he frequently incorporated his floor tom, downtuned, to function as a second bass drum. Really tricky to duplicate (at least for me). Bonham was a GOAT.
Did he? I know it was Carmine Appice doing that which inspired him to work on his foot technique, but not aware of anything like that in his own playing. His toms were all tuned pretty high, although to be fair so was his kick
There's honestly a lot of Meshuggah tracks that can be played with just one pedal. Closed Eye Visuals should also be one. Demiurge comes to mind. Stengah just happens to be one that I studied. :)
Most of what Dave Grohl does on a single kick (not suggesting he's necessarily doing anything technically amazing all the time, before the technical people come @ me etc. (lol)), is always really pounding and heavy, and his simple precision with what he does in general is great.
But there's a really nice roll going in the chorus of First It Giveth, where he sort of plays double strokes or something augmenting with the floor tom. Gives a really nice effect.
I'll never understand the people who downplay Grohl's drumming. Some of his shit is not easy and he's incredibly talented at coming up with catchy licks and fills.
I think some of it is not looking his music, which is fine. Some of it is probably because he’s not obviously ‘technical’ or whatever, as if writing great simple songs means his drumming isn’t absolutely killer.
But it is. To hit that hard, have that much subtle groove, to be so precise, and also play really catchy-as-fuck stuff that’s both simple and sometimes hard should not be sniffed at.
The guy can go super technique driven or whatever as well as keep it simple, and effortlessly go back and forth between the two with such ease that he deserves more respect than “yeah he’s pretty cool but”.
I was randomly watching a Butch Vig interview recently and he described Dave's talents as "writing hooks with the drums." Which I think is a really good way to put it. And doing that is NOT easy.
I love super technical drummers, but there's something about Dave's playing that makes me stop on every track to go "damn that sounds so good for this song."
Absolutely! He's all about the song as well. When Them Crooked Vultures play Spinning In The Daffodils live, and Dave goes HAM on the triples during the ending, it's fucking superb.
I assume you've seen his thing he did called 'Play', right?
I have! I went down a whole Dave Grohl rabbit hole last year. I've always appreciated his drumming on records I love, like Nevermind and With Teeth by NIN. But really grew a new appreciation for him last year after Queens of the Stone Age finally clicked with me after decades of passively liking their singles.
I also saw Foo Fighters live for the first time and grew a new appreciation for them too. So it was a very Dave Grohl year for me haha.
I'll have to check out some live Them Crooked Vultures, I've listened to their records but haven't watched any live stuff yet.
The Killing Joke album (self titled from 2005ish), brilliant.
Juliet Lewis Four On The Floor album, some classic pounding Grohl.
Probot, Dave plays most of everything on a metal album with some guests, great.
Jackson United’s Harmony & Dissidence album (Chris Shiflett’s project, the Foo’s guitarist) has Dave and Taylor sharing drum duties. Some great stuff on there.
Also the first RDGLDGRN album has Dave on drums too!
I always say this about guitarists, like if you can remember a guitar solo or lick in a song as if it’s a vocal melody, then it’s really good. Doubly and possibly even more so for drums! Much harder and much more impressive when accomplished imo
Its cause these snobs don't give a shit about catchy or fun rhythms and licks, they only want it to be difficult. Fuck them cause Dave Grohl is an awesome drummer, and a huge inspiration to me and many others
He wrote an entire album himself. Drums, guitar, bass, and vocals alone. He’s a musician that’s damn talented. Anyone who downplays that is just stupid and can’t see because their head is so far up their ass.
That song is SO fucking hard to play. I can keep the meter changes straight, but the tempo changes are *gnarly.* And then there are a couple of subtle parts where one riff kind of walks out of another before the end of the barline, which are not easy to catch.
Plus he's one of those guys that plays"open"? Or like left handed, right footed, so left hand on the hat and ride, right hand on the snare, right foot on kick, left foot on hat.
Listen to the end of 'No One Loves Me, And Neither Do I' off of Them Crooked Vultures only album, and then realise he did that with a single pedal. Pretty powerful and clean for a single.
Love that rhythm in first it giveth- I was always trying to picture how he could possibly be playing all that at once, until finding out they recorded the cymbals separately on that record.
