T.T. from Abigor. Highly underrated drummer. My personal favorite. Incredible speed and intricacy. I am a sucker for huge fills and he tends to go crazy with them.

Yeah, IW is fucking intense and the drums are well high in the mix, deffinitely one of their most stand-out traits.

DSO's drumming is also presumably programmed. If it isn't, it's extremely pro-tooled, and there are apparently several tracks (eg. drum fills while the beat itself is playing). I can't believe people consider that to be good drumming.

No, he definitely did need to; saying otherwise is almost missing the point entirely. Its absolutely non-technical (indeed, the entire album is) and is meant to create a hypnotic backing and not distract the listener but create that almost droning, blurry atmosphere. If the drumming had been at all fancy, the album would have had much less impact.

Im surprised Frost hasn't been mentioned yet. His work with 1349 and Satyricon is pretty awesome.

Also seen someone mention Blut Aus Nord. I always thought Vindsval programmed BaN's drumming on most albums. Could be wrong on that, but the drums just SOUND mechanical!

On the subject of programmed drumming, the stuff on Anaal Nathrakh's records is insane. I particularly enjoy the frenzy of blasting on In the Constellation of the Black Widow.

DSO's drumming is also presumably programmed. If it isn't, it's extremely pro-tooled, and there are apparently several tracks (eg. drum fills while the beat itself is playing). I can't believe people consider that to be good drumming.

I think certain things are programmed, but no they do have an actual drummer.

One thing that pains me about them is that live they actually have a drummer. Why don't they just have him play on the records too?

I understand what you're saying but I disagree entirely. It literally just sounded like the same song 8 times being played through someone's ass. The whole thing bores me to tears - I've never been able to sit through the whole thing in one sitting (although I've heard every song). Also it's a big detractor to me when even the band hates the album - I have the Decibel 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces book and there's an interview with Nocturno Culto and Fenriz, and Fenriz goes in depth (like, 2 pages worth) of his writing process and the recording too, and then right after when they're asked what they think of it today Fenriz basically said he hated it. To quote Nocturno Culto also, "It's the reason why we have emo kids!" Yes he really did say that. IMO one of the most overrated black metal albums ever, even though I love Darkthrone.

I definitely understand that; I would agree that TH is somewhat overated, if only because there are a lot of better BM albums out the. But my point is, the drumming on TH is not a reflection of Fenriz' skill level. It was a conscious decision to play like that, not an inability to play otherwise (not that you were saying that as such). I feel that there is true compositional intelligence at play there.

Regarding the bands opinion of it; I don't really care- I think its their best album. It seems Darkthrone dislike the clone-ish outcome that TH helped eventuate moreso then the music.

More thoughts regarding drum programming; I dislike Vintersorg, but have been impressed by his programming on certain albums. Also- Mirrorthrone. Another pretty medicore band with fantastic drum programming.

As someone who creates a lot of electronic music, obviously involving sample use, I almost feel that realistic drum programming requires more musical knowlede then actual human drumming. Programming relies on intellectual knowledge and understanding of the subtlties of human drumming, as opposed to physical technique and muscle memory (note that I've emphasised almost....!). They are quite different skill sets despite both achieving the same goal...

P. from Dark Fury/Wschod (among others) is incredible. In black metal I tend to favor drummers who keep it simple and don't do anything over the top or go fill crazy or play with a kind of manic ADD. He executes blasts with incredible precision and still keeps things interesting.

Also have to mention Kaldrad/Wizard/whoever drummed on BBH recordings. Simplicity and minimalism at its finest, these guys add to the atmosphere and do nothing to detract from the pure mesmerism of the music. A similar example would be Patrick Hall of Sapthuran.

Why in the hell would you care if the band themselves hate an album? It changes none of the notes recorded on the album. Learn to think for yourself, please.

The drumming on Worship Him and Blood Ritual stands out a hell of a lot and basically holds all of the music together with some really thick, slow grooves. Nothing speedy on those albums, except for some double kick, but man, is it ever good...

Well it's all about minimalism. I think it is compositional genius. I get the sense that you're implying that 'compositional genius' need be complex. There's a big difference between TH and Dark Funeral in the quality of melodies. Dark Funeral isn't minimalistic anyway, so that's a bad comparison.

This is probably going to get everyone thinking I'm retarded or something but I've always found Blood Ritual to sound like more of a death metal album rather than black metal. It has a dark, black metal atmosphere yea, but a lot of the riffs and drumming remind me of old school death metal.

T.T. from Abigor. Highly underrated drummer. My personal favorite. Incredible speed and intricacy. I am a sucker for huge fills and he tends to go crazy with them.

They use the same framework but each song is different. Look at it as more of a conceptual whole than a bunch of little parts. If you don't have much experience with minimalist music, I guess it could be off-putting. I didn't understand the album when I heard it at age 16 or so. It's structured more like minimalist electronic music. It's a different form of composition is all.

Fenriz goes in depth (like, 2 pages worth) of his writing process and the recording too, and then right after when they're asked what they think of it today Fenriz basically said he hated it. To quote Nocturno Culto also, "It's the reason why we have emo kids!"

You never noticed they both have a sense of humour?

I have to re-mention Horrn from Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult. Listen to the new album Necrovision and tell me it isn't some of the most awesome drumming in black or death metal you've heard in a long time.

Deathspell Omega drummer is programmed robot, Hasjarl stated back in the days that they hired best engineer possible to handle that shit. Ironically its the best drummer ever existed in extreme metal.

Deathspell Omega drummer is programmed robot, Hasjarl stated back in the days that they hired best engineer possible to handle that shit. Ironically its the best drummer ever existed in extreme metal.