Note Benardo’s left foot
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You may have seen one-man bands – the ones busking in the street – using a setup whereby, via pedals, one foot plays a bass drum and the other foot plays a snare drum.
Fotis Benardo may be the first metal drummer to employ this concept.
The Septicflesh (I still think the spelling change from “Septic Flesh” was stupid) drummer has invented a technique that he calls the “hellblast”. In this interview, he explains it to Hard Rock Mag editor Sven Letourneur:
Fotis, you told me about the “hellblast” on one song. Can you explain this sort of blast beat played with the left foot hammering a vertical snare drum on the floor and the right foot hitting the bass drum? Did you invent this technique?
“Hellblast” is the evolution of an idea I had few years ago. Initially, I started performing this drum technique in gigs, without thinking of using it for recording purposes. It’s basically a variation of the normal “blast-beat”, where the main difference is that the blast is performed by one foot only. Most drummers play blasts using both feet. By doing it with my right foot, I have the opportunity to use my left foot to kick a second snare that is positioned there vertically, exactly like a bass drum. And so I have both of my hands free to play even more notes on the drum kit, making fills without stopping the frenzied beat. After our U.S./Canada tour with Behemoth, where I witnessed the reaction of the crowd to the “hellblast”. I thought that it would be nice to present how it is done and, why not, give the “tip” to new drummers that are looking for some new stuff. I used this technique on the recordings of the song “Apocalypse” and I really like how it sounds…
In other words, Benardo is blasting on a snare using his left foot, leaving both hands free to add other stuff on top. What a cool idea! You can see it in action above, though I’m not sure if you can really hear it. I’m curious what kind of tone Benardo gets with the vertical snare, since a bass drum beater is obviously not a drumstick.
Septicflesh’s new album The Great Mass comes out April 18 in Europe and April 19 in North America. You can stream “The Vampire From Nazareth”, a song from it, here. I really enjoyed their last record Communion and am looking forward to this new one.
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SEPTICFLESH LINKS
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“I’m curious what kind of tone Benardo gets with the vertical snare, since a bass drum beater is obviously not a drumstick.”
There’s a trigger on the vertical snare drum, so it makes whatever sound he wants.
Look at those dudes with corpsepaint in the front row
Apparently Pandiscordian Necrogenesis does a similar thing, but it’s just a snare and bass drum with some guy playing guitar whilst doing so, making it basically a joke. It’s interesting to see this practice actually being taken seriously.
I’ve seen some multiple-pedal setups before — guys like Horacio Hernandez use it a lot for progressive Latin-fusion music, keeping the clave going on the left foot while the other three limbs go off on some crazy stuff. I think Marco Minneman, who used to play for Necrophagist, dicks around with multi-pedal setups too.
But for blastbeats? Haven’t seen that one before. Pretty rad. And yeah Steve’s right about the triggering.
Re: triggering, the person who uploaded this video made this comment on its YouTube page:
He is doing single foot blast BUT instead of the traditionalol way, where someone would use his left arm on the snare, Fotis uses his left foot on a second snare arranged properly to be played with a kick pedal. SO it’s NOT an electric bass drum. Its a snare placed down to be played with the foot. The first idea was to have it triggered, but it turned out to be fine with a mic on the bottom. So actually the trigger is just hooped on the snare but its not actually used.
I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s certainly interesting if it is.
I think they sort of semi-recanted the whole “SepticFlesh” thing, saying it’s still fine to refer to them as two separate words, the logo is just “potrmanteu-d” together.
Nice. Additionally, one look at his fuckin calf muscles shows you where you need to get to. It ain’t easy.
This is an interesting idea. I might have to give this a bash – although as Jason pointed out, those calf muscles – I might have to get down the gym first.
I think that’s ridiculous! Most of those technical drummers don’t have any feeling whatsoever. And honnestly, compared to their output in the 90’s, SF suck in the 00’s. They’re just a bunch of posers nowadays.
Just seems more like a new way to masturbate… doesn’t really sound any different… but props for being the first I guess haha!
that’s why I love Septic Flesh. MAd underrated. Communion was one of the best albums ever, can’t wait for the new shit.
P.S. anyone with corpse paint at a show is mad gay just like Gaahl unless you’re Immortal than it’s cool lol
This is interesting. One of the barriers between me and a lot of bands is overuse of the blastbeat. I always thought it would wear off, kind of like the adjustment to shouted vs. clean vocals, but relying on a blastbeat is in-and-of-itself is no more technical or impressive than Dragonforce’s sweep picking, and it seems to me they’re just too dense and chaotic to hold meaning for prolonged intervals. This however, seems like a clever compromise to hold down a blast as a force or raw power and yet give it some rhythmic context to grasp on to, somewhat bridging the gap between brains and brawn.
Heaviness evolves. Hey, it’s better than tuning to drop F.
I, too, am concerned about posers and the gayness of corpsepaint. These things keep me awake at night.
This feels less like an evolution of technique and more like a gimmick to me. Is there some kind of blastbeat arms race? I’ve always thought it was a technique best employed sparingly, in between slower rhythms as an accent. It feels like part of a larger trend of moving away from songs and toward combinations of “parts”, like “here’s the mosh part, here’s the clean singing part, here’s the blast part”, etc. Right now it seems pretty much confined to shitty deathcore and whatever crap like Attack Attack! is called, but still. I like songs, not “sick blast parts”.
@ Mr. Cliff Evans- You’re right on the money. I’ve been saying the same shit for years. Most of the modern metal songs have no coherent structure, groove or atmosphere to it. It’s all fuckn PARTS. brake down part couple of pig squeals followed by gay, generic emo part.
Metal-core IS NOT METAL. True Metal has a BREATHING SOUL. ( someone’s gonna steal this line for lyrics …watch lol)
as dave Musteine said it… we live in a pro-tools, copy & paste
generation…
I wish someone would record a drummer like Benardo with a high-speed camera sometime. I am hopeless at following along with what he’s doing. Here’s a video of Mike Mangini on Discovery Channel’s “Time Warp” showing what drummers look like when technology reduces them to sane speeds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Gxut0odyc
Skip to 1:20 for the first regular time / slow-mo section. Stick around until the end for a wild look at how drum heads and cymbals really move when struck.
blitzable – That’s an amazing video! I recommend that everyone look at it. Thanks for sharing!
two things to point out:
# 1 – check out Neil Garthly ’s pedal set up, sorry but he totally pwns this black metal guy
#2 – ” the trigger isnt used its just hanging there” thats hysterical