Sick Drummer Magazine releases our Top 10 picks for Best Drumming Albums of 2011! These picks were decided upon by a combination of staff picks and votes from our facebook followers. There were so many great albums to choose from, it was a very hard decision, but we feel confident in our final outcome. We want to thank all the drummers and our fans for taking the time to vote! Let's hope 2012 bring as many, or more amazing performances to listen to and learn from. Congrats to all of you!!
01. Francesco Paoli – Fleshgod Apocalypse – Agony
Italy's brutal/symphonic horde, Fleshgod Apocalypse, have returned with their definitive epic masterpiece Agony. With only two releases under their belts, Oracles (2009) and the Mafia EP (2010), Fleshgod Apocalypse have already become one of the most talked about bands in the underground.
The drumming of Francesco Paoli is simply astounding! His speed, accuracy and creativity are that of someone who has been playing their entire life, but Francesco has only been playing drums for about 4 years. Keep it coming!
02. Cameron Losch – Born of Osiris – The Discovery
Born of Osiris are mature well beyond their years and this dynamic extreme progressive juggernaut has now perfectly honed all of their collective talents to create what will soon be a pinnacle release for the metal genre. This ground-breaking six-piece group creates an epic mix of intricate and memorable melodies with challenging time signatures that still hold an infectious groove, all while maintaining sheer, tasteful brutality.
Cameron Losch has captured what most drummers would call a masterpiece with his tracks on The Discovery and we are excited to see what he comes up with next!
03. Jamie Postones – TesseracT – ONE
Tesseract's only wish is to create music with subtle power and emotion, to avoid genre-specific clichés and tired old tricks. They aim for the same place that their musical heroes – people like Pink Floyd, The Doors, Faith No More, Meshuggah, Jeff Buckley, Textures and Sigur Rós reached. To create an ALBUM, not a collection of songs that fit the mold of three singles and seven fillers, but an actual old school album that you want to take 50 or 60 minutes out of your life with, to sit down and escape with.
Jamie brings a subtle, yet dynamic level to the song structures in Tesseract with his controlled diversity, unique rhythms and nearly un-matched finesse. A truly talented drummer with a very specific outlook on what drums bring to music in general.
04. Alex Rudinger – Threat Signal – Threat Signal
The third, self-titled Threat Signal album was released under Nuclear Blast records in October 2011. Recorded and produced at Planet Z studios by metal mastermind Zeuss (chimaira, hatebreed, all that remains, the acacia strain, born of osiris, shadows fall and many more). Artwork was created by Colin Marks (origin, scar symmetry, suicide silence, exodus). This album is being called Threat Signal's heaviest and most dark sounding effort to date.
The drumming talents of Alex Rudinger are very hard to categorize, as he does it all. Alex is by far one of the youngest and most talented drummers we have had the honor to write about. If he continues to improve, I'm not sure what will be said about his playing, as it's already at a monumental level.
05. Fotis Benardo – Septicflesh – The Great Mass
The Great Mass is the eighth studio album by Greek death metal band Septic Flesh. It was recorded between July and September of 2010 in Devasoundz (Greece) and The Abyss (Sweden) and produced by Peter Tägtgren. The orchestration was written by Christos Antoniou and recorded by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Being one of our favorite releases from the band, this album is also difficult to put into summary.
The drumming of Fotis Benardo is aggressive, tasty, dynamic, fast, fitting and very creative. George Kollias of Nile once said that Fotis is the best Greek drummer, and after listening to this album, we might just have to agree.
06. Shannon Lucas – The Black Dahlia Murder – Ritual
Following up 2009's acclaimed Deflorate, which brought The Black Dahlia Murder the highest Billboard chart positions of its 10-year career, Ritual revels in both conceptual ambition and equally striking musical growth from a band that's pushed itself into more extreme and challenging territory on each successive release. Recalling the writing process that led to Ritual's eventual 12 songs, Strnad (vocals) says "every song that got brought forth was exciting and more three-dimensional, more twists and turns, more surprises. There's more ups and downs and taking people on a journey this time."
