Seriously, an impossible list to make. The amount of top tier drummers in the death metal genre is unbelievable.

Pete "The Commando" Sandval is just an honorable mention?? He is THE godfather of death metal drumming...The biggest influence of all etreme metal drummers. Pete Sandoval,Gene Hoglan and Sean Reinert (Rest in Peace,Sean...) They are the holy trinity of Death Metal drumming.

The accident that destroyed the original Decapitated was so tragic. They were literal children when their first album came out. It'd be insane to think how far they'd push death metal if they were able to develop their sound and techniques. That being said, Hoglan will always be my top 1. The work he did with Death and SYL can't be understated, and the fact that he's still blasting eardrums today is testament to his longevity and timelessness.

Damn what John Longstreth said at the end about respecting the technique choices other players use because what makes playing music interesting is that we all do it a bit differently is hugely inspirational to me. I'm a drummer who's been playing for 10 years now and just started trying to learn guitar also but I still see myself at the start of my journey on drums too as there is so much to learn, and experience to get - in techniques and with playing in a live setting which isn't something I have much experience in, at least on a traditional drum kit. I can spend hours on KZfaq watching so many other drummers that are far better and skilled than I am, some almost half my age which can be disillusioning especially with genres like metal where technical playing is really admired. But hearing a successful pro musician saying that it's OK, whatever your doing it's your unique way of doing it that makes it interesting really inspires me to keep going, learning, practicing and writing music and hopefully one day I can be in that position to inspire someone else.

Shit Sean Reinhardt did this as a kid. Human one of best albums and drum albums of all time! RIP Sean!

Mr. Sandoval should be in the top 10 as he is one of the pioneers in death metal. Happy to see Jaime Saint Merat get some recognition as well.

Definitely worth mentioning a few years ago Gorguts and Origin toured together and John played for both bands at the time and played double sets

Ah don’t forget Ringo Starr

F. Paoli needed some kind of feature, his ability to do tricks while blasting at a high speed is phenomenal. John Longstreth George Kollias Gene Hoglan Derek Roddy

No Richard christy? Sickest beats ever. A beast

Jaime Saint Merat deserves more than just a honorable mention. He approach drum work as a kind of poetry (while keeping extreme, of course). So good you talked about Longstreth - a perfect example of a musician who most of time have to be a drum machine, but still keeps his talent alive. Well, he said the exact thing here.

This was the most accurate of these metal lists I've been watching lately by far. I still disagree with some of it but it's not an easy thing to put together

Mike Smith practiced on my drum set once and it's the loudest music I have ever heard. And I've seen Mötorhead live and Obituary tried to implode The House of Blues once. Unreal power on the drums.

What I like about this Top 10 is that you explain why the persons on the list are on that list and that you put bits of interviews into the video. That makes it easy to follow the argumentation of the list.

I just wanted to say thank you for the amazing compilation, all my favorites drummers are here, and all of them need to be recognized, doesn't matter if they are not in the top 10 or just mentioned, but this is a amazing top. Well done 🤘🏻

I think your list is perfect. Thank you for the hard work that you put into these videos.

Thanks for these videos you helped me discover some new bands I've been missing out on till now so cheers.

Sebastian Lanser of Obscura is one of the most technically precise and musical drummers I've ever seen.

I have been really excited for this video to come :P

amazing list, ofc missing some names, i guess it was hard to leave them, and in this genre there is a lot of godlike drummers, so ill name a few that actually inspire me but I feel that deserve some recognition.- Tim Yeung, Nick Barker, Alex Rüdinger, Jon Rice, Sebastian Lanser, Gus Rios and Martín Lopez

I've been waiting for this for so long and now I'm happy

Thank you for the upload was waiting for this

Very cool. Hoglan and Reinert always hold up high on my list because of what Death meant to me. I saw Archspire open for Origin in a club in NJ, in front of an audience of like 10 people plus the other opening bands a couple years ago. To be that up close and personal with such musical master craftsmen was epic for me. Spencer and John were both on fire that night as usual.

Thanks for mentioning suffocation,morbid angel, and cryptopsy

Jamie St. Merat of Ulcerate should absolutely have a spot in these videos. His drumming is so unique and really adds this incredible dimension to Ulcerate’s sound. His speed and technicality are in the same league as most of these guys, but his cymbal work and tom fills are unbelievable. For me, he is one of those musicians where you can instantly recognize their style. Mike Portnoy is a great example of that. He developed this sound with Dream Theater that was so iconic. That is more important to me than anything having to do with technical prowess. Does that make sense to anybody? It seems a little convoluted as I thinking about it more.

I was waiting for part 2 for a long time... Very good videos!

always a pleasure to hear kris here narrating the scene. yer pickin' up right where ya left off. sweet deal. so fit these in whenev possible. i'll get witcha.

