From the world of metal ～Metal guitarists just talk about their favorite metal drummers～

As the profile below the article tells you, I am also a guitarist. When I listen to music, I usually listen to melody and the guitars. But when I listen to metal, I love to listen to the drums because I tend to be more conscious of the drums in metal. At a time when minimalist drum sets are often touted, building a huge drum set and beating out a phrase with a momentum similar to that of an athlete makes me weak in the knees. That's why I don’t really have anything to promote with this article, but I will instead introduce my favorite metal drummers!

■ MINATO（ex-DEAD END）/ SERAFINE

DEAD END has had a great influence on later metal, Visual-Kei, with its musicality that goes beyond the usual scope of heavy metal. The first time I came across Dead End was in 2009 when they had just reunited. I think that MINATO was the first metal drummer I really liked before I actually started listening to metal.

■ Mike Mangini（Dream Theater）/ The Looking Glass

In 2010, he became known as the drummer who joined Dream Theater by having the best audition. Prior to Dream Theater, he also played in the Steve Vai band. When it comes to Dream Theater, many people think fondly of Mike Portnoy, but by the time I started listening to metal, he had already left. So for me, Mangini comes up as one of my favorite drummers. Even though I'm a guitarist, I really like Cannon Toms because of him.

■ Aquiles Priester（ex-Angra, Hangar）/ Spread Your Fire

A drummer who was part of Angra, the treasure of Brazilian melodic power metal, from 2000 to 2009. His powerful drumming and his use of cymbals, especially the polyrhythmic cup, are my personal favorite points. He’s a drummer who plays a lot of notes with a flashy feel, but the phrases respond to songs and the melodies are very metal-like.

■ FUMIYA（Unlucky Morpheus, NekoManju）/ CADAVER

The Unlucky Morpheus drummer that was previously featured in Doujin Metal. In the past, he was also with bands like UNDEAD CORPORATION, Thousand Eyes, and GALNERYUS. One of the features of his playing style is to use a lot of cymbals, especially bells and splashes. He’s a drummer with a solid characteristic sound that can be easily recognized as FUMIYA upon listening to the music of any of the bands he has played in.

The above four metal drummers were chosen by a metal guitarist writer. I just made a list of the guys who I came up with first, so there were almost no drummers from extreme genres… that can be reserved for another time. At the start, I wrote that I loved metal drummers who use multi-piece sets, and as I watched the videos again, I felt again that "multi-piece sets are beautiful". This is also a metal-head aesthetic, but I like it. They’re chaotic and shiny… so beautiful’

On June 19th, during the writing of this article, the passing of DEAD END guitarist Adachi “YOU” Yuji was announced on the band's official website. As I was listening to the Dead End song for writing this, I couldn't say anything about the obituary… I just felt lonely. As a composer and as a guitarist, he was a wonderful artist with unparalleled originality and taste. I am one of those who was greatly influenced by his performances. Rest in Peace.