Job for a Cowboy formed in Glendale, Arizona, founded by vocalist Jonny Davy, guitarists Ravi Bhadriraju and Andrew Arcurio, bassist Chad Staples, and drummer Andy Rysdam while the band members were no older than 15 and 16. In 2004, they created a MySpace profile, posted songs online, and immediately began to connect with several worldwide fans. Later that year, Staples and Rysdam left Job for a Cowboy and were replaced by Brent Riggs and Elliott Sellers respectively as bassist and drummer. The band's earliest material leaned into the then-emerging deathcore sound, and traffic to the band's MySpace profile increased exponentially in late 2005 when the band released their first EP, entitled Doom, which attracted the attention of Arizona independent label King of the Monsters , giving the young Arizona group its first real foothold in the underground metal scene.
The Doom EP proved to be a turning point. The EP is generally seen as influential in forming the deathcore genre, and after a self-released pressing it was re-released on Metal Blade Records in 2006 with a bonus track after the label signed the band. With momentum building, while Job for a Cowboy were writing material for their first full-length album, Sellers left the band, and Jon "The Charm" Rice became their new percussionist. Recorded between road trips with producer Andy Sneap, the group's first album, Genesis, was released in May 2007 by Metal Blade . The record marked a stylistic shift, as it also sees Job for a Cowboy's change into a more straightforward death metal based sound, with their previous release Doom being within the deathcore genre . Genesis became a genuine breakout success, peaking at No. 54 on the US Billboard 200 and selling 13,000 copies in its first week of release , an extraordinary showing for a death metal debut from a band barely out of their teens.
The band's career arc through the following decade was marked by near-constant lineup evolution around Davy, the sole remaining founder. Ravi Bhadriraju left the group the following year to focus on his medical studies, and was replaced by Despised Icon guitarist Al Glassman, who made his studio debut, along with Jon Rice, on 2009's Ruination , which sold 10,600 copies in the United States in its first week to debut at position No. 42 on the Billboard 200 chart . The band continued releasing music steadily, including the Gloom EP in 2011 and the album Demonocracy in 2012, and toured extensively, having participated in the second Mayhem Festival, playing on the Hot Topic stage along with bands such as Cannibal Corpse and Whitechapel , in addition to international music festivals including Sounds of the Underground, Download Festival, Mayhem Festival, Summer Slaughter, Graspop Metal Meeting, and Wacken Open Air . Their 2014 album Sun Eater pushed the band further into progressive death metal territory, cementing their reputation as one of the genre's more adventurous acts.
After Sun Eater, the band entered an extended hiatus while members pursued outside projects and family life, with frontman Jonny Davy explaining that "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," as fatherhood, additional music projects, academic degrees, and careers outside the band took priority . The band returned in 2024 with Moon Healer, released through Metal Blade Records, which was the band's first album in ten years, marking the longest gap between releases in the band's history , featuring a refreshed lineup of Davy, guitarists Tony Sannicandro and Al Glassman, bassist Nick Schendzielos, and drummer Navene Koperweis . Nearly a decade after their teenage formation shook the deathcore underground, Job for a Cowboy remains active and respected as one of the genre's most technically accomplished and enduring acts, having helped shape the sound of an entire generation of extreme metal bands that followed.
This site preserves a small but meaningful piece of that legacy: Wayne Dennon photographed Job for a Cowboy at a single show back in 2007, right around the whirlwind release of Genesis, capturing the band at the very moment they were breaking out of the Arizona underground and onto bigger stages. Those images, 23 in total, remain part of this archive today, and in the years since, visitors have returned to view them 17,405 times, a testament to the lasting connection fans still feel toward that raw, formative era of the band's career.
