Blast beat

A blast beat is a type of drum beat that originated in hardcore punk and grindcore, and is often associated with certain styles of extreme metal, namely black metal, death metal and their respective subgenres,[2] and occasionally in metalcore. In Adam MacGregor's definition, "the blast-beat generally comprises a repeated, sixteenth-note figure played at a very fast tempo, and divided uniformly among the bass drum, snare, and ride, crash, or hi-hat cymbal."[2] Blast beats have been described by PopMatters contributor Whitney Strub as, "maniacal percussive explosions, less about rhythm per se than sheer sonic violence".[3] "The 'original' or traditional blastbeat is a single-stroke roll played between your cymbal and snare, with your kick playing simultaneously with every cymbal hit."[1] Napalm Death is said to have coined the term, though this style of drumming had previously been used by others for its characteristically chaotic sound. Quotes about the blast beat It's drummers playing for drummers. It's called, 'Look at me. Listen how fast I can go' — dudududududududu [mimics ultra-fast double-bass beat]. There's no melody, there's no song and there's no chorus. It just doesn't take you anywhere, so it doesn't have a groove to me. I think there's a lot of death metal or doom metal dudes that somehow or another find a groove in it. David Vincent from Morbid Angel is a good friend of mine, and he's, like, 'Yeah, bro, there's great groove in that. What do you call it? — blast beat, man. You just haven't found it yet. I can appreciate people for being able to go that fast with their left hand, man. But I just can't groove to that beat. I'm sorry. It's just like somebody sweeping the floor or something — tik tik tik tik tik. It just doesn't really jam to me. I'd rather hear a [John] Bonham groove going on than somebody sweeping the floor. You know? Vinnie Paul of Pantera, as quoted by Blabbermouth (January 20, 2015) External links