Lars is an easy target because he plays in Metallica, and I dont think he is as terrible as every one says. I saw Metallica live not too long ago and they were pretty solid. He sounded ok on "...And Justice for All."

As far as crappy drummers go:
I'll have to agree with the first post about PAUL MAZURKIEWICZ, he still sounds the same as the first couple of Cannibal Corpse albums, he never progressed as a drummer, and his blasts are kinda weak.

Another bad drummer in my opinion is DONALD TARDY from Obituary, slow and boring in my opinion, nuff said, I never heard him play anything that stands out, but Obituary are a slower paced band with their music, so maybe he doesnt just because it wouldn't fit their style.

Best Drummers:

Dave Lombardo - Yeah, he's amazing. He chooses not to play blast beats much, but he has before on songs like Supremist, he can pull them off pretty well, other than that, his fills & everything else are great. I love to just watch that guy play, Any drum cam that shows him playing Slayer are great.

Pete Sandoval - Listen to the Formulas Fatal to the Flesh album and you know why he rules.

George Kollias - What can I say that hasnt already been said? Just incredible, insane drummer.

I know there are a lot more great drummers, like Mike Smith, Derek Roddy etc, but I'd be here all day if I named them all

Another really good one is the guy from German Funeral Doom band Ahab. Playing slow, and accurate can be pretty difficult, and he kills it.

Always annoys me that people list Lars Ulrich as one of the worst drummers ever. He was a thrash metal drummer, for crying out loud. Have you guys heard any of "classic" thrash albums from bands that weren't Metallica or Slayer? Almost every thrash band had a shit drummer. Slop was the trademark sound of the genre. Ever heard Pleasure to Kill, or Morbid Visions? Christ. People always instantly start comparing Ulrich to guys like Lombardo, Hoglan and even Portnoy... context, nukkas!

The drums on Pleasure to Kill and Morbid Visions rule. I'd take those over a Portnoy or a Hoglan any day.

Oh, totally. They're both favourites of mine, esp. the Sepultura album. But my point is no one criticises Igor Cavalera or Ventor of being shit drummers (in any case, Cavalera was one of the best in the genre by the mid-90s) but lump shit on Ulrich like there's no tomorrow.

I've never heard them before, but will check it out tonight!

As I said on antoher thread, Capricornus did not play the drums on Immortal Pride. The person to blame for programming out-of-sync drum machine on this release is Darken - unless someone proves that Capricornus recorded those drum machine lines.

My three biggest drumming influences are Derek Roddy, Gene Hoglan, and Dave Lombardo, so by default I consider them the best drummers I've ever heard in metal music.

As for worst, and I'm not just saying this because they're a deathcore band, but Jeff Tenney formerly of Winds of Plague, particularly on Decimate the Weak. He's not technique or ability wise a terrible player, but he cannot write a drum part to save his life. That album has some of the most lifeless, stale, boring as hell drums I've ever heard on a metal album.

Also, anyone that says that Lars Ulrich is the worst drummer ever has no idea what they're talking about.

Well, I don't really care for the worst drummers, but the best for me are Mark Zonder (Warlord, Fates Warning), Randy Foxe (Manilla Road) and Cozy Powell (Black Sabbath, Rainbow etc).

Martin "Marthus" Skaroupka (Cradle of Filth, Inner Fear)- amazing coordination, speed, tightness and unique unorthodox cymbal work. God Status.

Nicholas Barker (Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir)- Mechanical machine. God Status.

Hellhammer (Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir)- Groove, Speed, precision, God Status.

Inferno (Behemoth)- Immediate God Status.

Hannes Grossmann (Obscura)- Octopus

Flo Monieur (Cryptopsy)- Inhuman

George Kollias (Nile)- Speed, speed

Derek Roddy (Nile)- Speed, heavy as hell (Nile- Black Seeds of Vengeance)

Tom Hunting (Exodus)- IMO best thrash drummer, way better than Lombardo. Highly underrated. Thrash God Status.

Dave Lombardo (Slayer)- Devilish beats, Overrated Thrash metal drummer. God Status?

Charlie Benante (Anthrax)- One of the better Thrash drummers. Tight playing, gets better over the years. God Status?

Steve Flynn (Atheist)- God status

Gene Hoglan (DEATH)- God status, groove, really tight playing, double-bass mastermind.

Richard Christy (DEATH)- Crazy beats and drum work. God Status?



Geeze who else?

Considering your screen name, I'm surprised you didn't mention Fotis Benardo.

True, I was indecisive on whether to put him or not. He is a really good drummer. I think he did his best on Communion.

He's not the best or anything, but one of my favorites has always been Cozy Powell. He's like a flashier John Bonham.

I think that there is a gross abuse of the double bass within the realms of lots of contemporary metal generas. I hate seeing the all the toms and various symbals so thoroughly neglected. I do really dislike lars ulrich's drumming as well. plus he's a dick.
Anyway I'm a huge fan of the melvins and dale crover is fantastic. the melvins are such a tight group thanks to him.

In my opinon,

Best drummer: Dave Lombardo

Worst drummer: that dumb fuck who plays for Wanking the Cadaver.

I'm going to cast my vote for one of the best drummers for Proscriptor (Absu). His style is as unique and "out there" as his personality. I think the fact that he's a vocalist/drummer catches more peoples' attention than the actual style and craft of his drumming itself. Learning to play "Highland Tyrant Attack" was so much fun, especially the part with the falsetto screams. Some of his other things he has played, I couldn't play if I practiced for a year straight.

I think Nick Barker is a fantastic drummer, but is often overlooked because the bands he plays in...just aren't good. That's my opinion, anyway.

Worst drummer? Eh, too many to name. Though I guess the same could be said about the best drummer catagory.

I forgot to include:

Tomas Haake (Meshuggah)

Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork/Sybreed)

Mario Duplantier (Gojira)

I'm casting my vote again for Jimmy Vanden Broek of Be'lakor. Really, if you haven't heard tracks like Countless Skies or fuckin' In Parting, get the hell on that boat, ladies and gentlemen. I saw someone in here complain about the general over-abuse of double bass in metal, well, if you wanna hear some really, really interesting cymbal work, you gotta give Be'lakor a swing. And it's a shame he hasn't been mentioned, and even though I think they went off the deep end quite awhile ago, Arch Enemy's Daniel Erlandsson is fantastic. Tuomas Vähämaa, Hateform's original drummer, played some really cool as shit on Dominance, too.

I am shamelessly promoting Be'lakor here, but seriously, get the fuck on it.

Jan Benkwitz is one of my favourite session drummers, Together with Killerich and Kollias. I think the most terrible one is Lars Ulrich.

That's true.

To me there is a gross abuse of being able to play, lately. I mean that's great if that's what your into, but to me a lot of that stuff seems like they are playing fast and complex stuff just to play fast and complex stuff. There seems to be no other motivation other than self-gratification amongst some of these bands.

This observations stems from my very limited knowledge of extreme metal, however.

I completely agree. Being a technically accomplished musician is no where near as important as being an inovative musician.