Top-10 Favorite Hard Rock & Metal Drummers

If you've been reading older posts in this blog you'll know I'm a drummer myself. I started drumming in early 2004 by joining my first band, which lasted for ten years before changing its name (and further continues to this day). We were all around 13-14 at the time and our first year was mostly spent learning our instruments by studying and learning different cover songs.

I always found it as interesting to know the players as much as the band's music. When I had just started playing drums I found it particularly interesting to study the drumming in the bands which I fancied. I googled the drummers and got to learn a lot of their setups, styles, influences and all that stuff. It really inspired me to become a drummer myself and it also made my aspiration more fun.

As a drummer I always listened to other drummers with critical ears. The more I learnt and developed myself, the more picky I became with other drummers' styles and whether I thought good of them or not. A little judging perhaps. Even arrogant, maybe. But I always found many drummers to miss a good groove, or feeling if you will.

With that said, let's go through my top-10 favorite drummers of hard rock and metal music (in no particular order):

• Chuck Biscuits

Chuck Biscuits is probably most known for his work with Danzig (the band). He also played in a bunch of punk rock bands including D.O.A. before that, but I never had a lot of interest in those bands to be honest.

Danzig, however, is another story. I love Danzig! I'm definitely one of those fans who prefer the early days and the first four albums (all featuring Chuck on drums), but I never gave up on (Glenn) Danzig and I enjoy their other, more recent stuff as well.

So what's so special about Chuck's drumming? First off, the man is an animal behind the kit. He's got a hard-hitting playing style with lots of dynamics and a good, loose groove (many o:s there). He always kept his setup rather small and made great use of everything at his disposal.

To me personally, Chuck could be the greatest influence in drumming. If you look at the photo of him above and study his rig, then you'll have a good idea of how my rig looked like throughout the years. I will not say that I copied his setup, at least not intentionally, but I pretty much did. His style also undoubtedly influenced me to become a hard-hitting drummer and opting for a loose groove.

• Fred Estby

Fred is most (but not exclusively) known as the drummer of Dismember, one of Sweden's most classic old school death metal bands, and my personal favorite death metal band of all time. Fred was the band's drummer live and in the studio, but he's also a guitarist and therefore he was somewhat of a chief songwriter for the band as well.

Fred's drumming is/was a mix between extreme metal and punk beats, filled with a kind of groove which I really dig. He's a very loose player, always sounding live on studio recordings and that's how I like it in most cases. It just adds a whole new depth and life into the drumming which makes the music as a whole more organic.

Fred is perhaps not what most metalheads would consider a "great drummer", but his style and groove influened me a lot more than most others throughout the years. Particularly his groovy bass drum work shaped my own style. He also had a way of finding good tones and sounds on Dismember's studio recordings.

• Vinny Appice

Vinny is well-known for have provided drums for many names throughout his career, but most known (and dear to me personally) is argubly his work with Dio (the band).

Vinny was part of Dio's original line-up and did the drums on more than half of Dio's entire catalogue. His style is kind of laid back with great groove and power. He definitely has his own unique vibe and style to his playing.

While Vinny always was a great influence for me, I would not say that my personal style sounds very influenced by him. So why is that? Well, first and foremost: I never learned to play like the man. Secondly: I wouldn't wanna copy the man's style and become a B-rate version of him anyway. But the man's drumming always catches my attention when listening to stuff like Dio and Black Sabbath.

• Gene Hoglan

Also known as "The Atomic Clock", or simply the human drum machine, Gene Hoglan is possibly the world's fastest drummer while also being overly technical much of the time. Like that's not enough, the guy also used to be big as a house, but he's lost a lot of weight in recent years (good to see, Gene).

Out of the drummers I fancy the most, Gene is definitely the most technical and fast one. I generally don't like machine-like drummers but I still feel like Gene's got a very unique touch to his style. Sure, he is indeed playing like a monstrous machine, but he's got a trademark that's always there.

Despite having done records for bands like Death, Testament, Forbidden, Zimmers Hole and many, many more, you can always listen to the drum work and you'll know it's Gene. That's exactly what I love about his playing, and it's also interesting to hear him do all the crazy stuff seemingly like it's a real piece of cake.

My personal favorite bands featuring Gene are Strapping Young Lad and Dark Angel. SYL is simply awesome in a very crazy, heavy and brutal way. Dark Angel was his first band (in the public eye anyway) and that was back in the 80's. "Darkness Descends", legendary thrash record which even put Slayer and "Reign In Blood" to shame in 1986. Back then Gene wasn't as consistent in his playing yet. Techincal and lightning fast, but a bit more "human". I really liked that.

