Story Photo:
Atmosphere - Wacken Open Air 2016
WACKEN, GERMANY - AUGUST 04: (EDITOR'S NOTE: This image has been converted from color to black and white) 27 year-old Mark from Randers, Denmark, stands dressed as Santa Claus during the Wacken Open Air festival on August 4, 2016 in Wacken, Germany. Wacken is a village in northern Germany with a population of 1,800 that has hosted the annual festival, which attracts heavy metal fans from around the world, since 1990. (Photo by Alexander Koerner/Getty Images)
SOME SAY THIS THE FIRST HEAVY METAL DRUM SOLO EVER
A classic video of Duke Ellington drummer Louie Bellson shows what might be the birth of the blastbeat.
in the video below, Bellson is performing a drum solo on the track The Hawk Talks, an upbeat track that begs for a lot of insane drum work. And while Louie is kind of a maniac the whole time — the dude is an energetic tour de force on the drums — it’s only around a minute and a half in, which the band breaks and he gets a chance to go nuts — does Bellson go full metal. Most notable is his use of double-bass drumming and his tireless rapping on the snare, which, when coupled, are what metal fans known as the blastbeat.
THOUGHTS?