Probably the two terrible drummers that automatically come to mind are:

#1 - Lars Ulrich. Say what you want about his performance on record (where Pro Tools can clean up ANYTHING), go see Metallica live. He is horrible. His double kicks are VERY sloppy, and his facial expressions give way to the term "Constipated Metal." He constantly looks like he's taking a crap behind the drums. Yes, yes Lars, we know how physically hard it is to play your music.

#2 - Paul Mazurkiewicz. Not dogging the guy for being sloppy or a bad drummer per se. He just has not progressed beyond simple blast beats in over 20 years with CC. He'd never make it in a band like Necrophagist, Obscura or Blotted Science. Everyone in CC are sick musicians (Pat O'Brien, Alex Webster and Rob Barrett), but Paul has just kinda been dragging along behind them all, content to play the simplest blast beat imagiinable (like the AC/DC of death metal).

Consequently, two of the best (in my opinion) are:

#1 - Hannes Grossmann. His work with Necrophagist, Obscura and Blotted Science is amazing. Check out his YouTube channel. Epic drumming.

#2 - Inferno from Behemoth. Listen to "Ov Fire and the Void," and my point is illustrated.

There's others, of course that I'd put in the best category, like Derek Roddy, George Kollias, Daniel Erlandsson, Pete Sandoval and Tim Yeung.

I came here to say Paul Mazurkiewicz, lol. He's really uncreative with his drumming. Just going kick-snare ad nauseam and not doing any fills or anything remotely interesting. It feels like he's just acting as a metronome.

Greg Gall from Six Feet Under is really bad too. I don't like how he plays rock kinda beats over death metal riffing on most of the songs. And his attempts at blast beats are terrible (see Involuntary Movement Of Dead Flesh).

As far as the best ones go, I think that Gene Hoglan and Kevin Taley are some of the finest metal drummers ever.

Lars may be an obvious answer but I'll go with that. As for the best, I'd say Sean Reinert. His drumming is really creative and complex and he can blend different styles well together. He's just an all round fantastic player and I envy his skills.

<< I came here to say Paul Mazurkiewicz, lol. He's really uncreative with his drumming. Just going kick-snare ad nauseam and not doing any fills or anything remotely interesting. It feels like he's just acting as a metronome.

Greg Gall from Six Feet Under is really bad too. I don't like how he plays rock kinda beats over death metal riffing on most of the songs. And his attempts at blast beats are terrible (see Involuntary Movement Of Dead Flesh).

As far as the best ones go, I think that Gene Hoglan and Kevin Taley are some of the finest metal drummers ever. >>

Kevin Talley... The dude from Daath? I agree with Gene Hoglan, and Sean Reinert for sure. For 80s thrash, Kirk Arrington of Metal Church was pretty innovative. Dave Lombardo is another monster (IMHO). Dave and Kirk are the two guys responsible for me getting into drumming.

Y'know, Paul keeps decent time and has an OK blast beat, but that's where it ends. His drumming is nothing tremendous or innovative. And I think that's one of the only issues I have with Cannibal Corpse. It's like not wanting to fire someone in your band just because you grew up together, but you know he's holding your band back.

Gene Hoglan. Perry Strickland is also cool.

Lars is an easy target for his simplicity, but I his performances live are nowhere near as bad as you made it sound. Also, pretty sure there was no pro-tools in 1983.

Anyway, as for bad drummers I was never really impressed with Abandon of early Venom fame. I understand the sloppiness of the record is definitely a pro in the end considering how much I love Black Metal but still. Never had much love for any of Priests early drummers either.

Anyway, Gene Hoglan for the goddamn win!!!!!!

Bad would be Abbath, good would be... Lombardo! Dave isn't the fastest or most precise, but he makes up for that with his uniquely loose, bouncy, highly entertaining, diverse groove.

Black lord of Crucifixion(GBK), Danny (Grave Miasma, Adorior, Cruciamentum) J Read (Revenge, Axis of Advance, Conqueror) and Antaeus's Drummer are the best.

That doesn't mean that he was exactly brilliant in the studio. I've read on here before that according to the engineers for their first few albums, Lars was awful at keeping time and they always had to do ridiculous numbers of takes in order to get a decent take out of Lars.

I don't know about the best, but my favorite drummer is Erick Wunder from Cobalt. I really like how he uses the toms a lot to create interesting tribal-ish patterns.

Lars IS an easy target, definitely. But his double kicks are pretty sloppy. You can find samples of Lars' playing where he's terrible, and you can find ones where he was on his game. He's really hit or miss for me, which is one reason why I don't really like his playing. He's too inconsistent.

Other drummers who ARE good: Martin Lopez (ex-Opeth), Nick Barker (ex-Cradle of Filth/Dimmu Borgir), Nick Pierce (Unearth/ex-the Faceless), Raymond Herrera (ex-Fear Factory), Blake Richardson (Between the Buried and Me), Brann Dailor (Mastodon), Tomas Haake (Meshuggah), Richard Christy (Charred Walls of the Damned), and Scott Travis (Judas Priest/ex-Racer X).

