I find it incredible that still alot of comments about John's or any fast metaldrummers playing revolve around wheter it's cheating or not or where the groove is or that his entire sound would collapse without the use of triggers or that you just can't boogie to it, instead of recognising how difficult it is what this man is doing. Not only is he one of the fastest players around, but he adapted his technique to be able to endure the most demanding form of music humanly possible! This dude is at the forefront pushing the limits further than anyone. And groove, imo, is subjective to the listner, because I hear tons of groove in his accents. So even if you don't like what he's doing musically, you have to give the man respect on what he is able to do physically (including mastering double strokes on the feet), because to me this is just amazing.
ricklieffering I totally agree. John is among the best. However I might add that his double stroking technique with his feet is not that much more different then doing them with your hands and a pair of sticks. Surely with your feet its a little bit more nuanced, but by not that much. An old timer once told me that your pedals are sticks for your feet. He was right....thus emphasizing the need for always practicing rudiments. But in the end, getting a pair of quality pedals, tightening the spring tension and lowering the throne height, you'll find that double stroking is not THAT difficult. Thanx man.
Paul Daluz You're absolutly right and it's not like John invented the technique, but the way he applies it, to me, just testifies of great overall technique, practise and determination. I'm just getting a bit fed up with all the post about that because a drummer is triggering it would therefor deminish the difficulty. But every drummer knows that playing with triggers not only emphasizes your hits, but also your mistakes.
Rick Lieffering You know whats funny? Is that half through reading your post, I thought to myself " it also exposes your mistakes". And then you mentioned it at the end. Lmao.😀 But yeah man, triggers are not cheating. And they're definitely not magic. If your a shitty and uneven player, those triggers will expose you. And Guys like Longstreth, Kollias and Haley etc; are so damn fast; that they must use triggers to cut through the mix of distorted guitars and roaring vocals. I used to be anti trigger. I'll admit it. But not anymore after playing live. 😉
Exactly! It's no more a tool to get your kicks out there, than let's say an amp is for guitarplayers. And once you've dealt with small venues with shitty p.a. systems, if there is any to begin with, you'll come to terms with them sooner or later. Anyway, nice to finally get some positive respons on this topic! And just positive response in generall!
I think he is one of the best tech death drummer out there, and definitely one of the most enjoyable to watch. When they came through Salt Lake , I got the privilege to stand right next to him the whole show and have my mind blown!... He was tight as a nun the entire time! The guitarist and bassist are on another level as well! Entity is ONE of my favorite dm releases to come out in the last few years!
always told myself that there is no way they will be able to play that last part Saligia as tight as on the album - as always, I love that I have been proven wrong.
Where they on the clock for this gig?! How can you speed up Origin songs when playing live?!?! Have just bought the new album and am going to listen to it on the way to work. Can't wait.
Kollias is using triggers as well. His signature Axis Pedal series even have an in-built trigger device. Axis pedals are so super light that there is no "real" force behind each stroke. I guess in this style of metal music insane speeds are required and simply cannot be acheived other than using triggers, regardless of whether you're playing heel-toe or swiveling. Both amazing drummers of course.
Yep, in the extremely rare cases where he doesn't play 8th/16th or 32th note (triplets) you can see the black tips ;) Also myspace [dat] com/regaltip/photos/71242750 with more detail. He's also endorsed by em. The EX serie is rather new, so in older video's you'll see him play many other kinds of sticks. I'm gonna try out the EX death + grind versions. 12 euro's, not too bad.
At 260-270 bpm like Longstreth it doesn't matter what technique you play, both single strokes and double strokes are completely inaudible without triggers at that speed, but singles definitely sound alot more consistent without up until 210-220bpm.
You're right, i have "Brutal Truth - I'll neglect" in mind, when the drummer goes fast as possible, the sound from the drum is like a big endless noise, but we know he's going fast. It would be a noise barely audible at that speed. It's sad, when you go too fast, no one can hear it without high technologies.
Oh yea man old Sarcofago RULES! :D That definitely is pretty fast, though I think it's 8th note triplets at 160ish instead of straight 16th blasting, but I think the bass drum is inaudible more because of messy recording quality than anything else though, notice the BD isn't too clear even in the slower beats.
Ray Donlon He was using Axis before. Now he's using Pearl Demon Drives. But still can't figure out how the hell those triggers are working so well on a single bass drum. My guess is that John is a god, haha.
The speed required can be achieved without the triggers, but when you use normal mics with these speeds your sound gets blurry. Triggers are used to make every hit distinctive from each other and thus play a good 'sample' of a bass drum hit when the beater hits the skin. But the actual speed can be achieved without, it only will sound like shit.
