is an aquired taste even for battle scarred metalheads like myself, a jarring, relentless onslaught of intense, spiteful rage. With song titles like “Unfurling The Darkened Gospel”, you can imagine the socio-political subject matter here. It’s all anti-government ranting. But honestly, for once, I could care less about the lyrics, which are at times excellent and intelligent slices of political intensity and, at others, sad cookie cutter metal babble. It doesn’t matter, because this is the best metal record I’ve heard since Metallica dropped Death Magnetic……or least since Slayer did World Painted Blood. This is not for novice metal fans….in fact, if you start here….you may never listen to metal again…its that intense. This isn’t about melody…its about metal………5 stars out of 5!