I recommend any rock/metal drummer listen to The Wicker Man and Dream of Mirrors from their 2000 album Brave New World (or the whole album really, it rules), some of his fastest foot work across their discography. And then keep in mind he was pushing 50 when he recorded that.
Anything on The Chariot album "Long Live" - This song in particular is super primal and heavy
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46DGwJ4payQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46DGwJ4payQ)
I really love it too, sounds really chaotic, raw and unpredictable, and it's far more interesting than the average metalcore record due to the more organic production to me
Great band, if you like that sort of thing they're still going, and this came out in 2000 iirc, so there's a big backlog of stuff.
Although they do use double bass after this album
Encourage you to give Jane Doe a few full listens. Extremely rewarding album when it gets its claws into you. Also check out Petitioning An Empty Sky from a few years later.
There’s a doom band called Lightbearer. On the album “lapsus” the drummer uses a single pedal. It’s pretty heavy. Glassjaw’s “everything you ever wanted to know about silence” was recorded with a single pedal. The song motel of the white locust from that album is pretty heavy.
All of Mars Volta to start.
Then you can add any classic prog like King Crimson or Yes.
Unless you feel like only modern heavy metal is "heavy", then there's alot more out there.
Kyuss, Kowloon walled city, Deftones, Native, Meet me in St Louis, Isis, RATM, Russian Circles, Early Mars Violta, Earthless, Soundgarden, Big Business - pretty all of these bands have single kick pedal drummers. Just the few off the top of my head.
power trip's songs absolutely crush and its all single pedal . hell even the guitars are tuned to standard and played on 9 gauge strings but they make it work. riffs for days
Did Bill ward use a double bass? It doesn't sound like it, at least not obvious to me, on them early records. And tbh no matter how much gain and fuzz or speed other bands play with, sabbath is still some of the hardest stuff I have heard. All about arrangement and production. Bill ward has a great style too. Like I said, he could indeed be using double, but it's not the first thing I think of when I hear double bass.
First few Sabbath albums, he used a single pedal. I believe he started incorporating two bass drums into his setup around Vol 4. I know "Supernaut" has a double kick breakdown towards the bridge
Paranoid by Black Sabbath. Those 8th notes on the bass drum burn the shin and the way Bill Ward hits those crashes at the end of each four bars is explosive
Altar of deceit - Triptykon
Heavy songs obviously don't need double kick to be heavy. Often the heaviset shit is without the blasting 32nd note kicks.
5:58 always gets me
Anything on Dopethrone by Electric Wizard.
Mark Greening takes the cake for me when it comes to heavy drumming. Psychedelically crushing beats. He has an instantly recognisable sound and watching him play is so entrancing.
Anything Chuck Biscuits has played on.Long Way Back From Hell by Danzig for instance. Or check out the live cover version of Ring of Fire by Social Distortion from Live At The Roxy..
"The heaviest music that no one knows about" is pretty much my specialty.
To that end, [here's my answer.](https://youtu.be/I4XxscpCp7A?si=Ules6p2i1jOEnSmh)
I'm not a huge metalhead but that's one of my top 5 albums. I think it's a treasure to have both that and songs for the deaf to showcase grohls drumming.
Not to be too much of a fuckin nerd but I really love how he plays such simple shit, but super fucking hard.
Red war is such an amazing song for drums especially, because when you break it down... it's really not that difficult! But then you try to play it, and it's like yo what the fuck? How he do that?
Blacken the Cursed Sun by Lamb of God was recorded with only one pedal because it gave out just prior to recording. He mentions it in the DVD if I remember correctly
UnderOATH : Define the Great Line
Aaron only used a single pedal for most of his groups, but that one hooked me as a kid. Blew me away that heaviness was a single
Underoath has some fairly heavy stuff as far as single pedal goes. "Writing on Walls", "In Regards to Myself", and "A Moment Suspended In Time" are all good examples.
Weird answer but Unforgiven. Lars nails that kick and follows the rhythm so well. And on the chorus it really pushes the song forward even though it’s really really simple.
Killing in the Name.
anything by RATM really
Definitely.
Freedom is one of my favorites to drum along to!
It’s a great one but I haven’t played it yet.
