Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo releases new album exploring percussion traditions : NPR

Drummer Dave Lombardo reveals just a few of the instruments he played on his debut solo album percussion ritual.

Ekaterina Gorbacheva/Ipecac Records

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Ekaterina Gorbacheva/Ipecac Records

Drummer Dave Lombardo reveals just a few of the instruments he played on his debut solo album percussion ritual.

Ekaterina Gorbacheva/Ipecac Records

As Slayer’s founding drummer, Dave Lombardo was known for his speed, precision and power. His double bass pedal felt like it was hitting the listener’s eardrum directly.

After playing in thrash metal bands for 40 years, Lombardo released his first solo album. percussion ritual — and it shows a completely different side of one of metal’s toughest drummers.

“It’s like traveling through my rhythmic mind,” Lombardo told NPR’s A. Martinez. “This is something I’ve always wanted to do because I’ve been influenced by many other drummers and percussionists outside of metal and thrash. I wanted to.”

Lombardo draws from Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart’s work in the Planet Drum Project, Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, and Latin jazz bandleader Tito Puente, who died in 2000. also inspired. Curiously, Lombardo says he subconsciously felt Puente’s influence during the song’s key drum break. Slayer’s classic song “Angel of Death”.

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Dave Lombardo was born in Cuba in 1965 but moved to California with his family when he was an infant. Still, as he grew up, Cuban music was everywhere.

“My mother and father used to go to clubs in Cuba, where there was a lunch break for the kids and a Cuban dance band playing for my parents at night,” Lombardo said. I remembered. “I used to sit and watch the drummers all the time. They were just sweating and people were dancing and having fun. When the horn section came in and voila, the power was just amazing! It was phenomenal.” I will never forget those days.” “

Lombardo: ‘Influence is over’ percussion ritual. “This album is inspired by my roots and my love of Cuban and Caribbean music in general.”