We were somewhat surprised when Jon “The Charn” Rice left Job For A Cowboy back in October. However, we’re slightly more shocked to find out what band he’s now in: Scorpion Child.

According to Blabbermouth, the drummer has joined the Austin rock group amid recent lineup changes. Bassist and founding member Shaun Avants had the following to say:

“Scorpion Child is excited to announce some recent lineup changes within the camp. As with any team or group, decisions must be made that are vital to the overall attitude, creativity, quality, and lifespan of a shared and common goal. Any decision we make is and always will be for the betterment and advancement of this band.

That being said, we have decided to move forward as a four-piece — at least for now — as we say goodbye to our friends [rhythm guitarist] Tom Frank and [former drummer] Shawn Alvear. We wish them the very best in any and all of their future endeavors and it should be noted that their contributions were not without their merits.

We are pleased to announce that Jon ‘Charn’ Rice will be taking the position as our new drummer. He exemplifies ambition, hard work, and the general personality that gives this band the potential to function as a tighter unit. His handful of performances with Nonpoint and the Shiprocked cruise earlier this year only solidified our faith in his abilities and filled us with an overwhelming excitement for the coming possibilities.

Thank you to all of our fans for weathering the seas of change. We’ll see you all very soon. Bigger. Better. Faster. Stronger.”

We hadn’t realize till now that (as the statement above says) Rice had even been playing with Scorpion Child these past few months. And as this Facebook video insinuates, Rice has already been jamming on new material with them. The biggest reason why this comes as a shock to us, though, is simply cause of the genre difference. Nothing against Scorpion Child’s skills as musicians, but we didn’t expect Rice to go from playing technical death metal to straight forward hard rock. Not to say it’s like seeing a NASCAR driver switching to driving a Subaru, but… well, yeah that is what we’re saying.

Regardless, congrats to Rice on his new gig. And who knows, maybe he’ll be able to help Scorpion Child spice things up a bit.

UPDATE: Check out video of Rice performing with Scorpion Child on last month’s Shiprocked below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP4KV2ic91U#t=72[/youtube]