Here’s a sentence I didn’t wake up thinking I’d type this morning: watch as Lady Gaga drummer Tosh Peterson hears and performs Death’s “Crystal Mountain” for the first time.
The performance – posted via Drumeo – follows the now-beloved formula of throwing elite musicians into unfamiliar territory and watching instinct take over in real time. In this case, Peterson was tasked with interpreting Death’s progressive death metal classic without hearing the original drum performance beforehand.
His take strays pretty far from Gene Hoglan’s original, but it’s still very interesting to hear his interpretation! Especially how he treats a lot of the slower sections as breakdowns – something that’s become a lot more prevalent in the death metal scene now versus back then.
On finally hearing the original performance, Peterson said: “That’d be so fun to get to play that [kind of music]. I would have to get some pingier cymbals, but I would love to play in a band like that. At least just get to do a show with a band in that style. It’d be so fun.”
Even better, Hoglan weighed in on the performance at the end with a full reaction and he was very complimentary! Which isn’t shocking, considering Hoglan seems like one of the nicest dudes in metal.
On the performance, Hoglan said in part: “Mr. Tosh, boy, I tell you that was that was a inspired and refreshing take on a metal classic. I enjoyed that immensely. That was great. I hope you get to check out the original. Thank you Drumeo for reaching out. This was a real blast.”
