Back in the mid-1990s, finding a drummer that could navigate technical and progressive death metal was a difficult thing. The nature of the death metal in that era contained a lot of organic nuances and natural refinement that needed to be identified and understood. Not to mention, it also required a lot of physical ability and endurance. Terms like “supergroups” were never used. By today’s standards, bands like Death and Morbid Angel would be considered supergroups by recruiting front-runners from within genre.
Fast forward to 2019. The death metal genre has been flooded initially with drum machines and then with sampled drums within album productions. Critics and players everywhere have cast their opinions about the over compression and overproduction of modern death metal, especially in the drum department.
To many death metal enthusiasts, the natural and organic approach to death metal drumming seemed like it needed to be re-asserted within the genre – with viability that is just as important today as it was 20 years ago.
If you haven’t yet… check out Contrarian, a progressive yet somewhat obscure and Avant-garde death metal band from Rochester, New York. Critics everywhere were quick to recognize and acknowledge how the band seems to fill the gap in between the traditional and modern progressive of death metal. What do you need to achieve this? Well – some of the best drumming pedigree in the progressive death metal game today.
Step in George Kollias and Patrice Hamelin. George Kollias, best known for his near unbelievable work with the legendary band Nile, but also for his work in other genres, his instructional DVD’s and books, and his talents on instruments other than drums. George is also a drum instruction at the LAB Music Education in Greece, and the Modern Music School in Germany and U.S. George has appeared on four Contrarian releases to date: Their Worm Never Dies – 2019, To Perceive Is To Suffer – 2017, Polemic – 2015 and Predestined – 2015, three of which were released on Willowtip Records.
Patrice Hamelin is a Canadian drummer most recognized for his work with Martyr, Quo Vadis, and Gorguts, but has played with many other amazing projects including Despised Icon, Beneath The Massacre, Cephalic Carnage, Horifixion, and others. Patrice seemed to be the obvious choice for Contrarian, as his playing style is not only aggressive and brutal, but lends a hand to odd-timing & fills, and the overall nature of the progressive side of the band. Add to this his unreal speed, consistency, and power, and you’ve got yourself something worth not only listening to but waiting for.
Below is a video from a few years back with Patrice playing ‘IT’ from Beneath The Massacre’s Incongruous album released in 2012. Be on the lookout for updates on Patrice Hamelin and Contrarian as they work on new material for release.
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