Shannon Lucas never fails to surprise us, be it live or on a digital recording. Having seen many of his performances, we can tell you that Shannon is one of the best there is. From his ease-of-motion, to his hard-hitting (and very accurate) fills, he always leaves you wanting more. Ritual is two things: Another great album from The Black Dahlia Murder as a whole, and another amazing performance from Shannon Lucas, a masterful drummer.
07. Marco Pitruzzella – Anomalous – Ohmnivalent
Anomalous is a progressive-technical-death-metal band formed in 2001 by Tim Hale and Max Seeman. With a goal of creating a sound that melded their disparate influences, the founding members began writing music. After an exhaustive search, the band welcomed Marco Pitruzzella as the new drummer, replacing the cold, precise machinations of programmed drums with the fire and intensity of the experienced metal percussionist. Anomalous has maintained a rigid standard of musical quality that has resulted in the completion of their latest effort, "Ohmnivalent", which was released on Brutal Bands in March 2011.
There are not too many drummers out there that could have even thought about performing what had been programmed by Tim, but Marco is another kind of machine. His talents, understanding of music and ability to learn are simply immense. Marco would have to be one of the best "technical" drummers we have ever heard and having seen him play live many times, there is no doubt about how talented he really is.
08. John Longstreth – Origin – Entity
One of the most intense and technical forces of the contemporary death metal world, Origin have returned to stake their claim as the leaders of metal’s new wave of extremity with their fifth studio effort "Entity". As expected, the death grind trio of Flores, Ryan, and Longstreth continue to churn out frantic hell paced grids of metal torment, but now further compliment the arrangements with a new found propensity for churning grooves and the hook laden approach that first reared its ugly, but accessible head on the bands 2007 offering, Antithesis. The band once again returned to Chapman Recording Studios, in Lenexa Kansas to work with long time engineer and friend, Robert Rebeck. As stated multiple times in the past, Origin proves once again, that they stand head and shoulders above their peers.
John Longstreth has built up his name and reputation in the past few years and is what many would now call an icon in the death metal drumming world. His intense speed, creativity, and seemingly effortless approach to a unique arrangement of drums, set him way apart from the rest.
09. Krimh "Kerim" Lechner – Decapitated – Carnival Is Forever
Decapitated released their fifth studio album, "Carnival Is Forever", in North America on July 12 via Nuclear Blast Records, cover art by Lukasz Jaszak. Commented guitarist Waclaw "Vogg" Kieltyka: "[the album cover is] very intriguing and quite strange for a metal album but surely staying in memory. A vital thing is that it's a photo. We did not want any computer graphics this time or anything artificial or plastic. The same regards the production of the album. We had actually been thinking about getting a painting for the cover but unfortunately we couldn't do it. Maybe next time." The follow-up to 2006's "Organic Hallucinosis", "Carnival Is Forever" was recorded at Radio Gdansk Studio in Poland with producer Wacek Kieltyka and engineer Malta Arkadiusz Malczewski. Drums were tracked with Daniel Bergstrand (behemoth, meshuggah, dimmu borgir, keep of kalessin, defleshed), who also handled mixing duties.
Not only is Krimh a super-talented drummer, he is an all around insane musician. His work on this release is nothing
short of superb, and is exactly what the band needed to hear. His knack for playing exactly what the song calls for is a natural talent, but his power, speed and creativity are skills he has honed over the years. A very impressive performance from a very impressive individual.
10. Davide "Brutal Dave" Billia – Putridity – Anthropophagical Euphoria
People can quickly add Putridity to the list of bands coming out of Italy who are creating some of the fastest, hardest, and most crushing brutal death metal in recent years. The follow up to their 2007 debut and only the second overall album from the band, this album is 24 minutes of continuous auditory punishment (or delight as some might see it) sure to please fans of Suffocation, Defeated Sanity, Disgorge, and early Decrepit Birth.
There are not too many words to describe the drumming of Davide Billia other than insane. It's like he can somehow harness or channel pure evil and make it explode all over his kit. Davide is technical, fast, hard-hitting and just furious on the drums. If we could morph his foot speed into another form, it would be best used as a weapon.
Davide is the definition of a brutal drummer… period.
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