Heavy metal drumming

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Heavy metal drumsets are typically larger than those used in other rock genres. In the drum kit pictured, the drummer has three bass drums.

Heavy metal drumming is a style of rock music[1] drum kit playing that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United States and the United Kingdom.[2] With roots in blues rock and psychedelic/acid rock drum playing,[3] heavy metal drummers play with emphatic beats, and overall loudness using an aggressive performing style.[3] Heavy metal (or "metal") drumming is traditionally characterized by emphatic rhythms and dense bass guitar-and-drum sound.

A characteristic metal drumming technique is the

blast beats".[5]

Rhythm and tempo

A large metal drum kit with two bass drums.

The rhythm in metal songs is emphatic, with deliberate stresses on beats by the drummer and other rhythm section players. Weinstein observes that the wide array of sonic effects available to metal drummers enables the "rhythmic pattern to take on a complexity within its elemental drive and insistency".[4] In many heavy metal songs, the main groove is characterized by short, two-note or three-note rhythmic figures—generally made up of 8th or 16th notes.

Brief, abrupt, and detached

beats per minute) to extremely fast blast beat tempos (quarter note = 350 beats per minute).[6]

Components

Like drummers from other rock music genres, metal drummers use a drum kit, a collection of drums and other percussion instruments, typically

hi-hat cymbal and the beater for the bass drum
. Many metal drummers extend their kits from the basic "snare drum, bass drum, toms and cymbals" pattern, adding more drums, more cymbals, and many other instruments. In some styles of music particular extensions are normal, for example double bass drums in heavy metal music.

A seven-piece kit with snare, double bass drums, two hanging toms, two-floor toms, hi-hats, ride cymbal, three crash cymbals, splash cymbal and china type

Common extensions beyond these standard configurations include:

  • Effects cymbals, particularly splash cymbals and china cymbals
  • double bass pedal
    are standard for some genres, particularly in heavy metal music
  • Extra hanging or
    rack toms
  • Extra crash cymbals
  • A crash/ride cymbal in addition to the main ride
  • A second, larger or smaller floor tom
  • One or more
    mini timbales
  • A second pair of hi-hats mounted as
    x-hats
  • Cymbal stacks
  • Individual tiger, wind or chau gongs
  • Multiple ride cymbals. A sizzle cymbal, thinner and larger than the main ride, was once common as a second ride or crash/ride, even in a four-piece kit, but is now less so (jazz drummers, however, may still have two or more ride cymbals, even in a small kit)

Less common extensions found particularly, but not exclusive to very large kits, include:

  • Multiple snare drums
  • Multiple bass drums beyond the double bass drum setup

Microphones

While some quieter, acoustic genres of music, such as

Condenser microphones
are used for overheads and room mics, an approach which is more common with sound recording applications. Close miking of drums may be done using stands or by mounting the microphones on the rims of the drums, or even using microphones built into the drum itself, which eliminates the need for stands for these microphones, reducing both clutter and set-up time, as well as isolating them.

In metal, drummers use

digital delay
.

Playing

Grooves

Main article: drum beat
The heavy metal gallop, an important drum beat.

Metal drumming, whether playing accompaniment of singers or guitar solos and other instruments or doing a drum solo, consists of two elements:

Fills

Main article:
drum fill

A

verse
.

Drum solos

Main article: drum solo

A drum solo is an instrumental section that highlights the virtuosity, skill and musical creativity of the drummer. While other instrument solos such as guitar solos are typically accompanied by the other rhythm section instruments (e.g., bass guitar and electric guitar), for most drum solos, all the other band members stop playing so that all of the audience's focus will be on the drummer. In some drum solos, the other rhythm section instrumentalists may play "punches" at certain points–sudden, loud chords of a short duration. Drum solos are common in heavy metal. During drum solos, drummers have a great deal of creative freedom, and drummers often use the entire drum kit. In live concerts, drummers may be given long drum solos, even in genres where drum solos are rare on singles.

Subgenres

Where the blues rock drumming style started out largely as simple shuffle beats on small kits, drummers began using a more muscular, complex, and amplified approach to match and be heard against the increasingly loud guitar.[8]

Thrash metal

Further information: thrash metal

Thrash metal emerged in the early 1980s under the influence of hardcore punk and the new wave of British heavy metal,[9] particularly songs in the revved-up style known as speed metal. The movement began in the United States, with Bay Area thrash metal being the leading scene. The drumming sound developed by thrash groups was faster and more aggressive than that of the original metal bands and their glam metal successors.[9]

Death metal

Thrash soon began to evolve and split into more extreme metal genres. Death metal uses the speed and aggression of both thrash and hardcore. Death metal uses extremely fast drumming, often with rapid

blast beats. Frequent tempo and time signature changes and syncopation are also typical.[10]

Black metal

Further information: black metal

The first wave of black metal emerged in Europe in the early and mid-1980s use blast beats and skank beats.

Doom metal

Further information: doom metal

Emerging in the mid-1980s, the doom metal movement rejected other metal styles' emphasis on speed, slowing its music to a crawl and using melancholy tempos.[11]

1990s and early 2000s subgenres and fusions

In the mid- and late 1990s came a new wave of U.S. metal groups inspired by the alternative metal bands and their mix of genres.[12] Dubbed "nu metal", bands such as Slipknot, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, P.O.D., Korn and Disturbed incorporated elements ranging from death metal to hip hop beats.[13] Nu metal gained mainstream success through heavy MTV rotation and Ozzy Osbourne's 1996 introduction of Ozzfest, which led the media to talk of a resurgence of heavy metal.

Notable performers

Main article: List of heavy metal drummers

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Du Noyer (2003), p. 96; Weinstein (2000), pp. 11–13.
  2. ^ Weinstein (2000), pp. 14, 118.
  3. ^ a b Fast (2005), pp. 89–91; Weinstein (2000), pp. 7, 8, 23, 36, 103, 104.
  4. ^ a b c Weinstein (2000), p. 24
  5. ^ Cope, Andrew L. (2010). Black Sabbath and the Rise of Heavy Metal Music. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. p. 130.
  6. ^ Berry and Gianni (2003), p. 85
  7. ^ "OnMusic Dictionary". Music.vt.edu. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
  8. ^ Walser (1993), p. 10
  9. ^ a b "Genre—Thrash Metal". Allmusic. Retrieved on March 3, 2007.
  10. ISBN 978-1-84520-399-3
    .
  11. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2023-01-15.
  12. ^ Christe (2003), pp. 324–25
  13. ^ Christe (2003), p. 329

References

  • Berry, Mick and Jason Gianni (2003). The Drummer's Bible: How to Play Every Drum Style from Afro-Cuban to Zydeco. See Sharp Press.
    ISBN 1-884365-32-9
    .
  • ISBN 0-306-80970-2
    .

External links

Library resources about
Heavy metal drumming
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