Drum Destroyers Part II
February 26, 2007 by Jo Minor
Hellhammer (Mayhem)
One of extreme metal’s most frightening human drum machine, Hellhammer has plied his services for countless bands - Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Winds, Immortal, Arcturus, and Covenant - among others.
The epitome of the extreme metal drummer, Hellhammer utilizes lightning quick tom and snare hits with his machinegun bass drum work - allowing him to execute precision blast beats with relative ease. Even though he made his name as one of the only two surviving members of the cult black metal band Mayhem, he will always be remembered as the drum maestro who was as versatile as he was talented - and always prepared to jump on the drum throne in the studio or on stage to help out a band who are in dire need of a drummer, like in the case of Dimmu Borgir and Immortal.
Sadly, though, his stage name was directly translated and ridiculed by the narrow minded tabloid magazine editors here in Malaysia, who just couldn’t accept the fact that he is, after all, just a musician. The result was another black metal fracas, which resulted in Mayhem not given permission to perform in Malaysia and the detention of hundreds of innocent people by the police. As it has been proven, time and time again, the real hell for music is the one-dimensional authorities and media of Malaysia, not anyone or anything else.
Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden)
Having been invited to join Iron Maiden after the departure of Clive Burr, Nicko McBrain has been an outstanding figure in the music of legendary metal band Iron Maiden.
The man is known for his high hat playing in many Iron Maiden tunes, and incredibly fast bass drum work - even though he only uses a single pedal bass drum instead of the often used double pedal bass drums. One of the best examples of McBrain’s high hat playing would be the phenomenal, war inspired track Paschendale from their post millennium masterpiece Brave New World - in which Mcbrain’s high hats complement the introduction guitar riff - thus making the introduction much more memorable.
McBrain’s latest endeavor would be Iron Maiden’s amazing 2006 album, A Matter of Life and Death - where, in true Nicko McBrain fashion, he created some memorable drum parts to complement the vocals of Bruce Dickinson and the guitars of Adrian Smith, Janick Gers, Dave Murray and Steve Harris.
Inferno (Behemoth)
After the release of the albums Satanica and Demigod, Polish (yes, you read it right) Death Metal outfits Behemoth has been receiving their fair share of commercial success - even in the United States as well.
Their flair for producing inspired songs and memorable albums - thanks to songwriter Nergal - has seen to their sensational triumph in the past few years but they also owe a lot to Inferno, their extremely gifted drummer. When he joined the band, he was the catalyst that slowly directed the movement of the band from sounding like an archetypal black metal band to a more rhythm heavy death metal band. Inferno’s insanely fast drum work led the band to heights never before seen by the band, and proved to the world that the other Polish band - Vader - isn’t the only decent band out of the largely unknown European nation.
The band is currently in the studio working on The Apostasy - the follow up to the smashing Demigod - and if we can count on Nergal’s words (and after my viewing some footage taken during the band’s recording sessions in the studio), then we can safely say that we have so much more to see from Inferno. After all, the man himself has said that his drum tracks in The Apostasy is his “life’s work”.
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