The New Breed of "Metal Drummers"

DsDrummer

Senior Member
Hey everyone,

I have a question as well as a discussion topic here. I'd like to talk about the new breed of Metal Drummers. Guys like Matt Halpern, Matt Gartska, Anup Sanstry, etc. I feel like these guys are really reinventing the metal sounds with new ideas. No longer is it all just blast beats, punk beats, and break downs on the china. We now have advanced double kick grooves, linear beats loaded with ghost notes, and insane polyrhythms.

Anyways, my question is this: what are some exercises or examples to help incorporate this kind of playing? What can I practice to work on those kind of ghost note patterns, and poly rhythms, and so forth?

Thanks,
Dan
 
The most direct way to go about it is to learn their parts. They're not all from the same discipline, didn't necessarily study the same things and some of them e.g Matt are playing parts based on or written to work with guitar riffs. There is definitely some immitation going on but we can learn that by listening.

For double bass I would recommend Virgil Donati's book.
 
For as long as I can remember, there's always been a portion of each musical genre that has been more rhythmically driven than the rest. The three guys that you point out have the same lineage that Tool and king Crimson had before them. It's been modernized to mimic sample beats, but it's still in the same loving family of aggressively played polyrhythms, and performed with a remarkable degree of virtuosity.

I'm hoping this thread yields some results for info, as I'm always looking for new stuff to try out, and still struggling learning polyrhythmic limb independence myself.
 
All three of the drummers come from varied backgrounds. Out of all of them, I'd venture to say that Matt Garstka comes form the most diverse, being he's at the forefront of blending metal with fusion/gospel. However, all three have something to bring to the table when it comes ot modernizing progressive metal. Matt's a huge influence on me as he was one of my teachers via BandHappy, and Anup's work in both Intervals & his solo material have left lasting effects on my listening and writing approaches.

Also, don't forget Travis Orbin in this picture. Despite a rather unorthodox kit set-up, his sound is pretty much the progenitor to the majority of these artists soundwise (at least, when he was with Periphery).

As far as their styles, I'd start with learning their parts and pulling them apart piece by piece. Not only are the parts polyrhythmic in some way, shape, or form; but they incorporate a lot of writing via subdividions, beat displacement, and metric modulation.

As fars as double bass goes, again, learn their parts, as well as break down their simpler passages.
 
Also, don't forget Travis Orbin in this picture. Despite a rather unorthodox kit set-up, his sound is pretty much the progenitor to the majority of these artists soundwise (at least, when he was with Periphery).

As far as their styles, I'd start with learning their parts and pulling them apart piece by piece. Not only are the parts polyrhythmic in some way, shape, or form; but they incorporate a lot of writing via subdividions, beat displacement, and metric modulation.

As fars as double bass goes, again, learn their parts, as well as break down their simpler passages.

Absolutely.

Reading through some of Travis's charts, if you can get past their notation, is good practice. I've read a couple of them as well as some charts by a guy named Brent Rodgers- similar setup and ideas.

Going through timing grids intended for snare drum on the kick would be a great way to try that. Travis is a huge fan of Virgil's so I suppose he's used Virgil's book.

And I agree with Dre, I got into all this heavy drumming by just learning what Halpern, Richardson, etc. were doing and playing it a lot.
 
I would start by learning the basics of syncopation, beat displacement, odd times and poly rhythms and metric modulation. I think just going in and learning these parts could lead to a lot of frustration if they are too far out of reach, it depends on where you are, if you feel you have the basics down, then go for it.

I must say I love what these guys are doing, and it has brought me to listen metal music again as did Tool, its very interesting stuff.
 
I gotta suggest Gavin Harrisons Educational Materials.

...especially for the mental aspects related to working with artificial grouping.
 
I gotta suggest Gavin Harrisons Educational Materials.

...especially for the mental aspects related to working with artificial grouping.

Hear hear, Gavin Harrison is still one of the leading lights in this kind of stuff. I guarantee most metal drummers worth their salt have delved into his playing
 
Thanks everyone for the thoughtful responses. I completely forgot to think about Gavin Harrison and teaching polyrythms. That beat in Bonnie the Cat trips me up everytime I hear it.

And I checked out Travis Orbin. He's crazy and he's transcription are very helpful.

Another person I found in this league is Troy Wright, so if anyone else is interested in this, I would look him up as well.

Now, I have one specific question. In this video, does anyone know what the sticking (Between hands and feet) for the groove he's doing at 2:28. I feel if I could figure this out, it will open a lot of doors for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHSPLH5-zvw#t=150

Thanks again,
DAN
 
Playing it at half speed, it's improv based on a simple RLK thing. The first 4 times are (with a 16th note pickup): K RLKR LKRR L-R- R--K (the underline is floor tom, bold is snare).

The 5th time, he brings the pickup to to the downbeat and thus eliminates the double before the backbeat. So that's KRLK RLKR L-R- R---

Basically that kind of stuff is just about keeping track of the backbeat to tie together one's solo.
 
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