Winston-Salem progressive metal band Stellar Circuits released their newest album Ways We Haunt in November of last year, and we’ve teamed up with drummer Tyler Menon to premiere this official drum playthrough for their track “The Polar Dream”! The dude knows his way around a drum kit (that’s putting it lightly), and this tune is all about the beat, so sit back, relax, and enjoy this one, only right here, on Gear Gods!
With a Maynard-like singing style reminiscent of Tool’s “The Pot”, vocalist Ben Beddick kicks things off while Tyler sets the pacing behind the kit. The track has this unique back-and-forth structure; fluidly alternating between progressive rock and metal sections. This form lends itself to showcasing Tyler’s drumming skills quite nicely, from jazz-inspired rhythms to full-on prog metal double bass grooves. Tyler does it all and looks like he has a blast while doing it, so you’ll probably enjoy this one as much as the dude enjoyed playing it.
About the track, here’s what Tyler had to say:
“To this day, ‘The Polar Dream’ is a favorite of mine and the rest of the guys to play live. It’s a trip through a lot of different feelings from start to end. It goes from foreboding, to chill and introspective, to total chaos, to triumphant and almost major sounding. It also has some of my favorite drum parts on the album. I played around with some jazzier stuff in the chill sections, like paradiddles and double stroke rolls between the ride/hats and snare, and then threw in some polyrhythmic stuff in the heavier sections.
I remember sitting in my car on the day I was trying to figure out the double bass pattern in that heavy part. I decided I wanted to play a quintuplet pattern on the kick drum under a straight 4/4 pattern on the snare and china, but I couldn’t fathom it for the life of me. So I opened up the voice recorder app on my phone and recorded the kick drum pattern on my steering wheel, then played it back and drummed out the 4/4 pattern over top of the recording. I felt like I was trying to communicate with some kind of alien species. Unbeknownst to many, the majority of the drum parts on this album were probably written on my steering wheel.”
And here’s the full rundown of Tyler’s kit:
- TAMA Starclassic B/B drums
- Sabian cymbals
- Vic Firth Buddy Rich signature sticks
- Remo/Aquarian/Evans drum heads
- Ludwig hardware
- DW 9000 hi-hat stand
- Tama Speed Cobra kick pedals
- Roc-n-Soc drum throne
- Shure in-ear monitors
- Meinl drum rug
- Drumdial drum tuner
Cymbals Left to Right:
- 14” HHX Evolution Hi-Hats
- 08” AAX Splash
- 18” HHX Evolution Crash
- 22” HHX Legacy Heavy Ride
- 18” AAX-plosion Crash
- 11” AAX-plosion Splash
- 21” AA Holy China
Drums:
- 06″ x 14″ Tama Starphonic Brass Snare Drum
- 10″ x 7″ rack tom
- 12″ x 8″ rack tom
- 16″ x 16″ floor tom
- 22″ x 16″ bass drum
Heads:
- Remo Emperor heads on rack toms
- Remo Pinstripe head on the floor tom
- Evans G1 heads on all tom resos
- Remo Vintage Emperor head on snare drum batter
- Remo Diplomat on snare drum reso
- Aquarian Super Kick II head on bass drum batter
- Evans EMAD head on bass drum reso
Be sure to get Ways We Haunt here.