Watch Ulcerate Drummer Jamie Saint Merat Blast Through your Self-Esteem at 220bpm

There are drummers who can shred, and then there are drummers who can fucking shred. Ulcerate skinsman Jamie Saint Merat is the latter type. So it’s with great pleasure that I pass on this video montage drum-cam footage (all 13 minutes of it) from the tracking sessions of Ulcerate’s new record, Vermis.

Very, very few dudes can pull off the intricate cymbal work Merat does while maintaining the constant, breakneck kick underneath. According to Sick Drummer, the site that premiered the video, there is no editing or quantizing involved. I’m willing to bet the kick is sound replaced, but who cares?

It’s hard to get a good look at most of the microphones on his kit, but it looks like the tom mics are Shure Beta 98 small diaphragm gooseneck condensers. The lone exception is the final floor tom, which seems to be a Shure Beta 52 large diaphragm dynamic. It’s a unique choice—I’ve only ever seen a Beta 52 on a kick drum (or bass). The Beta 52 has honestly never been my favorite LDD kick mic. I’ve always been more of an AKG D112 or Sennheiser 602 fan, or maybe an I could go for an Audix D6 once in a while. But maybe the next time I record drums I’ll give the Beta 52 a shot on the floor tom. If anyone’s experimented with one on non-kick drums give me some feedback in the comments.

Alas, it can be tough to find liner notes in the digital age (I should really do a post on that) but it seems that Merat co-engineered and mixed the record, and also created the artwork and assembled the layout. So basically what I’m saying is “this man is more talented than you.”

Ulcerate’s Vermis was released about a month ago. You can pick it up on the Relapse Records website.