For bad drummers: Louie Clemente and Abbath.

For great drummers:

-Richard Christy: His work in Death's TSOP is just incredible, as well as the Control Denied and Burning Inside works.

-Asgeir Mickelson: His work with Spiral Architect is mindblowing for his complexity, also his Borknagar and Vintersorg albums are impressive.

-Bobby Jarzombek is a fucking machine, his last album with Arch/Matheos is some of the best drumming in the last years in progressive metal.

-Steve Asheim: this guy was born to play death metal. It's precise, excellent fills and transitions, completely flawless live and he's getting more and more faster and brutal with time, also he's the main composer of Deicide - he did all songs of Stench.

-Grim (RIP): This guy wasn't the fastest, nor the more technical drummer ever, but his style and execution had a certain strength and energy, like he was blasting with all his might and heart. His albums with Borknagar (especially the S/T and The Olden Domain) and Gorgoroth's UTSOH features some of the most bestial performances of the genre IMO.

-Hellhammer: While he's known for being a 'blaster'. he's a very versatile guy. His albums with Arcturus and Winds show a very heartfelt performance rich in details.

Second time I've referenced him in a thread: Bad drummers rarely, if ever, get worse than Capricornus. Period. I don't even want to hear Lars Ulrich compared to him.

Erik is one of my favourite metal drummers. I love his combination of Danny Carey style tribal rhythms with black metal beats and blasts.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Proscriptor of Absu yet. That man is a beast behind the kit!

Dave Holland I understand but no love for Les Binks?

Ah yes, I forgot about Proscriptor, loved his work in Melechesh and Absu.

To be fair to Abbath, he isn't a dedicated drummer like Lars of Paul, and he stopped playing the drums pretty quickly. He knows he sucks.

You're excluding Simon Phillips for not being an official member of the band, right? Because Sin After Sin has some of the best drumming in all of traditional metal.

The problem with Lars Ulrich's drumming, is that he doesn't practice. Probably hasn't in years.

Proscriptor!!!

He has his shit together on the two albums he did drums on. Glad he sticks mainly with bass/guitar though. Horgh is a much better fit.

I was thinking Paul Mazurkiewicz as well, in fact, first drummer to come to mind. The drummer from Manowar is also pretty sucky. Not exactly bad, but totally uninteresting. I mean, this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ0sW7KOFhU

As far as good drummers:

Aaron Harris - Though his early stuff was pretty basic, I feel as though his drumming in Isis was absolutely fitting. No other drummer could fit the atmosphere as well as him. His fills were minimal, but perfect. Then came In The Absence of Truth, and he managed to become really technical, while still capturing the atmosphere perfectly.

Bill Ward - Not the best in terms of pure technical skill, but if you aren't air drumming after the "DUUUHHH DUHHHH" in Fairies Wear Boots, then you likely have a terrible disease.

Sean Reinert - already said, but I gotta agree. Being a jazz lover and musician, I can't help but love hist style. Unlike some of the tech drummers out there, I fell Sean is able to take odd time sigs to their fullest. Make them both odd and quirky, but still conventional and fun.

Lee Harrison - Shit is he fun. Great technique and perfect for Monstrosity. His job on Millennium was spectacular.

Worst drummers:

Whoever played on Artillery's BACK. Christ, those drums blow. They're not sloppy or anything, they're just fucking tremendously annoying.

Best drummers:

My favorite is probably John Macaluso, who is just relentlessly creative and really talented. Manages to work all sorts of bizarre polyrhythms into his drumming while maintaining catchy grooves, topped off with all manner of jazzy fills and other stuff to keep it varied. Best double kick patterns you'll find anywhere, to boot.

Honorable mention to Larry Howe of Vicious Rumors for just being consistently awesome on every release he's played on. The guy is a fucking machine, in the best way possible.

Good: frost (his drumming in 1349's "hellfire" is insane)
Lille Gruber for his incredibly brutal style. (also he does vocals and drums live, how fuckin sick is that!!)
Mike Smith


Bad: As others have said before me, Paul from cannibal corpse. The only reason hes still in the band is because hes been there since the beginning. Imagine Pete Sandoval behind the kit. lol

Every "kvlt" black metal drummer, but this is mostly on purpose because bm was never about the technicality.

some of the early thrash drummers weren't that great. Kind of let down the bands they played in. Some of the early German thrash bands suffered from this problem: Chris Witchhunter, for instance. He had some good beats but could never keep time very well. Ventor of Kreator wasnt that great at first either; I love his drumming from "Terrible Certainty" onward, but on the first couple records, it was like Witchunter, i.e. fast but too sloppy (still love those albums though.)

A couple other mentions: The guy who played on the early Hirax albums wasn't fast enough to keep up with the band, and the songs didn't sound as good as they could have, again, I love those Hirax albums, but the beats were too simplistic, not enough "down" beats and not always in time. Lars gets mentioned a lot, but to me, he's average; i.e. not horrible, but certainly he was never the best out there.