• Stefan Kaufmann

Stefan is one of the most underrated drummers of all time in my opinion. Playing with Accept during their entire 80's run, as well as a few albums in the 90's, I always found much inspiration in his drumming style.

Stefan always adapted his style to whatever kind of tune Accept was playing, doing some real solid double bass drumming before it had really become a standard in metal music, as well as playing groovy beats to fit the slower and/or mid-paced songs. Versatile to say the least.

During the 90's Stefan suffered from great back pain and had to stop drumming in Accept. He later joined Udo's solo band as a guitarist, but a few years ago his back still caused too much trouble, effectively forcing him to quit Udo's band as well. His drum work will always continue to inspire my drumming.

• John Boecklin

Say what you will about the New Wave of American Metal or metalcore: whether you're a fan of the bands or not, you can't deny a lot of them are great musicians. In a way I find that drummers, in particular, have all trained techniques too much, essentially making it not-so-special anymore.

Despite that fact, a few drummers (in this case) still stick out from the masses. I know a lot of people praise Chris Adler (Lamb of God) and Andols Herrick (Chimaira) and they're great. People rarely talk about DevilDriver's John Boecklin, however, which to my surprise is really sad.

John's got some real cool chops in his playing style. He's techincal, fast, precise and has a great groove. I find his work with toms and percussion to be particularly cool and it's also been an influence for me in latter years since discovering DevilDriver (I never listened to them 5-10 years ago).

• Dave Lombardo

I think it's safe to say that Dave Lombardo's something of a living legend in the metal world. Having made a great name for himself during has many former years with Slayer, the man's given more influence than most other drummers within the genre (and subgenres).

But Dave's popularity is not just all talk. He's actually a fucking beast behind the kit. He's probably most known for his quick thrashbeating, but in my book it's his groove which makes his drumming sound so awesome. He's also got great tones and sounds.

Personally I am a huge fan of Dave's style. Not for his ability to play thrash beats or fast in genreal but because his style is so distinctive and versatile. The way he just comes raging down of his drums is ferocious, like a beast tearing human bodies apart. I'm not familiar with quite all of his several projects throughout the years, but my favorites are Slayer (of course), Grip Inc. and Fantomas, all of which are really cool bands with great drumming.

• Scott Asheton

The late Scott Asheton is unargubly most famous for being the drummer of The Stooges, the so called proto-punk band which launched the charismatic singer Iggy Pop into the public eye.

The Stooges did three fan acclaimed albums during the late 60's and early 70's which would come to prove a great influence on both punk rock and later grunge. Their style was hard and relatively raw, with rather simplistic compositions which were powerful and effective for rebelling against society. I believe they put out some of the hardest rock music ever made.

What I like about Scott's drumming is his powerful style. He had a firm groove which maintained an organic feeling and kept things rather simple yet interesting. I'm personally very influenced by his style as I like the "rainy-day-in-the-rehearsal-place" feel of it.

• Bill Ward

Bill is undoubtedly most famous for his work with Black Sabbath, and for very good reason. Playing on all the classic Sab records including all the 70's records featuring Ozzy Osbourne, as well as 1980's "Heaven And Hell" with Ronnie James Dio, Bill Ward helped creating Black Sab's great legacy.

Since Black Sab was the start of the entire metal movement, essentially anyways, Bill's drumming style was not exactly very metal oriented. His style was more rooted in blues and jazz and in my opinion, that helped a lot in creating the sound of some heavy and experimental drumming for the metal sound. He's just got a very nice swing to his playing, very organic and dynamic.

I'm personally a fan of all Sabbath albums, regardless of backing musicians or singers, so with that said I'm a fan of every album featuring Bill. I think it's hard to just chose one album or so where he really shined the most, but I do think "Technical Ecstasy" is a criminally underrated Sab album. Bill also sings on one track on that album (and does it great), but his drumming is also very versatile. Otherwise, I think just about any Sab will do.

• Tony Niemistö

Also known as Tony Reno. He was the original drummer for the Swedish band Europe, you know the one which made "The Final Countdown"? Anyway, he played in the band before they made that album and while they still were a lot heavier, ultimately appearing on the band's first two albums only.

While this may seem like an odd and/or random choice, it's really not. Europe was already a relatively huge band in Sweden from their get-go and thus we don't only listen to their more commercial late 80's stuff, but everything they made.

Personally I think Europe peaked with "Wings of Tomorrow" in 1984, the second and last album to feature Tony on drums. I listened a lot to the band's first two albums around the time when I was first practicing drums, and I always found Tony's drumming to be very heavy and powerful, like I thought and imagined that real heavy metal drumming was like. His style and sound influened me a lot during the first two years or so and looking back on it, I completely understand why. I wish the band would've kept him. His style went so well with John Norum's excellent guitar playing.

