One of my favorite drummers, who seems so often to be critically overlooked, is Hannes Grossmann. The German national once handled throne duties in Obscura and Necrophagist, and currently serves as the main skinner for Alkaloid and one of my personal favorite modern projects, Blotted Science.
I’m less familiar with Alkaloid, but I’m sure that fans of the music we write about will enjoy their insane, intricate, take on metal. In the below playthrough video for “Alter Magnitudes,” Grossmann basically shows us what the meaning of the word “chop” is. I mean, this song is a workout and a half, and a reminder that speed is only one half of the equation – endurance is just as important. Check it out below:
Alkaloid dropped The Malkuth Grimoire in May, and also set the new standard for album titles in the process.
Matthew Aquino / June 10, 2015 8:14 pm
Just insane. This guy is amazing. I don’t listen to Alkaloid, but after seeing this display, I know I’m gonna get into them
Looks like I have a whole other level of drumming to reach
/
Eximperituserqethhzebibšiptuga / June 10, 2015 9:07 pm
It’s almost as if he knows what he’s doing. Good shit.
/
TrakiyaThrash / June 10, 2015 10:14 pm
Meh. Also, back in the day, this was considered a cheatbeat rather than a blastbeat.
/
Ur_an_elitist_loser / June 11, 2015 9:08 am
It’s so easy to sit back at your keyboard and bag everything. Jaded guys like you have ruined metal.
/
TrakiyaThrash / June 11, 2015 7:07 pm
And I’ll be continuing to gladly ruin whatever piece of crap you call metal.
/
Pleaseenteryourname / June 11, 2015 5:26 pm
That’s the original blastbeat you dumbass
/
TrakiyaThrash / June 11, 2015 7:17 pm
Now listen, kid, the original blastbeat was done using single pedal, way before me or you were born. You should get your facts straight before further embarrassing yourmiserableself.
/
Pleaseenteryourname / June 11, 2015 8:26 pm
Haha want to teach me music history? The blast beat originated in the jazz idiom around 1970 and was heavily used by napalm death afterwards. The characteristics of the blast beat is the alteration between kick and snare. Because these early blasts were a lot slower and we’re not intend to be precise (since it was grindcore) it allowed the drummer to play this beat with one foot. It just had to be a burst of energy and noise rather than a rythym. Metal has changed and tempos have gone up and precision is really more of an issue in metal. So for precision there is one guy named George kollias who has pulled this off to the extreme and has a point that if you train this skill really extensively a one-fooded blast is more precise since you are only striking only RH and RF together rather than hitting RH over RF and LF. But this man can get to absurd speeds with one foot. Speeds lots of drummers are not able to get too. It’s insane and it’s no wonder it is the guy’s trademark. Yet with the ever increasing speed of metal the blast beat with two feet was a logical step anyways. It is called the economy blast only because of the usage of the second which allows drummers to reach even higher tempos… But it changes nothing to the initial concept of the beat therefor it is still an original blast beat.
Now go fuck your self.
/
TrakiyaThrash / June 11, 2015 10:42 pm
Good wikipedia skills, kid.
/
Pleaseenteryourname / June 12, 2015 5:20 am
Haha this comment just means you were thinking: damn this guy is well informed. I’m going to counter him and look up my info on Wikipedia… Damn, it matches up? He must have used wiki! Nope! I actually wrote a lot of that article ;)
/
TrakiyaThrash / June 12, 2015 8:33 am
Not really, I was mocking you:) Everything originates in jazz, you don’t need wikipedia to know that, kid. I was thinking more like “Why am I going into this pointless conversation with this complete retard?” Using double-bass on blastbeats is cheating. It’s like riding a girlie bicycle – easier and more comfortable to ride but also GAY. If you can’t manage to keep up with the quick tempos by using one pedal, you turn the tempo down. Eventually, you’ll quicken up. I couldn’t care less about guys like that noob you mentioned, George Kolias, since I have lots of great drummers to enjoy, which by the way, also do it single-footed. If you can’t find an article that calls it a cheatbeat, try the keyword “GAY” and maybe something will come up. One thing that bothers me is that one of my fav metal drummers, Rob Proctor, was called a cheater because he only kicked the bassdrum every other beat at times he couldn’t keep up with the tempo, instead of using his double-bass. Cheers to that, I guess the guy also thought it was GAY.
/
Pleaseenteryourname / June 12, 2015 10:14 am
Saying Proctor’s blast beat is a cheat beat is as dumb and ignorant as what you are saying. Every drummer has his own problems and technical limitations and everyone has his own way to deal with them. If you bother fingers are pointed to rob than I don’t get why consider pointing fingers to people who work their way around the same problem in their own taste… Something about a pot and a kettle ;)
/
TrakiyaThrash / June 12, 2015 10:59 am
You don’t get it, do you, boy? The blastbeat HAS to be done with one foot. You are talking to me about the ORIGINAL blastbeat and this is what the original blastbeat it. It’s suppose to be challenging. This Hannes guy here took the easy way out. Everybody got quick hands. There’s nothing challenging about a blastbeat with double-pedal. Rob, on the other side, probably has eventually developed a full-speed single-foot blastbeat sometime later in his career.
/
TrakiyaThrash / June 12, 2015 11:03 am
Also, I hate to be the one saying it, as my only intentions were to question his blastbeats, but there’s nothing spectacular about this guy Hannes’ plastic neanderthal drumming.
/
Pleaseenteryourname / June 12, 2015 11:20 am
God please, you’re the one not getting it… It’s the rhythm what makes a blast beat a blast beat… Not if you play with one or two feet. Hell you can even play the snare drum with you’re dick.. If the bass drum and snare are alternating in 16th or 32th notes it’s an original blast beat… There are two options here: or you are not a drummer and just think you have all wisdom about firms and metal or you are just a really bad drummer who is frustrated when he sees people who play the drums better. Saying a blast beat with two feet is easier is utter bullshit because it takes more coordination between all limbs and therefor is harder to get precise and exact. With this I will leave you because you are litterally the dumbest and most ignorant person I have ever spoken too on the Internet. But on the other hand ignorance is bliss ;)
/
TrakiyaThrash / June 12, 2015 11:28 am
You’re not blasting anything with two feet, dude :) I’m glad you’re done.
/
Pleaseenteryourname / June 12, 2015 5:58 am
So, if you could be so kind please to provide me the article/interview or wathever with anyone calling this a cheatbeat I will be happy to include it ;)
/
TrakiyaThrash / July 19, 2015 2:43 am
/
fikrzorzl / June 11, 2015 5:23 am
Sounds plastic
/
Gaius Lord Contagion / June 11, 2015 10:35 am
Hannes has a really great drumming DVD that’s worth checking out.
/
Fuck Buckler IV / June 11, 2015 12:40 pm
Dudes got skills. Im just so fucking tired of blast beats,it’s just super hard to be dynamic at the speed hes going.
/