My name is Ruben Limas, and I started playing drums at the age of 10 when I got my first drum kit for Christmas. I didn’t actually take it seriously until I was 13-14 that I developed this crazy love for the instrument and I became obsessed with the idea of being one of the best drummers in the world. How I was gonna do that? I had no idea at the time but I knew that practice would help me. I am from Venezuela and not many people used to consider music as a real career and this was something I had to deal with until I left the country to peruse my true dream of being the best drummer in one of the best metal bands.
I was in 6th grade when I discovered Slipknot through one of my best friends, Guillermo. The same year I decided that my final project was gonna be about them. So I prepared myself, studied all the members, learned their names and their number, and even head-bang in front of all my classroom to show them how you “dance” to this type of music. Well.. this didn’t end up well for me. I went to a Catholic school and this behavior was not allowed so for the rest of the 6th grade I had to attend to the school psychologist.
When I was in high school I started jamming with friends and tried to form bands with them but most of the people would give up real quick. They had “ more important” things to do than play in a band. That’s where I knew I had to get out of the country to get to the next level because I didn’t wanna play just for fun. I wanted to make money playing drums. I wanted to make music for a living. I knew musicians in America could make a living out of playing music. I knew Lars Ulrich and Joey Jordison weren’t broke.
As a kid growing up in Venezuela, a country where metal was not a thing before Tetrarch (hahaha) it was really challenging to make my parents, family and friends support my dream of becoming a worldwide well-known metal drummer and since no one would listen to me because this dream of mine was really crazy to them I decided to really make a difference and wrote down a practice schedule that pretty much consisted of playing drums as much as I could because I couldn’t convince them that I really wanted this at the time but I could get ready and practice until I could prove them wrong. I would get off school and come straight to my practice room made of egg cartons and start beating my drums. I’d play for 3 hours and then take a break to watch Mike Portnoy, Joey Jordison, Tommy Lee, and of course Lars, and then I would get back to my practice room and play for the rest of the day until the sun went down.
I decided to move to LA in 2014 with the band I was playing at the time. It didn’t last long. The music was not what I wanted to play and I left the band the next year.
In 2015 my Italian friend “ Patrick” got me in contact with Tetrarch, he told me they were moving to LA to do the band thing. When I listened to their EP “ Relentless” I knew this was the music I was looking for. Soon after taking to Diamond on Facebook, we met, and even though I couldn’t speak the language well we clicked. These guys were leaving their lives behind to come to LA and make their dreams come true. I became an official Tetrarch member in 2015. We started jamming and the next year we went to the studio to make our first record “ Freak .“ Freak was released in 2017 and we did a lot of touring for the next couple of years. Tetrarch is now on the rise very quickly.
We’ve become one of the top 5 up-and-coming heavy bands in this country. Just in the past months, we have 4+ page features in Metal Hammer Magazine, Guitar World Magazine, Alternative Press, Revolver Magazine, Total Guitar Magazine, and Kerrang (not out yet but coming), the cover of New Noise Magazine, the cover of Metal Obs Magazine (France). Three of our most recent music videos (released within months “You Never Listen,” “I’m Not Right,” and “Negative Noise,” have now surpassed 1 or 2 million views. On top of print magazines – Metal Injection, Metal Sucks, Lamb Goat, Knotfest, Guitar World, Premier Guitar, Metal Hammer, Ultimate-Guitar, Loudwire, Altpress, and MANY others have posted online articles about our band and how we are the NEXT HEADLINERS and our most recent album “Unstable.”
On top of all of the press love, we have had 2 singles hit the top 30 of the active rock charts and currently have “you never listen” nearing it as well and looking like it is going to be top 20 in coming weeks.
Shows are just beginning to come back and we have already confirmed a few – 2 of them being Danny Wimmer events. “Inkcarceration” festival in September and “Voragos,” a cruise with Rob Zombie, Chevelle, Mastodon, and more, sailing from Miami in February 2022. We’ll be also heading out in November/December 2021 for a national tour with Atreyu and Crown The Empire.
Here’s another drum play-through I did for “I’m Not Right” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl5NQJNU0wE
Ruben’s Gear:
Ddrum Maple Dios:
22×20 kick drum
13×9 Tom
16×14 Floor Tom
14×7 Modern Tone Patina Snare (The BKB)
Hardware:
Gibraltar Stealth Rack
Pedals:
Pearl Demon Drive
Drumsticks:
Vic Firth 5B American Classic
Cymbals:
Zildjian
20” A Custom Crash
20” A Custom Projection Crash
14” Mastersound Hi-hats
12” Oriental China Trash
18” Oriental China Trash
Heads:
Remo Emperor Clear on toms
Remo Powerstroke P77 Coated on the snare
Tetrarch Links:
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
INSTAGRAM
NAPALM RECORDS
Ruben’s Links:
https://twitter.com/rubenoftetrarch
https://www.facebook.com/RubenOfTetrarch
https://www.instagram.com/rubenoftetrarch
