Dave Lombardo

Snare cracking on 2 and 4 over driving eighth-note kicks, played with real attack, not machine-even

Practise: Loop it slow with a deliberately human feel, then push the tempo without smoothing it out

Comes out of: Stage 1 — Foundations — single strokes and heel-up bass drum

Heard in: Raining Blood · Postmortem · Dittohead

A loose, slightly swung double-bass gallop under a riff, closer to a horse's gait than a metronome

Practise: Play the gallop pattern slowly with a loose ankle, resisting the urge to make it perfectly even

Comes out of: Stage 1 — Foundations — single strokes and heel-up bass drum

Heard in: Angel of Death · Raining Blood · War Ensemble

A low, floor-tom-driven pattern that drops the cymbals out entirely for a primal, war-drum feel

Practise: Play only on floor toms and bass drum, building dynamics from a whisper to a roar

Comes out of: Stage 4 — Fills & transitions — tribal tom patterns

Heard in: South of Heaven · Seasons in the Abyss · Hell Awaits

A fill that seems to erupt without warning, breaking the expected phrase length before resolving

Practise: Play a four-bar groove and drop a fill in at a random point rather than always bar four

Comes out of: Stage 4 — Fills & transitions — tribal tom patterns

Heard in: Angel of Death · Chemical Warfare · Hell Awaits

A very fast alternating groove that sits just short of a true blast beat, still readable as a groove

Practise: Start at a comfortable blast tempo and dial back the intensity until it feels like a beat again

Comes out of: Stage 3 — Signature techniques — fast alternating double bass

Heard in: Angel of Death · War Ensemble · SS-3

Hard crash hits landing exactly with unison guitar stabs, adding weight to the riff

Practise: Play along with a riff recording and land a crash on every unison hit, nothing extra

Comes out of: Stage 1 — Foundations — single strokes and heel-up bass drum

Heard in: Raining Blood · Postmortem · Dittohead

A short, fast double-bass burst that launches directly into a tom or snare fill

Practise: Isolate the burst alone first, then attach a two-beat fill immediately after it

Comes out of: Stage 3 — Signature techniques — fast alternating double bass

Heard in: Angel of Death · Postmortem · SS-3

Dropping to half time with tom-heavy orchestration to create a slow, heavy, tribal pocket

Practise: Practise switching from a fast skank groove to half time on a single cue without stumbling

Comes out of: Stage 4 — Fills & transitions — tribal tom patterns

Heard in: South of Heaven · Seasons in the Abyss · Hell Awaits

Moving the snare hit off the expected beat to create a lurching, off-kilter accent

Practise: Play a straight groove and shift the snare hit earlier or later by an eighth note each pass

Comes out of: Stage 1 — Foundations — single strokes and heel-up bass drum

Heard in: Postmortem · SS-3 · Dittohead

Sustaining the driving skank beat at high tempo for an entire song without tiring or rushing

Practise: Play the beat continuously for four minutes against a track, checking tempo stays flat

Comes out of: Stage 2 — Core grooves — the thrash skank beat

Heard in: Angel of Death · Raining Blood · War Ensemble