Subrick's Picks: A look At Up & Coming Drummers – Pick 8
Written by: Richard “Subrick” Lowell
It’s a very good day in the neighborhood my little pretties! Why, dare you ask? Well firstly because I, the one and only Subrick, have returned to grace (or defile, depending on your outlook on life) the digital landscape of Sick Drummer Magazine with a grandiose dose of verbose said in prose. In other words, time for another Subrick’s Picks.
For your chance to be featured: All you have to do is post a video of you drumming to YouTube, Vimeo or whatever video site you prefer, and embed the link on this website in the SD Videos section. Nothing more, nothing less, but you do need to be a registered member of our site to post.
There are three categories on which I base my selections: Playing Ability, Production Value, and Kit Sound. All three are pretty straight forward, but here’s what I specifically look for with each category.
Playing Ability: I look to see if a player is technically sound; timing is good, endurance and power are up to par, among other, more miniscule things.
Production Value: I prefer to watch video from a good quality camera, or studio quality. By studio quality, I don’t mean the greatest production sound ever recorded. I classify studio quality as a drumming performance recorded with microphones and/or triggers. Electronic kits are very much encouraged (especially when using less conventional samples). Now, if you have sound quality that isn’t as good, that doesn’t mean you won't be included in my selection process. Everyone is eligible to be featured.
Kit Sound: One of the most important characteristics! We all have read Eyal Levi’s article about why drum performances are always sound replaced these days. For those who haven’t, the basic gist of it is because drummers don’t know how to tune their drums. Considering that many drum videos I see on YouTube involve players that have really bad sounding kits, it seems rarer and rarer that drummers actually tune their drums. Meet all three of these criteria, and you have a shot to be featured. You could be playing the most radio friendly Disney pop imaginable, but if I feel your video meets these criteria, you could make the front page.
This time around the drummer of choice is Rolando Barros of Portuguese death metal band Grog. In this video, Barros is performing the very bluntly titled “Sicko” (in terms of bluntness, nothing beats Cannibal Corpse’s “I Will Kill You”, but this is pretty blunt as well). Having been around for 20 years, I’m surprised Grog hasn’t gotten the same recognition that a lot of their peers do, as they make exceptional death metal. Rolando’s using a seven piece kit here, with only one kick drum. For cymbals he is using a variety of different brands, although I can only make out Sabian and Istanbul. This is a studio video, so the quality is top notch on both the audio and video ends. Musically, Grog is grind influenced death metal, with indecipherable vocals, rapid fire guitars and machine gun drums.
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Rolando’s links:
That shalst be it for this edition of Subrick’s Picks. If you enjoyed this article at all, or if you just wanna read about me getting pissed at animal control, subscribe to me on Youtube, follow me on Facebook & Twitter and follow Pandora’s Toybox on Facebook for show and recording updates. Until whenever my fair readers, Subrick out!
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