Blast beat

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A blast beat is a drum beat, primarily used in forms of extreme metal, made with rapid alternating or coinciding strokes primarily on the bass and snare drum. Diverse patterns and timings are also frequently used by more technical players, such as Gene Hoglan (Strapping Young Lad/Dark Angel), Alex Hernandez (Immolation), or Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy). Alternative styles of blast beats include using a two strokes on bass drum followed by one stroke of the snare drum, such as played by Pete Sandoval (Terrorizer, Morbid Angel), or using scarce strokes on the bass drum, which are frequently played by Max Duhamel (Kataklysm).

[edit] History

Blast beats have their roots in hardcore punk, most notably D.R.I's "No Sense" on their first LP (1983) and Beastie Boys "Riot Fight" on their first EP, Pollywog Stew (1982). Other examples include Heart Attack, Cryptic Slaughter and Lärm. Blast beats were, however, first used in jazz by drummers such as Angelo Spampinato, Tony Williams, and Sunny Murray in particular his 1964 Greenwich Village recording of "Holy Ghost" with Albert Ayler. They are a prominent feature of power violence, thrashcore, crust punk, grindcore, death metal, and black metal, although blast beats do appear in other genres as well to increase speed, density, and percussiveness.

The original use in metal music is generally attributed to Dave 'Grave' Hollingshead (Repulsion), Charlie Benante (Anthrax, SOD). Grave received most of the credit for the "single footer." Benante showcased the technique by a double-handed blast beat in the track "Milk" on the SOD album Speak English or Die, later played single-handed on the live album Live at Budokan. Although even earlier usage dates back to demos by Death from 1984, with drummer and vocalist Kam Lee (who also pioneered the death growl vocal style) showcasing usage in songs such as Reign Of Terror and Curse Of The Priest. Members from Repulsion (back when they were known as Genocide) temporarily joined Death in 1985, so it's been speculated that they started their trademark widespread usage after first hearing it during their short tenure with Death.

A major influence on the evolution of the blast beat was Napalm Death's first drummer Mick Harris. Harris started using it as a fundamental aspect of Napalm Death's early musical compositions. As perhaps the most important of innovations, Mike Smith of New York death metal group Suffocation invented and pioneered the technique of a blast beat that is played with the snare and bass drum synchronized and the cymbals on the off beat, as opposed to the original form, which most attribute to Napalm Death's Mick Harris, where the snare drum alternates with the bass drum and cymbal.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Characteristics

Early blast beats were generally quite slow and less precise compared to today's standards. Nowadays, a blast beat is normally played in tempos from 180 beats per minute upwards, with so-called "hyper blasts" existing in the range of 280-300 bpm (or even higher). There is also the "gravity blast", which implements a one-handed roll, called a gravity roll. This technique uses the rim of the snare as a fulcrum on which the stick is rocked back and forth, allowing two snare hits with each full arm motion (one on the down motion, and another coming up, essentially doing the work of two hands with only one).

Typical blast beats consist of 8th-note patterns between both the bass and snare drum alternately, with the hi-hat or the ride synced. Variations exist such as displacing hi-hat/ride, snare and bass drum hits and/or using other cymbals such as splashes, crashes, chinas and even tambourines for accenting, for example when using odd time or playing progressively. While playing 8th or 8th note triplets some drummers choose to play in sync with one foot while others split the 8th notes between both feet.

Examples of blast beat notation:

H- x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|   H- x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|   H- x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|   R- x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
S- o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|   S- -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o|   S- o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|   S- oooooooooooooooo|
B- o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|   B- o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|   B- oooooooooooooooo|   B- o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-|

Recorded samples of the notated drumtabs