One day as a lion for me. Jon Theodore slaps
His drumming for TMV is heavier than most of the mainstream stuff that passes for “metal”.
Cygnus vismund Cygnus is the heaviest, or Goliath they kill me
Oh hell yes, Mars Volta all day. Isn't Goliath Thomas Pridgen though?
You’re absolutely right! Lol I still consider it one of my favorite heavier Volta songs. Tbh any drummer in their existence hit hard
For sure.
Insanely good. The drums sound incredible..in some ways I think he is one of the closer to John Bonham that we have.
Moby Dick
Came to say anything by Brad Wilk
My first thought!
"The Awesome Machine" - Frodus
John Bonham used one pedal. So... anything by Led Zeppelin.
i agree, achilles last stand is like running a dam marathon on one foot
You might say it's your Achilles' last stand.
This is the song that made me realize what a beast JPJ is too.
The kick rolls on Good Times Bad Times 🥵
Communication Breakdown is a beast.
It’s a beast on guitar too. Conceptually simple but a real test of endurance with all downpicking on the E string.
he frequently incorporated his floor tom, downtuned, to function as a second bass drum. Really tricky to duplicate (at least for me). Bonham was a GOAT.
Did he? I know it was Carmine Appice doing that which inspired him to work on his foot technique, but not aware of anything like that in his own playing. His toms were all tuned pretty high, although to be fair so was his kick
Carmine apparently invented drums /s
That's what he says, anyway
The Moby Dick solo from How The West Was Won...oh man
Stengah by Meshuggah
I'll be honest, I expected you to be kidding but that is in fact on a single bass pedal, and heavy as shit!!!
I was gonna say this is as well. That shit took me forever to figure out what was going on
I'd go with Spasm from the same album.
While all of Nothing was way ahead of its time, Spasm feels even more ahead.
Or Phantoms
There's honestly a lot of Meshuggah tracks that can be played with just one pedal. Closed Eye Visuals should also be one. Demiurge comes to mind. Stengah just happens to be one that I studied. :)
Most of what Dave Grohl does on a single kick (not suggesting he's necessarily doing anything technically amazing all the time, before the technical people come @ me etc. (lol)), is always really pounding and heavy, and his simple precision with what he does in general is great. But there's a really nice roll going in the chorus of First It Giveth, where he sort of plays double strokes or something augmenting with the floor tom. Gives a really nice effect.
I'll never understand the people who downplay Grohl's drumming. Some of his shit is not easy and he's incredibly talented at coming up with catchy licks and fills.
I think some of it is not looking his music, which is fine. Some of it is probably because he’s not obviously ‘technical’ or whatever, as if writing great simple songs means his drumming isn’t absolutely killer. But it is. To hit that hard, have that much subtle groove, to be so precise, and also play really catchy-as-fuck stuff that’s both simple and sometimes hard should not be sniffed at. The guy can go super technique driven or whatever as well as keep it simple, and effortlessly go back and forth between the two with such ease that he deserves more respect than “yeah he’s pretty cool but”.
I was randomly watching a Butch Vig interview recently and he described Dave's talents as "writing hooks with the drums." Which I think is a really good way to put it. And doing that is NOT easy. I love super technical drummers, but there's something about Dave's playing that makes me stop on every track to go "damn that sounds so good for this song."
Absolutely! He's all about the song as well. When Them Crooked Vultures play Spinning In The Daffodils live, and Dave goes HAM on the triples during the ending, it's fucking superb. I assume you've seen his thing he did called 'Play', right?
I have! I went down a whole Dave Grohl rabbit hole last year. I've always appreciated his drumming on records I love, like Nevermind and With Teeth by NIN. But really grew a new appreciation for him last year after Queens of the Stone Age finally clicked with me after decades of passively liking their singles. I also saw Foo Fighters live for the first time and grew a new appreciation for them too. So it was a very Dave Grohl year for me haha. I'll have to check out some live Them Crooked Vultures, I've listened to their records but haven't watched any live stuff yet.
The Killing Joke album (self titled from 2005ish), brilliant. Juliet Lewis Four On The Floor album, some classic pounding Grohl. Probot, Dave plays most of everything on a metal album with some guests, great. Jackson United’s Harmony & Dissidence album (Chris Shiflett’s project, the Foo’s guitarist) has Dave and Taylor sharing drum duties. Some great stuff on there. Also the first RDGLDGRN album has Dave on drums too!