Most of the drummers that I would consider bad have already be named so I won't reitirate. My favourite drummer is Inferno by far. Thunderous tone and creative skills. When he unleashes blasts,it's always devastating. That buildup in sculpting the throne ov seth \m/

I disagree about Witchunter being one of the worst drummers, that guy has the coolest fucking fills.

It's sad how many people seem to think speed and dexterity are all that makes a good drummer...well, Donald Tardy is my favorite. I've heard all these George Kollias-esque people, and some of them are cool, but I'm not as impressed with people who use all these triggers and just try to be as fast as possible...Tardy focuses more on having a great sounding kit, and just letting out his whole heart and soul with each hit. He gives us a really good product (responsible for one of the best snare and bass drum tones in all of death metal), without all the flashy, show-offiness that some of the more technical people of today use.

Another drummer I really like is: Flo Mounier from Cryptopsy. The reason I like him is because he is able to play very technical and sometimes very fast, but he definitely puts a whole lot of thought into what he plays and never ends up sounding like a robot. I know some drummers who don't like "None so Vile" because they say his drums were "inconsistent" on there...well to me that gives his drumming an organic feel that is lost on people who just blast through everything. He is also responsible for possibly one of my favorite snare tones of all time - the snare tone from the debut CD "Blasphemy Made Flesh" is just perfect in my opinion.

Jamie St. Merat of Ulcerate. Surprised as fuck he hasn't been mentioned. His drumming is out of this world, technical, yet atmospheric at the same time.
Lille Gruber for being brutal, yet interesting and creative, with some of the best fills and cymbal work ever.

Enigmatech, I couldn't agree more about Donald Tardy and Flo from Cryptopsy. Flo's snare sound on "Blasphemy Made Flesh" is killer. Donald Tardy's groove on the beginning of "Slowly We Rot" is awesome - simplistic yet beautiful. Makes you wanna mosh the second you hear it. "Redneck Stomp" is pretty cool too.

The dude from Possessed is pretty terrible. His playing on "Seven Churches" could've been SO much more.

I honestly can't think of any bad drummers, other than what's been mentioned here already. Some of my favorite drummers though include Ryan Stanek (Broken Hope) - somewhat sloppy at times but so damn fast and vicious. Sometimes I'll listen to broken hope with only the drums in mind. Chris Refeirt of course, simply because he can do vocals & drum at the same time and still keep the two sounding raw & brutal as fuck. Steve asheim deserves another mention as well, dude's got a lot of sick beats & fills + he composes most of deicide's stuff, really surprised he's only been mentioned once so far.

Mmm, Les Binks. The dude knew how to drum. He slays on Unleashed in the East and I'd say he was Priest's best drummer. I can't even understand why they replaced him with...*sigh* Dave Holland...

You really think a drummer (or drumming) like Hannes Grossmann would improve Cannibal Corpse? I certainly don't think so.

Flo Mounier's drumming on None So Vile was nothing short of masterful due to it's uniqueness and power. As someone mentioned above, he sounded very organic and versatile on that album, which added so much to the overall quality of that album. Some of his beats managed to be quite catchy as well.

Mike Smith is also superb, his drumming tends to be very heavy and brutal. His drumming can also be relentlessly pummeling, even on the newer stuff like Blood Oath, which sometimes I crave very much.

Perhaps an underrated drummer is Kyle Severn from Incantation. Not particularly technical, but that's not a big factor for me when considering the best drummers. What he does do is pummel and beat down the listener to death, similar to Mike Smith. His blistering speed and power are hard to match, which is in full display on Diabolical Conquest.

Edit: I was also sad to see Brian Harvey depart from Pig Destroyer, since I thought he was very good. He fit that band well and really added a lot to Prowler in the Yard, with his interesting fills/rolls and versatility. His blasting was pretty bad ass too.

The drumming in Seven Churches is irreplaceable, just like the rest of the performances.

PS: Saying that Flo Mounier's drumming in None So Vile is "inconsistent" is an absolutely laughable statement, and anyone saying such a thing shouldn't be taken seriously when it comes to drumming.

I'm not sure how many here know of them, though I imagine most of the Australian's have, but Jimmy Broek from Be'lakor is actually a pretty fantastic drummer. He does some seriously cool shit on their Stone's Reach album. The drumming in Countless Skies is probably my favourite drum performance ever.

Hell yes to St. Merat.

Some of my favorites would be Mike Smith, very powerful drumming. Gene Hoglan is amazing and I actually met him before, very nice guy. Steve Shalaty fits Immolation perfectly, but all their drummers have been good. George Kollias, and Fleshgod Apocalypse's drummer (can't remember the name right this second)

The guy from Fleshgod Apocalypse ruins the band for me with his constant blast beats. Whenever I try to listen to them, I just can't stop thinking "I get it man, you can play really fast, but please, could you do something actually INTERESTING now?".

Totally agree with this.

What's so bad about Clemente?

Good:
Mick Harris. Hearing his blast beats on Scum are amazing.

Bad:
Joel Grind. His drumming is pretty bland. Predictable as fuck.

I love Nick Barker on that one Dimmu Borgir album.