Metal needs more sloppy drummers who play on the borders of their abilities.

Worst drummer: Abbath

QFT.

-Alan Moore. The Dave Holland before Dave Holland, Alan Moore's drumwork sucked a good 15% of the heaviness out of Sad Wings of Destiny by being one of the most spiritless, plain, flaccid performances ever put to tape.

That awkward moment when you finally realize that the weakest drummer in Judas Priest and the greatest comic book writer of all time share the same name...

I'm gonna throw one out that I don't think has been mentioned: the dude who drummed on Ihsahn's solo albums. Incredible stuff. I love his drum tone.

Coincidentally, there is a video on Youtube where he actually auditions for Slayer and drops his stick. Kerry is just like, "thanks man."

I'll throw Themis Tolis onto the worst pile.

Also want to share in the love of Jamie St Merat. The guy is amazing.


I seem to remember reading an interview with King some time after this audition, and King slammed him for being a pussy or something along those lines. Said he's never seen anybody hit a drum so lightly.

I would call Painkiller a great Priest album, and I liked Angel of Retribution as well. But to be honest, he's hardly the greatest drummer in the world either, most of the positive reaction to him was probably because he's not Holland. I still like him, though - he did good work on an otherwise mediocre album by Racer X.

And yeah, I was thinking prog-thrash as well when I wrote that. Cue Gene Hoglan/Tad Leger/Nick Menza/Rick Colaluca fanboyism here.

worst: the dude that played on death's spiritual healing

Dan Zimmermann: "Dethrone Tyranny". 300 beats per minute. Double bass. No triggers.

Are you kidding? Come on, that is easy.

Okay I count half since I use the Cubase metronome when recording, so that would be 150 for me.
Still, a piece of cake... For me it starts to get hard at 170-180. I'm not that fast really.
But 150/300?

At 4:08 I play probably at 210 (or 420 if you will) without triggers... For a short time of course, but then again I was shitfaced drunk as well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m9D8V0P ... ure=relmfu

You wouldn't have a better quality recording of that song, would you? Because that's such a noisy recording it's hard to make out what you're playing.

And if it's so easy, why is Dan Zimmermann one of the only drummers who does it? Just compare his double bass to that of not just most power metal drummers but these days most drummers who play fast in general, you can tell that most of the others use triggers.

Also I imagine endurance would count for a lot when playing that sort of thing. It's one thing to do it, it's another to do it for minutes at a time. Not to mention the way he just beats the shit out of his kit in the beginning of "Beyond the Black Hole": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Fxq8p_yyk

The song you mentioned a tfirst wasn't very fast...
Somewhere Out In Space is MUCH faster. There's some serious double bass there. I can keep up with that for while, even tho it's really hard

I didn't listen to that last song you linked to but I guess it's fast

We have a demo recording of the song but regurlary I don't play like that... I was just drunk and in that condition I always speed up too much hehe.

But I doubt anybody could play 16th notes at 300 bpm!

Just saying, triggers have nothing to do with making the drummer faster or something. They just make understandable what the drummer is actually playing, especially with faster tempos where you just hear a mess of low frequencies from the bass drum - for example. In fact, if you suck at double bass, the triggers will make your mistakes far more evident.

Some people throw shit at people like Hellhammer, Frost or Nick Barker -even Inferno - just cause in studio their kits sound plastic or 'triggered', but still they are playing what you hear and all of them are impressive in endurance, precision and technique; sometimes it's not even the drummer fault! the producers and main members of the band are the ones who decide how finally everything will sound.

Plastic drums will take control and bring you to your death
No chance of a normal tone to sound just like the rest
Plastic drums will spread with time your music soon to change
Rhythms become hideous a sound too much to take

You're right, but it's such a waste to record a good drummer and to eventually ruin his drum tone in the production process... What's the point of being a technical expert if you sound like a shitty drum machine?

In terms of Bill Andrews on Leprosy and Spiritual Healing, I think he did a perfect job on Leprosy. It was simplistic drumming, but it fit the music splendidly. That simplicity did not fit on Spiritual Healing, however. The album may be my favorite Death album overall, but it really needed a drummer like Sean Reinert or Gene Hoglan.

Sometimes, you just have no choice if the main members like that sound, cause there are people who like that plastic drum tone. Even if I usually like more natural production works, I don't hate the drumming on Dimmu's PEM, I think it's excellent. The Maelstrom Mephisto and Blessings are incredible in that department.

In the realm of bassist, it's way harder to get a nice tone and a good balance in the mix, when usually you have 2 guitarists that want to sound more than anyone else; even top tier bassist like Steve Di Giorgio has seen his bass drowned in a wall of guitars and drums.

And yes, triggers make it easier to play faster for longer because an absolute minimum of force is required. Disconnect a drummer's triggers halfway through a set and even with all the pieces perfectly miked, you'll suddenly wonder where all that bass drum went, especially.

Maybe you're refering to the drum pedals. Those are the ones who make the footwork easier (like Axis, Iron Cobra or DW's for example). Triggers are just a sound device, not a performance one.

And if you disconnect the triggers, of course you won't hear a damn thing, since instead using ambient microphones, the triggers goes to the soundboard directly acting like mics. It's not so different than disconnecting the cable from a guitar or shutting down the amplifier.

Yes, bass guitar is probably the most difficult instrument to mix. The challenge is to make it loud enough to be heard (noticed?), but without covering the guitar low end or bass drum.

but you might notice a decrease in BPM because they can't pussyfoot it anymore.