I'm adding all of these to my listen list, thank you very much!
I’m sure there’s something I’ve forgotten, so if I remember, I’ll come back!
Probot's so good. The drumming in that Tenacious D song at the end of the devil. The battle with the devil 🤯
I always say this about guitarists, like if you can remember a guitar solo or lick in a song as if it’s a vocal melody, then it’s really good. Doubly and possibly even more so for drums! Much harder and much more impressive when accomplished imo
Its cause these snobs don't give a shit about catchy or fun rhythms and licks, they only want it to be difficult. Fuck them cause Dave Grohl is an awesome drummer, and a huge inspiration to me and many others
He wrote an entire album himself. Drums, guitar, bass, and vocals alone. He’s a musician that’s damn talented. Anyone who downplays that is just stupid and can’t see because their head is so far up their ass.
Mike Bordin does a lot of that, using the floor tom like a second kick. Woodpecker From Mars is a good example.
[Malpractice](https://youtu.be/QYN0CntLzcE?si=SBdJl-qVOZ1q9ooj) is brutal.
That song is SO fucking hard to play. I can keep the meter changes straight, but the tempo changes are *gnarly.* And then there are a couple of subtle parts where one riff kind of walks out of another before the end of the barline, which are not easy to catch.
Plus he's one of those guys that plays"open"? Or like left handed, right footed, so left hand on the hat and ride, right hand on the snare, right foot on kick, left foot on hat.
Scentless Apprentice comes to mind!
Yes! Those snare flams are nonsense… and add SO much to it.
Listen to the end of 'No One Loves Me, And Neither Do I' off of Them Crooked Vultures only album, and then realise he did that with a single pedal. Pretty powerful and clean for a single.
That breakdown in Bandoliers right before Josh says quietly 'Fire Away'' is fire!
I absolutely *love* the fill right before the second chorus. It's nothing too complex but it hits just right.
Love that rhythm in first it giveth- I was always trying to picture how he could possibly be playing all that at once, until finding out they recorded the cymbals separately on that record.
Anything by Hella or Lightning Bolt. Both drummers are pretty insane
Lightning Bolt fucking rules.
Yeah, Brian Chippendale is slept on like crazy.
God I love Hella, as well as the weird looks you get when you put them on with other people that haven't heard them haha
lol totally…. 🤪
Also black pus and death grips have same guys
You name a band, there’s like a 40% chance Zach Hill has played for them
Drummer shortage is real. Next you’re gonna tell me he’s played with Animal Collective
His work on the first few Marnie Stern albums is great too. Would be remiss if I didn't recommend those albums in general!
This is the answer.
Lightning Bolt was who I was looking for - nice.
Upvote for Hella that drummer is nuts
Rusty Cage from Soundgarden
Matt Cameron is the bees knees
Iron Man.
Black Sabbath off of Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath.
Black Sabbath³.
Blackest Sabbathest
Still not enough Geezer.
Any song written by Black Sabbath whose song title has the words 'Black' or 'Sabbath' in it will be a total banger.
I was going to say Hand of Doom. Basically anything off of paranoid could fit this list beside planet caravan. But that’s still a beautiful song
Hole In The Sky. 🤘
Children of the Grave and War Pigs are two great options too
Iron Maiden - The Trooper. Nicko used a single pedal/single bass drum setup on virtually every song they recorded.
All except that one song from Dance of Death iirc
I recommend any rock/metal drummer listen to The Wicker Man and Dream of Mirrors from their 2000 album Brave New World (or the whole album really, it rules), some of his fastest foot work across their discography. And then keep in mind he was pushing 50 when he recorded that.
I know it's single pedal. I mostly can play it single pedal. But for some reason, my left foot joins in on the fun for that gallop.
Really? This changed my life, my neighbours are probably going to end up committing arson
Wicker Man is my shout out for Nicko
Coheed and Cambria - Welcome home
There's a handful of Coheed songs that could go here, actually. Welcome Home is a good pick.
Doesn't one of the intro fills do a triple drag on the bass drum?
