I've recently joined a thrash band and we've been working on one song so far, but I find that I have to drum in a completely different style to my other band which is more punk/indie/metal all mixed together. I'm finding thrash a lot harder to make drum beats for, I find that most of the time I'm trying to mimick what the guitars are doing which can make the drums very complicated since the riffs are quite technical. I think I just need to try and simplify what I'm doing and be less prominant, I guess I need to find a happy medium really. Anyone got any tips?

Play in 4/4 time, no one will notice.

Bass Drum w/ Hats, then snare. Repeat as fast as possible.

What he said ^, but change to the ride every 4 bar's and back to the hats.

Nah, keep the ride for the chorus.

If the guitars are really technical I'd simplify the drums and take a more stripped down approach. One of the reasons I think Cannibal Corpse are good is because the guitar riffs are incredibly technical, but their drummer just holds back and plays tastefully, which brings out the riffs more and just gives it more energy, whereas if he mimicked what the guitars were doing it would probably just sound cluttered and interrupted.

MartinC wrote:If the guitars are really technical I'd simplify the drums and take a more stripped down approach. One of the reasons I think Cannibal Corpse are good is because the guitar riffs are incredibly technical, but their drummer just holds back and plays tastefully, which brings out the riffs more and just gives it more energy, whereas if he mimicked what the guitars were doing it would probably just sound cluttered and interrupted.

Prong are another band who use simplified drums to good effect. Ted Parsons has always been one of my favourite drummers. Don't think he ever used double kick drums.

OH MY GOD!!!!! Martin actually gave me good advice! lol cheers though, I'm gonna try to do that, it makes sense really. I think I just worry that if I don't try to do more intricate stuff then I'm gonna sound like a shit drummer, but yeah it's just about using technicolour bits where they fit, not all of the time.

Stevedot2 wrote:OH MY GOD!!!!! Martin actually gave me good advice! lol cheers though, I'm gonna try to do that, it makes sense really. I think I just worry that if I don't try to do more intricate stuff then I'm gonna sound like a shit drummer, but yeah it's just about using technicolour bits where they fit, not all of the time.

I think that approach is true in most situation and works vice verse. Our guitar riffs are pretty simple and we never do anything technical, so we tend to let Lee do a fair bit of complex stuff on his drums (it's still only ever in 4/4 though).

listen to RAMONES, DRI, and CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER and you have all you need

Agreed with Martin. Drums have to contrast the stringed instruments or it sounds too simple/too far up it's own arse.

Just listen to Seasons In The Abyss. Pretty much everything you'll ever need to know about thrash drumming is on that album.