Most Under-rated Drummers

Has anyone ever thought of Brad Wilk as being under-rated. C'mon people,use some common sense! His work in Rage Against The Machine was amazing. If you do not believe me just check out RATM's album Evil Empire. He does what a drummer is supposed to do in a band which is serve the music and keep time. You can not find anything bad with his drumming style. He even started using cross sticking and cowbell more often. Besides it is not like he brags about his drumming like Metallica's Lars Ulrich,who is not that good a drummer. He also has great chemistry with bassist Tim Commeford ,plus his drum kit sounds great. Paiste cymbals and Gretsch drums,gotta love it. It might just be the Audioslave fan in me talking but not many people talk of Brad Wilk so I think he is under-rated.
 
Last edited:
Do you know Graham Broad ? He is a great drummer, solid playing, nice fils nice groove and technique. He is the drummer who plays on Roger Waters' live shows. I saw him this summer. Incredible drummer. Get the dvd In the Flesh (Roger Waters) and see him. It makes Pink Floyd songs sound even better!
 
Do you know Graham Broad ? He is a great drummer, solid playing, nice fils nice groove and technique. He is the drummer who plays on Roger Waters' live shows. I saw him this summer. Incredible drummer. Get the dvd In the Flesh (Roger Waters) and see him. It makes Pink Floyd songs sound even better!

I've never heard of him unfortunately. Does he have any drum solos or instructional videos on the internet?
 
I 've never seen stuff like videos and solos with him on the web, but you can hear him with Roger Waters at iTunesMusicStore
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=1164361&s=143441

If you don't use iTunes search anywhere for the Roger Waters CD: In the Flesh (Live)


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Graham Broad (born 10 March 1957 in London, England) is an accomplished drummer who has been playing professionally since the age of fifteen, after attending the Royal College of Music in 1970.
His works have spanned decades with many artists such as Roger Waters, Tina Turner, The Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, Bryan Adams, Bill Wyman, George Michael and many others. [1].
Broad has been mostly playing with ex-Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, since 1987, where he played the drums on Waters' Radio KAOS album and following tour. In 1990, Waters along with his "Bleeding Heart Band", which Broad was a member of, performed The Wall Concert in Berlin. In 1992, he played on Waters' third solo album, Amused To Death. In 1999, Waters' invited him to join him on his In the Flesh tour, which spanned three years from 1999 to 2001. Broad is also participating on The Dark Side of the Moon Live tour, which began in March 2006.
He is a band member of Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, and was featured on their album, Double Bill.



I saw him on the The Dark Side of the Moon Live tour in 2006...
 
Somebody else can correct me if I'm wrong, but I did a search of the entire site and found no mention of Bill Berry from REM.

He strikes me as one of those guys that never does anything flashy to make you really take notice of him, but at the same time, this is a band that is equivalent of U2 in some respects. They defined an entire era and generation of music and sustained their success over a long time (at least in pop music terms) and across a variety of stylistic changes. Bill's drumming is an integral part of the band's success, so seeing no prior mention of him leads me to nominate him for most under-rated.
 
Don't know if this has been mentioned or not but I think Shannon Leto from 30 Seconds to mars is a under rated drummer. His beats are solid and he is very creative. If you've heard the song "The Fantasy" of their "A Beautiful Lie" album then you will know what Im talking about.
 
Frank Beard ZZ TOP He plays the drums with style and has a really cool sound that sets ZZ TOP apart from other bands!
 
Nathan Followill, the drummer of "Kings of Leon". Listen to tracks like "Taper Jean Girl", his drumming is so simple sometimes, at one part he just plays the bell of the ride on the offbeat and NOTHING else and it suits the music perfectly.
 