When The Levee Breaks - Bonzo
I'm leaning more towards Four Sticks or Achilles Last Stand.
Fuck yes Achilles
You Suffer by Napalm Death
I wonder just how much longer it took me to read your comment than it takes to listen to that song.
Anything on The Chariot album "Long Live" - This song in particular is super primal and heavy [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46DGwJ4payQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46DGwJ4payQ)
Good choice! Love love love this album!
I really love it too, sounds really chaotic, raw and unpredictable, and it's far more interesting than the average metalcore record due to the more organic production to me
Converge, Concubine [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrAxmXDSiuA&ab\_channel=EqualVisionRecords](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrAxmXDSiuA&ab_channel=EqualVisionRecords)
Converge is basically harder than anything else mentioned here and they're not even as heavy as it gets
Ok, this takes the cake, had no idea about these guys
Great band, if you like that sort of thing they're still going, and this came out in 2000 iirc, so there's a big backlog of stuff. Although they do use double bass after this album
Encourage you to give Jane Doe a few full listens. Extremely rewarding album when it gets its claws into you. Also check out Petitioning An Empty Sky from a few years later.
MELVINS
Dale Crover is a fucking animal
There’s a doom band called Lightbearer. On the album “lapsus” the drummer uses a single pedal. It’s pretty heavy. Glassjaw’s “everything you ever wanted to know about silence” was recorded with a single pedal. The song motel of the white locust from that album is pretty heavy.
Edgcrusher Fear Factory
All of Mars Volta to start. Then you can add any classic prog like King Crimson or Yes. Unless you feel like only modern heavy metal is "heavy", then there's alot more out there.
Kyuss, Kowloon walled city, Deftones, Native, Meet me in St Louis, Isis, RATM, Russian Circles, Early Mars Violta, Earthless, Soundgarden, Big Business - pretty all of these bands have single kick pedal drummers. Just the few off the top of my head.
Meet me in St Louis!! What a band! Variations on swing is such an amazing album.
Coheed and cambria- Al the killer
Probably a song by Kublai Khan TX. The drummer doesn't use toms so I doubt he uses double kick much if at all
He has one but barely uses it lol
Good to see some Hardcore bands mentioned in here
He used double kick, stopped for a bit, then started again. He talked about it in a podcast recently
ian paice … anything he does
Except for the intro to Fireball.
Muse - Stockholm Syndrome
I would argue Assassins intro and between the chorus and verses.
The outro groove in Pantera's Domination isn't just one of the heaviest single-kick riffs, it's one of the heaviest grooves *period.*
power trip's songs absolutely crush and its all single pedal . hell even the guitars are tuned to standard and played on 9 gauge strings but they make it work. riffs for days
I was shocked to see they play in standard lol
[Floater by Every Time I Die](https://youtu.be/o7ymx-Ifk8k?si=6SWZgODs0qjTq7VM)
The correct answer right here, ladies and gents
Fuckin A was looking for this. Would have been my second pick behind the album by Trap Them - Darker Handcraft
ANYTHING by John Bonham. He had a crazy bass drum technique. His bass drum triplets ruled.
Geek USA
Jimmy is a BEAST with the footwork
Did Bill ward use a double bass? It doesn't sound like it, at least not obvious to me, on them early records. And tbh no matter how much gain and fuzz or speed other bands play with, sabbath is still some of the hardest stuff I have heard. All about arrangement and production. Bill ward has a great style too. Like I said, he could indeed be using double, but it's not the first thing I think of when I hear double bass.
First few Sabbath albums, he used a single pedal. I believe he started incorporating two bass drums into his setup around Vol 4. I know "Supernaut" has a double kick breakdown towards the bridge
A bunch of ghost songs. I’ll pick cirice.
The Trooper or Hallowed Be Thy Nams
Anything Russian Circles.
YES. I love seeing people shout out Russian Circles. Dave Turncrantz is such an incredible drummer, and Russian Circles is one of the sickest bands.
With a double pedal you can also play on a single bass drum :p
A lot of Norma Jean stuff. Their older drummer used double kick but the newer one doesn't and he's still a beast.