4:00. Even the master completely drops his stick and is able to recover and practically stay in time going at like 270-280 bpm. This man is a huge inspiration to me as a fellow drummer.
yeah haha considering all we need to do is go back to 1986 when the old school death metal drummers were already starting to push 250 bpm and listen to how the kicks get lost: watch?v=V-VHTiHWYjo#t=04m10s (listen to the blasts at 4:15)
so this is the second video ive seen trying to have a look at his footwork..the camera seems to be intentionally avoiding his feet. does he use a quad pedal?
You must not have looked very hard. They show his feet many times, the first being at 2:30. Very clear view of his heel-toe technique. Theres quite a few after that as well.
I study blast drummers a lot, but I am not getting how he is going from a fast blast to an ultra fast rolling blast without his feet moving any faster. is he doing some heel-toe roll or something? because his legs are pumping at the same tempo whether he going fast and when he switches to REALLY fast.
look at 7 mins 40 secs. he is doing little blasts at like 350bpm and his feet are moving like 1/10th the speed. I'm not doubting his talent or precision but that is triggered to hell.
Charles Ayala yeah, might be heel-toe... I think its not triggered as hell. take a really close look at the section starting in 0:51 : you see the kick beater comin back really far from the head. so he keeps playin with a lot of power also on the higher tempo levels. I think I figured out his technique, its pretty clear in that section (0:51): he plays a heel-toe technique, but not the classic RRLL thing, but a simple RLRL thing: he does one beat with the RIGHT by putting the heel down, the second by doing the same with the LEFT, than hes putting the RIGHT heel up, which creates another beat and finally hes doing the same with the LEFT to get the last hit. so everytime he drops and lifts one foot, he does actually two strokes. remembering the pattern (RLRL) should make that clear. check out this vid, its pretty good explained there! Strange Double Bass Foot Technique explained!
BrownBear96 hm... after seeing this vid I think hes using the normal heel toe technique with doubles (RRLL): Origin - Saligia (New Song) - John Longstreth - Filmed June 22, 2011
I watched another vid of his where you can really tell the difference when he goes REALLY fast his knees do not swing up as high....which is natural and normal. but this vid is still perplexing.
51 seconds is good example of what I'm referring to. there is no leg throw height or stomp difference between when he is alternating between fast and REALLY fast.
Alright, now that we have proved John can't do anything without triggers: Let's take away the distortion on the guitar! And from now on, Jason has to do clean vocals. Bass will be left out completely, of course.
Your "opinion" is founded on the flawed belief that GK could play any louder than Longstreth at speeds like these... which nobody could. But actually, double strokes move the beater further back than singles at 280+ bpm, Kollias is just too stubborn to play otherwise.
+DrPhatBeats You can't cheat in music, other than outright stealing someone elses msuic. That's like saying the gain and distortion on a guitar is cheating. It doesn't make any sense.
+DrPhatBeats Try to cheat this way and then we will see what cheating and what is not. Everybody knows to criticise, but to try it first at those speeds and then be a master is a bit more difficult way. Try it and then be a clever guy...
guys, every drummer is cheating. we all know that it's way harder to hit two rocks together! drum sticks and the skin of a drum head are obviously just cop out ways of cheating so you can go faster!
1.) Great band and really solid drummer, but: 2.) That's not that fast, maybe 200 bpm, compared to this 260-270ish 3.) The argument was never that "fast drumming without triggers is impossible" but rather that fast double bass past 220 bpm w/o triggers is inaudible... which it is.
Hahah .. I may be slightly stoned, but that heel-toe posture, heel-toe technique, heel-toe stroke-strength and finger twiddle sticking looks gay as hell! Haha! From in front of the stage it sounds like a sped-up wheel measure that has a little plastic click every meter and SO BRUTAL! Then you watch the band up close from back-stage and there isn't a wild beast behind the drums, there's a gentleman fluffing pillows and playing some sort of video game with great conviction! I wonder what a mighty nintedo warrior like him might sound like with just microphones on his bass drum. Or would that reality just be too confusing, ugly and Metal for all these Techno Rock kids, their gore t-shirts and madly unrealistic beliefs and expectations in Technically Fantasy Death Metal?
+bloopyist Just microphones would sound pretty cool, though significantly less powerfull. I have tremendous respect for this drummer. His technical abilities are amazing.