I think Japanese jazz drummer Takeo Moriyama is one of the most under-rated veterans.
I'm not sure if he matches this thread's theme because he has awesome hands & foot techniques, but his play is not like so-called technical drummer. His play is really emotional and strong with extremely high intensity.
He has never played in the United States, but he played in Europe (Moers, Berlin, Heidelberg, Ljubljana, etc) as the drummer of a bassless free-jazz band Yosuke Yamashita Trio in the 70's. Moriyama's play during this period is very unique and just outstanding & overwhelming - you can hear it in some of Yosuke Yamashita Trio's albums such as CLAY (Enja, recorded live at Moers in 1974) or CHIASMA (MPS, recorded live at Heidelberg in 1975). Maybe you will feel like it's more like "progressive rock with blast beat" than jazz. I guess Yamashita Trio w/ Moriyama in this period is one of the best free-jazz band in the world.
Moriyama changed his style to more traditional one after he quit Yamashita's band, but still his style is very unique. Recently he recorded two leader albums w/ George Garzone as a guest. Also he sometimes makes "reunion" with Yamashita and Akira Sakata (alto sax & clarinet, who was playing with Moriyama and Yamashita in CLAY and CHIASMA), and even now - all of them are over 60 y/o - they can play as they did in the 70's. I hope Moriyama with Yamashita and Sakata will have an opportunity to play in a big stage like Modern Drummer Festival before they become too old.
 
Last edited:
I think Alex from the spanish rock group MANA is totally underrated! His rythms are structurally magnificent and accents are perfect. I don't hear much about him or any other spanish rock drummers! Just my opinion!
 
I would say Brann Dailor, but I think anyone who has actually listened to him knows he's incredible.

Phil Collins is the most underrated in my eyes.
 
It's hard to say who's under-rated, since it's often just a matter of familiarity (or sometimes lack of familiarity) with artists and their drummers. There are many names presented here who I rate very highly, and who I think enjoy the appropriate respect among drummers and in the music world. But I'd agree that there are a number of drummers who are overlooked and who seem to have fallen between the cracks.

One such drummer who remained in the shadows is Dennis St John, best known for playing with Neil Diamond from 1971-1981, an especially successful period for Diamond. Nowadays, a drummer at that level would be the cover story on MD, but as Dennis has been out of the spotlight for 25 years, nobody ever got around to talking about him.

Granted, until MD emerged around 1977, there really weren't any dedicated drum magazines, so a lot of players weren't featured during their heyday. But with DRUM! and MD going stronger than ever, and Not So Modern Drummer and Classic Drummer filling the obvious gaps left by those two, and newcomer Drumhead, there's almost no excuse for not giving a nod to some of the unsung heroes.

And I made it my mission to do just that.

I've just completed an interview with Dennis, which will appear in the April/May/June issue of Classic Drummer. I won't copy the article here, but hopefully the introduction to the article will whet your appettites:

"The name may not be instantly recognizable, but Dennis St John was a busy boy during the sixties and seventies, touring and recording with top artists and drumming on sixteen top-10 records and over fifty Gold and Platinum albums. If you’ve ever heard “Let Your Love Flow” or “Spooky” or “Spiders & Snakes” or Linda Ronstadt’s “Desperado” or Neil Diamond’s “Forever In Blue Jeans” or “America”, then you’ve heard just a small sampling of the hundreds of recordings featuring his playing. He has several production credits, has participated in Command Performances for the British Royal Family, and has had regional nominations for the NARAS Best Studio Drummer and Most Valuable Player awards."

This is his first interview ever for a drum magazine, and I'm very proud to have been involved!

Bermuda
 
I definitely must add Joey Heredia and Kirk Covington.

I saw Heredia play with Tribal Tech when they opened for Miles in 91. AWESOME! People were milling about their seats chatting when the band started up and you could see everyone just stop in their tracks, jaws dropping. The guys was a monster that night and on their recordings.

I haven't had a chance to see Covington live (or even on video!) but have most of Tribal Tech's stuff and still listen in awe even after hearing the tunes zillions of times. Check out track 2 on Reality Check. The drum / guitar "duet" section of the song kills. 'nuff said.
 
Mark Zonder of fates warning I think is very under-rated.also Troy L. Tesla's drummer is under-rated also.


Bonzolead
 
I forgot to mention Matt Sorum, amazing style and always gives the groove 110%.
 
Back
Top