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I hope you enjoyed my list! Keep in mind that these are my personal favorites and greatest influences throughout the years. While there are of course a bunch of other drummers that influenced me as well, these ten are simply the greatest in my book.

Bonus:

 Here you've got a 16-y-o me with my "Chuck Biscuits setup" back in 2006.

My favorite drummers (hard rock / metal)

I thought I should share my personal favorite drummers as well as biggest influences. I'm a drummer myself so this is based on personal influence. I'm not a fan of today's drummers. I don't know if it's all the pro-tools and so on, or if they really just are that secure. I hate machine-drummers! What's the point of having a drummer, instead of a simple drum machine that doesn't cost any members' fees, if he just sounds like a machine? That is beyond me! Way too many drummers today seem to focus on skill, perfection and speed, while competing with every other drummer in the world about who is the best. This to me has made drumming today really soulless, uninspired and plain boring. "Yeah, cool dude you can play like a machine" but it sounds fucking stiff, boring and soulless. One thing I can say is to all the Lars Ulrich haters and trolls: at least he's real.

I'm kinda into a lot of death metal at the moment, and it's the old school stuff. Mainly the Swedish scene at the moment and the Stockholm sound (never were a big fan of the ultra-melodic Gothenburg sound nor its bands). I don't think there's a guitar sound that I like more than the buzzsaw sound Dismember, Entombed / Nihilist, Carnage and Grave had. One thing I also like is the drumming! It's kick-ass, raw, and very alive! Not like a fucking machine! It's sounds like a human who is solid-as-rock yet has got very much heart in it. If I listen to for instance Vader today (a buddy of mine really likes them and is trying to hook me into them as well), I just can't stand 'em for more than a few tunes - the drumming sounds so fucking dead. It's just pure drum-wankery. I generally hate blast-beats because of modern drummers, but I do like blast-beats in Carcass, for instance. Why? It simply sounds good, dynamic.

So after preaching my bullshit here, and I don't say any drummers of today are bad. Obviously they have a lot of skill, but they forgot to put any heart into it. So here are some of my favorite drummers of all time:

Gene Hoglan - Before you start: I know he's the "atomic clock" and all, but back in the day when he bashed skins in Dark Angel, he sounded like a fucking tank in-battle on the drums, making Dave Lombardo on "Reign In Blood" sound like just another soldier rather than a general.

Fred Estby - A death metal legend, drummer and song-writer from the Swedish legends Dismember, my favorite death metal band. I'm glad this guy never played guitar in that band, because his drumming is so kick-ass it makes me headbang and air-drum like a maniac!

Nicke Andersson - Another Swedish legend, both in death metal and hard rock / rock 'n' roll music. To me he's the old Entombed drummer, to others he's the main man in the Hellacopters. He didn't kick ass on drums in that band, however, in Entombed he certainly did. Like Fred Estby, a very alive drummer. Entombed's first two albums show great extreme metal drumming.

Ken Owen - The drummer from U.K. legends Carcass. This guy was drumming grindcore and death metal in their beginnings and is in that way a pioneer. Too bad drummers after him didn't follow his feel when doing blast-beats. It's really sad that the guy can't play no more. Let's hope he gets better and some day will drum again.

Chuck Biscuits - Probably my very favorite drummer at the moment. The guy is mostly known for his time with Danzig, but also punk acts like D.O.A. He has one of the smallest drum kits in heavy metal music, particularly for that time. Yet he sounded bigger than any one else. Like an animal behind the kit, he is what drumming is about, at least to me.

What's crackin' at the moment.

As of this moment, week, or whatever, the bands that I really listen to right now are:  
The Doors 
Danzig
U2 
Type O Negative 
Septic Flesh 
Life of Agony 
Rotting Christ 
Aphex Twin

and a lot of other electronic artists.

I don't really now how to describe this mix, but when I'm in a calm(er) mood I'm really listening to The Doors and U2. Two bands with beautiful music, in my opinion. When I'm in a dark / more deppressed mode it's definitely Type O and Life of Agony. Septic and Rotting are kind of new to me, so it's interesting and I really like their Greek metal style. Electronic stuff is for variation and I really like some kinds of electronic music, especially with analogue synthesizers. Danzig is probably the most listened right now. I've always been a huge fan since I discovered them. Glenn Danzig is one great songwriter and he has a special sound. I like every album he's done solo, as well as some of the Misfits and Samhain stuff (and the Black Aria albums), but like most other people I prefer the first four Danzig albums. I do, however, really like the 6:66 Satan's Child album, which to me is equally as good as Danzig 4.