I find it incredible that still alot of comments about John's or any fast metaldrummers playing revolve around wheter it's cheating or not or where the groove is or that his entire sound would collapse without the use of triggers or that you just can't boogie to it, instead of recognising how difficult it is what this man is doing. Not only is he one of the fastest players around, but he adapted his technique to be able to endure the most demanding form of music humanly possible! This dude is at the forefront pushing the limits further than anyone. And groove, imo, is subjective to the listner, because I hear tons of groove in his accents. So even if you don't like what he's doing musically, you have to give the man respect on what he is able to do physically (including mastering double strokes on the feet), because to me this is just amazing.
ricklieffering well said.
ricklieffering I totally agree. John is among the best. However I might add that his double stroking technique with his feet is not that much more different then doing them with your hands and a pair of sticks. Surely with your feet its a little bit more nuanced, but by not that much. An old timer once told me that your pedals are sticks for your feet. He was right....thus emphasizing the need for always practicing rudiments. But in the end, getting a pair of quality pedals, tightening the spring tension and lowering the throne height, you'll find that double stroking is not THAT difficult. Thanx man.
Paul Daluz You're absolutly right and it's not like John invented the technique, but the way he applies it, to me, just testifies of great overall technique, practise and determination. I'm just getting a bit fed up with all the post about that because a drummer is triggering it would therefor deminish the difficulty. But every drummer knows that playing with triggers not only emphasizes your hits, but also your mistakes.
Rick Lieffering You know whats funny? Is that half through reading your post, I thought to myself " it also exposes your mistakes". And then you mentioned it at the end. Lmao.😀
But yeah man, triggers are not cheating. And they're definitely not magic. If your a shitty and uneven player, those triggers will expose you. And Guys like Longstreth, Kollias and Haley etc; are so damn fast; that they must use triggers to cut through the mix of distorted guitars and roaring vocals. I used to be anti trigger. I'll admit it. But not anymore after playing live. 😉
Exactly! It's no more a tool to get your kicks out there, than let's say an amp is for guitarplayers. And once you've dealt with small venues with shitty p.a. systems, if there is any to begin with, you'll come to terms with them sooner or later. Anyway, nice to finally get some positive respons on this topic! And just positive response in generall!
20,000 notes in 1 song.. achievement unlocked
I think he is one of the best tech death drummer out there, and definitely one of the most enjoyable to watch. When they came through Salt Lake , I got the privilege to stand right next to him the whole show and have my mind blown!... He was tight as a nun the entire time! The guitarist and bassist are on another level as well! Entity is ONE of my favorite dm releases to come out in the last few years!
the drumming is inhuman. sick playing
The last 2 mins of this vid are an absolute fuckin schooling!!! 💪 I'll always come back to this masterpiece.
Esse cara reinventou o metal extremo na bateria. Toca fácil o que é dificil.
When I watch this video, I literally LOL because I cannot comprehend his speed.
always told myself that there is no way they will be able to play that last part Saligia as tight as on the album - as always, I love that I have been proven wrong.
Where they on the clock for this gig?! How can you speed up Origin songs when playing live?!?!
Have just bought the new album and am going to listen to it on the way to work. Can't wait.
had a blast touring with him and Origin!!!
If they ever do o movie about Origin, Zach Galifianakis should be casted as Longstreth:)
What a beast, man he is locked in right here
dude is a monster, at the end of saligia hes straight up using rim shots in between the blasts
Looking forward to seeing that head cam footage!
I saw these guys live a few months ago with my bois, they were INCREDIBREW
How effortless the 270/280 bpm is for him. My god.
This man can beat a skin like no other, brother.
Thanx, new drum videos everyday for the month of november
Kollias is using triggers as well. His signature Axis Pedal series even have an in-built trigger device. Axis pedals are so super light that there is no "real" force behind each stroke. I guess in this style of metal music insane speeds are required and simply cannot be acheived other than using triggers, regardless of whether you're playing heel-toe or swiveling. Both amazing drummers of course.
John is a true talent!
If you check out his older videos he was playing singles, albeit he wasnt reaching these insane speeds but he was incredibley fast.
Ah but can he play Nothing Else Matters ?!
His feet...my fucking god
Are we ever gonna see the dashcam footage from the gopro attached to his noggin?
Se pone una go pro en la cabeza ?
He owns Harry Potter with his sticks!
This guys literally has perfect heel toe.
theres no cheating to drumming. chill the fuck out and have fun, thats what its all about. thats what john is about .
This is amazing.
I got suscribed immediatly!! didnt know about this channel!
ouu man this is awesome really thanks a lot, and great skill, thanks buddy
Dude holy fuck these guys came to Missoula and were amazing
Jesus, look at how violently those tom mics are shaking... and people think the triggers do all the work.
Nope. Honestly, nobody plays like him. Such a unique guy.