Frickin sick vid!!! Guy narrorating must really luv his Metal. Cheers/Hails to DM drummers! A thousand thank yous Sir...

I have seen Pete Sandoval perform his soundcheck once and I am still in shock. It was 22 years ago.

I've seen John Longstrength and Francesco Paoli both live and I have to say that Paoli blew my mind. In my opinion he would be #1 in the top 10 list. Both artists are fantastic and I spent hundreds on merch to support the bands.

Perfect time dude!!!i just watched your first video and suscribe ....then you drop this!!!Keep the Great content!!!

Cattle Decapitation's Dave McGraw and Scarab's Amir are two of my favourites :-) Great job on the videos!

lol....pete sandoval only gets an honorable mention? blasphemy!!

Ken Owen was always my fave, especially after hearing Necroticism. The more I listened to Heartwork the more I picked up the little intricacies that you don't sort of hear on the first coupla listens. Much like Bill Steer's guitar work. Such a talent taken down by life's cruelty.

Finally someone recognized John longstreth is one of the best drummers ever he really deserves to be number 1

pete "the feet" sandoval.... honorable mention.... HA!

As long as Jaime Merat got mentioned, I'm cool haha. But seriously... Amazing list and two part vid!

Awesome that you gave Jamie Saint Merat a shout-out! I feel he and John Longstreth have a lot of similarities in how they layer stuff :) Jamie should have been #1 tho. He definitely stands out about the rest in creativity

Absolutely! Inovation, technique and almost everything, John Longstreth..

So many great drummers! I appreciate this list nice job!

Gene Hoglan - 1...SYL

Adam jarvis from Misery Index / pig destroyer definitely earns a spot

Im 3 years late to this video but Tim Yeung deserves to be on the list, his work in Divine Heresy alone put me in awe

Vitek is definitely my favorite, RIP😢😭

You nailed it really, there are soo many great drummer of that style but one that came to mind was richard Christy. He is so under rated and plays such great beats that compliment the music and if bands like death and iced earth don't make you excited, don't know what can haha 😎 I've seen Nile and hate eternal live and it blew my mind the things being done on drums live(part of my mind couldn't even comprehend it, it was so fast bit the time signature also. Like a 3/4 blast beat...very cool. I've played drums for over 20 years and still I'm amazed lol! Thanks for this 👍🤯

Mike Smith, to this day, has some of the hardest hitting blast beats ive heard

You know, death metal drumming is just sick in general.

Just 2 legendary Drummers that you missed, Dave Culross and Richard Christy. Thanks for the video

great video man, keep it up!

Really nice videos! I would like to add Nicke Andersson from Entombed and Death Breath... awesome drummer with an incredible feeling!

Some of my favorites and several I wasn't familiar with. Glad to see Longstreth and Roddy made the list. This could easily be the top 50 drummers and you wouldn't be able to fit in all the talent out there. Great list.

Amazing video, thank you i got plenty new bands and drummers to listen to.

Decent list, there is one drummer that never gets mentioned on death metal drummer lists, Dennis "the Menace" Ritchie from Macabre.

Thanks for putting together these two videos. They were great. Still a little said not to see Alex Rudinger from Faceless and Whitechapel as an honorable mention - he's definitely a worldclass drummer.

WINDS OF CREATION R.I.P VITEK

THANK YOU!!! FINALLY JOHN GOT #1 WHERE HE DESERVES TO BE!!! Every drummer on this list is freaking amazing!! Dave McGraw is also bad ass and let’s not forget the beast from BENEATH THE MASSACRE!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand SPENCER PREWITT OF ARCHSPIRE!!!

Interesting video some talented drummers out there ,a bit surprised Steve Asheim wasn’t included!

Totally agree with number one. John is just out of this world.

I love those Meinl Classic Custom Dark cymbals John Longstreth is playing! Beautiful looking and killer sounding cymbals.

I can 100% get behind this list! I had the pleasure of talking with John Longstreth and watched one of his clinics while standing right next to him.

Mike Smith (for being one of the pioneers of this modern sound we have today) should be in top 3 Vitek (for being so talented at such a young age and bringing back more tech/prog/math styles to metal RIP) should have been in top 10 for sure

You can't fit everyone's favourite drummer in a list, but one I missed was Peter Wildoer. He's my favourite drummer, only just behind Mike Portnoy and Bill Bruford, but with as much chops and skill. Much more than just a metal drummer!

Pete sandoval is the number 1 death metal drummer, as he brought most of the extreme drumming techniques to the forefront of metal. Prior to altars of madness, there were almost no other drummers doing those things, especially at those speeds, for the time... If it wasn't for pete, we wouldn't have sean, or john, or anybody else.

