I remember the first time I saw Vital Remains live a few years back, and being totally blown away by the sheer brutality of the endurance-tests that they call drum parts. Although there are plenty of death metal bands with absurdly difficult drum patterns, I can’t think of too many (besides maybe Vader or assorted Gene Hoglan projects) where the band pushes the drummer literally to the brink of his physicality.
I haven’t seen the band with new drummer James Payne, who they recruited from Italy’s Hour of Penance, but he seems well-suited to the task. Check out a live playthrough of the track “Scorned” to catch a glimpse of James in action – although there are some bumps in the performance, it’s still damn impressive that the dude can pull this stuff off with so much adrenaline pumping. Unfortunately the angle is kinda annoying, but you get the idea. It’s also so rare that we post pure brutal death metal bands on this site, so enjoy!