Yep, in the extremely rare cases where he doesn't play 8th/16th or 32th note (triplets) you can see the black tips ;) Also myspace [dat] com/regaltip/photos/71242750 with more detail. He's also endorsed by em. The EX serie is rather new, so in older video's you'll see him play many other kinds of sticks. I'm gonna try out the EX death + grind versions. 12 euro's, not too bad.
At 260-270 bpm like Longstreth it doesn't matter what technique you play, both single strokes and double strokes are completely inaudible without triggers at that speed, but singles definitely sound alot more consistent without up until 210-220bpm.
HOLY SHIEEEEET
You mean EX? He's using the black tip sticks, which are EX series, made for speed/rebound (makes sense :) )
wall of death acapella omg
The technician at work.
Are those Rocket shells? Thought those were gone with the wind.
@4:04 HE'S HUMAN!
Damn! I really wish I would be able to apply some push-pull technique to my left hand, too. It makes it look so easy.
Haha and John really managed to speed up Saligia however that's possible.
dude plays so fast he's gotta where a headlamp
underrated hilarity right here =)
Dammit I wanna see that GoPro footage!
You're right, i have "Brutal Truth - I'll neglect" in mind, when the drummer goes fast as possible, the sound from the drum is like a big endless noise, but we know he's going fast. It would be a noise barely audible at that speed. It's sad, when you go too fast, no one can hear it without high technologies.
Another level of what.
i only see Rambo with his M60 ....
Oh yea man old Sarcofago RULES! :D
That definitely is pretty fast, though I think it's 8th note triplets at 160ish instead of straight 16th blasting, but I think the bass drum is inaudible more because of messy recording quality than anything else though, notice the BD isn't too clear even in the slower beats.
Wtf this show has more than 30 ppl
insane technique
DAYUM! waay faster than the album.
with or without trigger, if your playing like shit, its still sound like shit. but this is another level
And how is it even possible for his trigger to work that well on a single bass drum at those speeds?
drum tech bro. staff is vital.
I hardly think anyone else than John himself would be able to set it up the way he wants and needs it to be.
Mustis1524 thats why the guy they pay to do it better pay close attention haha.
maybe he uses a trigger system like axis, the trigger is on the pedal not the drum
Ray Donlon He was using Axis before. Now he's using Pearl Demon Drives. But still can't figure out how the hell those triggers are working so well on a single bass drum. My guess is that John is a god, haha.
this is wrong, derek roddys signature pedal has the e-kit kollias dont have a signature line he uses the axis a longboards
Just watching this makes me sweat, what the actual fuck
He's playing his Reference kit. The lighting does make them look like carbon fiber though!
The speed required can be achieved without the triggers, but when you use normal mics with these speeds your sound gets blurry. Triggers are used to make every hit distinctive from each other and thus play a good 'sample' of a bass drum hit when the beater hits the skin. But the actual speed can be achieved without, it only will sound like shit.
that technique !!!!
4:00. Even the master completely drops his stick and is able to recover and practically stay in time going at like 270-280 bpm. This man is a huge inspiration to me as a fellow drummer.
ORIGIN! HEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH! |m|
Heel toe technique to the fucking max
What the fuck. John's pushing at 300 in this video? Jesus almighty, all hail lord Longstrength.
is that a carbon fiber pearl set he's playing?
This guy is truly amazing. I wish all drummers got hip to this death metal shit. The best drummers on the planet. Bar none!!
He almost looks bored.
Dude, thats fast as hell. Holy crap.
yeah haha considering all we need to do is go back to 1986 when the old school death metal drummers were already starting to push 250 bpm and listen to how the kicks get lost:
watch?v=V-VHTiHWYjo#t=04m10s
(listen to the blasts at 4:15)
Lust Wrath Pride Saligia!
I would give my left toe to get the photage from that gopro on his forehead!
I could play like that but it screwed up my knee 🥲
This video cracked me up XD. I hope i don't look like that when I drum.
so this is the second video ive seen trying to have a look at his footwork..the camera seems to be intentionally avoiding his feet. does he use a quad pedal?
He uses double strokes on a basic double pedal :)
Check this on the 1.15 mark /watch?v=4_iAqaSRXGc
He uses heel toe and he uses Pearl Demon Drive pedals
You must not have looked very hard. They show his feet many times, the first being at 2:30. Very clear view of his heel-toe technique. Theres quite a few after that as well.