So glad to see KRIMH on here! Hes a beast!

Lord Marco and Pete Sandoval! Wow! And all the other great drummers! Yeah!

Soooooooo good thanks..a lot of talent in these musicians

Sean Reinert deserves n. 1 spot. His groove, dynamics and expressivity simply put him way above any death metal drummer, period.

Rip Vitek 😥

ADAM JARVIS of MISERY INDEX, PIG DESTROYER, FULGORA, SCOUR, etc..... Keep up the amazing work AJ!!!!!

Alex Rüdinger Mario Duplantier Hannes Grossman Spencer Prewitt Dave McGraw Just a few names I feel are worth mentioning in no particular order :)

I don’t know any of these bands but I watched part one and two of this. I don’t like death or speed metal tbh. But the skill that these guys posses is outrageous. These guys are the best of the best. What they do looks exhausting. All of them are technical and creative beasts.

Such a good list Don't forget to mention Kevin Talley in part 3 😉

Very cool man

Maciej Daren Kowalski from band Mgła, I would mention. Btw, seems to be lot of Polish in death metal ^^

I was about to say where is Thomas Haake then I realised it was Death metal and not just metal, I know Meshuggah is Extreme metal that must be why he is not on here ....He is a beast.

Pete Sandoval Derek Roddy George Kollias Flo Mounier John Longstreth Adam Jarvis *** Romain Goulon *** Alex Marquez *** Nick Barker *** Steve Asheim *** They are my top 10 death metal drummers.

Johns' the man indeed! he gave the world the doubles technique and so many memorable grooves that many drummers borrow, like ken bedene.

I agree with the list , maybe in a different order . Also Tony Laureno maybe because he was also a innovator. I love that you put Mike Smith and all the guys who brought it to the next level .

Very nice videos, both part 1 and 2. Of course people will debate who was left out but more importantly IMO you got the top spot right. John Longstreth is the DM King. Congrats on that one as he’s not as well known as some of the others on your list although he should be just for his talent and style. IMO I’d drop Flo and replace him with Pete Sandoval in the same spot if we’re talking purely about Death Metal.

You placed some of my favs as “honorable mentions”

George is who I learned how to single pedal blast so well from.

My favourite drummers are Hannes Grossman, George Kolias and Dave Haley. And I saw them played live before here in Singapore!!!🤘

Finally a list that has it right. John Longstreth is the fucking best. The most creative death metal drummer.

Cool clip

Lord Marco at the end of honorable mentions. Just my humble opinion. It doesn't get much more technical brutal and in your face and fast as the death metal dad

Thank you for Sean Reinert. He brought technical death metal its drumming sound as only 18 years of age on Death: Human. Also check out the Cynic albums. RIP

Wow what a great video.

'Siebe Hermans' plays for Verwilderd, When Plagues Collide, Reverse the Sun and often does session work. Easily one of the most talented extreme metal drummers in Belgium right now, definitely for his age

The best example of Gene's work for me is the Time Does Not Heal album... look at all the writing credits, its all him, all music, all lyrics, 9 songs, 67 minutes, 246 riffs, he's not only a baddass drummer, he's a badass guitarist

And origin at number 1 can’t argue really keeping that speed for a whole song deserves respect not many drummers can do that

you need to do a similar vid/series with black metal drummers, there are so many incredibly talented drummers in the black metal scene, would be so awesome to see

I challenge the legitimacy of this list for not including Kevin Talley.

I remember seeing Vitek back in the day and he was sick!!!

Great to see Trey Williams getting recognition

Was mike smith showing the diff Btwn alternate strokes and simultaneous strokes? (AKA Suffo blast)

Paul Bostaph from Slayer, and Nick Barker from Dimmu Borgir, cradle of filth, Gorboroth and Immortal too, but its imposible to mention just one there are many old and new that are great, some of them for one thing other's for another. To play death metal professionally, you have to be a great drummer, be in good health, practice a lot, and exercise a lot. This music is very exhausting and demanding when you do it as your profession. But I agree with your list in a way. I only think you should put Pete Sandoval in your main list. He was the inspiration for most of the younger drummers, for speed, technique, acuracy and creativity. He was one, if not the best death metal drummer. Most of the drummers at that time, tried to copy and learn his own style. Igor Cavalera, kind of was missing here too. But great job! 1 of the best tops of musicians I have seen...

Your honorable mentions deserve more of a spot on the main list than who's on there.

PETE SANDOVAL definitively should be on the main list!! If you are interested look into his bio, he was the Godfather of Death Metal, he is amazing! He is the inspiration for most of these younger drummers!

That feeling when you realize you've watched every damn clip played in this video.

Part 3 Please!!