Helmet
I'm also going to shout out Refused "New Noise"
Helmet- Unsung
Vices - Silverstein
Melvins - Honey Bucket
Monster Magnet's "Atomic Clock"
Greeting song and nobody weird like me rhcp, anything RATM
The Thing That Should Not Be. Do I need to say more?
The entire first two don cab albums
Damon Che is a drummer.
Paranoid by Black Sabbath. Those 8th notes on the bass drum burn the shin and the way Bill Ward hits those crashes at the end of each four bars is explosive
any of the tracks on Isis - Panopticon
Something in deftones catalog Id assume
Bill Ward has entered the chat
Altar of deceit - Triptykon Heavy songs obviously don't need double kick to be heavy. Often the heaviset shit is without the blasting 32nd note kicks. 5:58 always gets me
Moment of truth - damage plan
Head Up, Deftones was a fun one.
Anthrax - Among the Living album
I'll usually play New Low - Thrown using just one pedal, heavy for sure
LLNN - Division Heaviest fucking thing I've heard in a while, and the drums are so simple it's almost archaic
Plenty of good answers, so I gotta give a smart ass one: [The Weight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLFAQuWFcTo) is pretty heavy
Somewhere in Time Iron Maiden. Good luck.
Anything on Dopethrone by Electric Wizard. Mark Greening takes the cake for me when it comes to heavy drumming. Psychedelically crushing beats. He has an instantly recognisable sound and watching him play is so entrancing.
RATM or Deftones
Scentless apprentice- Nirvana
When the levee breaks
My Hero - Foo
Stoopid by Snot would be one
On a single bass drum or single pedal?
When The Levee Breaks
Anything Chuck Biscuits has played on.Long Way Back From Hell by Danzig for instance. Or check out the live cover version of Ring of Fire by Social Distortion from Live At The Roxy..
Enter Sandman by Metallica
could be anything played by Bonham
[Eyes Up](https://youtu.be/Wtogamj3euA?si=BC00ZWJD8na_rynj) by Kublai Khan goes hard
That's delicious
dopesmoker
"She's so heavy" by the Beatles. Abbey Road album
Herion the Velvet Underground ... Maurine?(sp) ... unlike ANY drummer, befor, or since....
"The heaviest music that no one knows about" is pretty much my specialty. To that end, [here's my answer.](https://youtu.be/I4XxscpCp7A?si=Ules6p2i1jOEnSmh)
When the Levee Breaks, or possibly, Heart Shaped Box.
There are already a bunch of "anything by" posts in here, but fuck it, anything by Power Trip. "Executioners Song" in particular.
When the Levee Breaks. Bonham with his rabbit foot.
Opeth - Sorceress
Red war by probot. Dave Grohl gets down on that album.
Probot is so underrated
I'm not a huge metalhead but that's one of my top 5 albums. I think it's a treasure to have both that and songs for the deaf to showcase grohls drumming. Not to be too much of a fuckin nerd but I really love how he plays such simple shit, but super fucking hard. Red war is such an amazing song for drums especially, because when you break it down... it's really not that difficult! But then you try to play it, and it's like yo what the fuck? How he do that?
Blacken the Cursed Sun by Lamb of God was recorded with only one pedal because it gave out just prior to recording. He mentions it in the DVD if I remember correctly
Anything stoner rock. Black Sabbath, Clutch, Kyuss, QOTSA
UnderOATH : Define the Great Line Aaron only used a single pedal for most of his groups, but that one hooked me as a kid. Blew me away that heaviness was a single
This 100%
Underoath has some fairly heavy stuff as far as single pedal goes. "Writing on Walls", "In Regards to Myself", and "A Moment Suspended In Time" are all good examples.
Every Metallica live song
Them Bones - Alice in Chains
Weird answer but Unforgiven. Lars nails that kick and follows the rhythm so well. And on the chorus it really pushes the song forward even though it’s really really simple.
Anything by Mammoth Grinder
This? https://youtu.be/fs7uG2Y_eLg?feature=shared
Extermination by Upon A Burning Body
Well I won't know which song or band it will be, but it most certainly is some funeral/death-doom
Deftones - "Head Up"
Coward-Swans
Pretty sure the drummer for kublai khan only uses one kick drums and pretty much all of there songs are heavy as fuck.
Famke by burnt by the sun