John starts to look like a silverback, with equal powers :)
I study blast drummers a lot, but I am not getting how he is going from a fast blast to an ultra fast rolling blast without his feet moving any faster. is he doing some heel-toe roll or something? because his legs are pumping at the same tempo whether he going fast and when he switches to REALLY fast.
look at 7 mins 40 secs. he is doing little blasts at like 350bpm and his feet are moving like 1/10th the speed. I'm not doubting his talent or precision but that is triggered to hell.
Charles Ayala yeah, might be heel-toe... I think its not triggered as hell. take a really close look at the section starting in 0:51 : you see the kick beater comin back really far from the head. so he keeps playin with a lot of power also on the higher tempo levels.
I think I figured out his technique, its pretty clear in that section (0:51):
he plays a heel-toe technique, but not the classic RRLL thing, but a simple RLRL thing:
he does one beat with the RIGHT by putting the heel down, the second by doing the same with the LEFT, than hes putting the RIGHT heel up, which creates another beat and finally hes doing the same with the LEFT to get the last hit. so everytime he drops and lifts one foot, he does actually two strokes. remembering the pattern (RLRL) should make that clear.
check out this vid, its pretty good explained there!
Strange Double Bass Foot Technique explained!
BrownBear96 hm... after seeing this vid I think hes using the normal heel toe technique with doubles (RRLL): Origin - Saligia (New Song) - John Longstreth - Filmed June 22, 2011
I watched another vid of his where you can really tell the difference when he goes REALLY fast his knees do not swing up as high....which is natural and normal. but this vid is still perplexing.
51 seconds is good example of what I'm referring to. there is no leg throw height or stomp difference between when he is alternating between fast and REALLY fast.
Fucking awesome! the king of brutality!
what shirt does he wear? i love the backprint
What text is?
I cant read it complete
doubles with his feet...
and that person that relates the two actually exists?
at this point why the dislike button even exist...
Alright, now that we have proved John can't do anything without triggers: Let's take away the distortion on the guitar! And from now on, Jason has to do clean vocals. Bass will be left out completely, of course.
it would've made more sense to start the 'silent wall of death' when they collided
well, he use a regal tip 5AX
Your "opinion" is founded on the flawed belief that GK could play any louder than Longstreth at speeds like these... which nobody could. But actually, double strokes move the beater further back than singles at 280+ bpm, Kollias is just too stubborn to play otherwise.
he's not leaving origin. He is playing with Gorguts for the album and a tour.
really?
:)
Bassdrumming like that is cheating, he would have sound even better without that shit attached!
+DrPhatBeats You can't cheat in music, other than outright stealing someone elses msuic. That's like saying the gain and distortion on a guitar is cheating. It doesn't make any sense.
+DrPhatBeats Try to cheat this way and then we will see what cheating and what is not. Everybody knows to criticise, but to try it first at those speeds and then be a master is a bit more difficult way. Try it and then be a clever guy...
+hingeslevers Hear Hear!
A so good drummer, so far away from the crowd. What a pity.
If Seth Rogan was a drummer.
i have a feeling that in 5-10 years we'll laugh at his cam duct taped to his
tricky bass pedals
No Origin without Longstreth.
Always a Cringe Master singer.
4:04 mid-blast stick drop & recovery
guys, every drummer is cheating. we all know that it's way harder to hit two rocks together! drum sticks and the skin of a drum head are obviously just cop out ways of cheating so you can go faster!
watch?v=Dklq7fodAmY#t=00m30s
J. Read is proof that fast drumming without triggers is possible
1.) Great band and really solid drummer, but:
2.) That's not that fast, maybe 200 bpm, compared to this 260-270ish
3.) The argument was never that "fast drumming without triggers is impossible" but rather that fast double bass past 220 bpm w/o triggers is inaudible... which it is.
bass drum is fake!!!
What is this....it can't be drumming....
Hahah .. I may be slightly stoned, but that heel-toe posture, heel-toe technique, heel-toe stroke-strength and finger twiddle sticking looks gay as hell! Haha! From in front of the stage it sounds like a sped-up wheel measure that has a little plastic click every meter and SO BRUTAL! Then you watch the band up close from back-stage and there isn't a wild beast behind the drums, there's a gentleman fluffing pillows and playing some sort of video game with great conviction! I wonder what a mighty nintedo warrior like him might sound like with just microphones on his bass drum. Or would that reality just be too confusing, ugly and Metal for all these Techno Rock kids, their gore t-shirts and madly unrealistic beliefs and expectations in Technically Fantasy Death Metal?
+bloopyist Just microphones would sound pretty cool, though significantly less powerfull. I have tremendous respect for this drummer. His technical abilities are amazing.
so in short, you don't like triggers. then throw away all your metal cd's and go listen unplugged stuff