Everything about Dave Lombardo totally explained
Dave Lombardo (born
February 16,
1965 in
Havana,
Cuba) is a
heavy metal drummer best known for his work with
American thrash metal band
Slayer. He has performed with Slayer on six albums, including their 2006 release
Christ Illusion, for which he received critical praise. and earned him the title "the godfather of double bass" from Drummer World. Over his career, he's had a significant influence on the metal scene, and has inspired many modern metal drummers.
With his new-found hobby Lombardo asked his parents for drum lessons. His parents accepted, however, the lessons lasted only one week as Lombardo got bored of the repetitiveness of constantly learning how to hit the drum left and right. After leaving music lessons, Lombardo's friends exposed him to the
disco genre, where he partied and became a temporary DJ for a mobile disc jockey under the name of A Touch of Class. Due to him arriving home at 4:00AM, his parents threatened to put him in a military school. Lombardo later said that disco music showed him "the effects of rhythm on the body". During Slayer's 1986 "Reign in Pain" tour to promote the album
Reign in Blood, Lombardo left the band and stated "I wasn't making any money. I figured if we were gonna be doing this professionally, on a major label, I wanted my rent and utilities paid". convinced him to return in 1987.
Lombardo recorded drums on the Slayer albums
South of Heaven (1988) and
Seasons in the Abyss (1990), although in 1992, Lombardo left Slayer again due to conflicts with band members and his refusal to tour. He desired to witness the birth of his first child and gave the band members nine months notice of his wife's pregnancy and said he'd be unable to tour in September. He received a phone call from Kerry King; "Dave, big shows comin' up in September..." and refused the offer, although the band members said it would be detrimental to their career if they did not. In a 1998 interview Lombardo stated; "I still hear shit. Even to this day I hear echoes of stuff Kerry says and Kerry was the only one I ever had a problem with...."
Grip Inc.
Following the birth of his first child in 1993, Lombardo formed
Grip Inc. with
Voodoocult guitarist
Waldemar Sorychta.
The pair recruited bassist Jason Viebrooks and vocalist Gus Chambers to complete the line-up, releasing their debut record in 1995. Entitled
Power of Inner Strength, the album was distributed via California-based label
Metal Blade Records. Prior to the album's release Lombardo described leaving Slayer as a career low, because he didn't know what type of music to play. Sorychta asserts critics and music fans always spot mistakes in their music, because of Lombardo's popularity with Slayer – expecting the band to sound like Slayer and complain.
The band released
Nemesis in 1997; Jeffries praised Lombardo's "crushing drum work" which takes center stage on the album. Bassist Viebrooks left the band and was replaced by Stuart Caruthers in 1999. With a new bassist, the band released
Solidify that same year, which was described as a step towards "progressive and exotic
rhythms,
structures, and instrumentations, while never compromising intensity" by Jeffries. Lombardo was once again praised for his drumming on the album by Jeffries, who stated his style is "expressive and technically excellent
tom work on cuts like "Bug Juice" and "Lockdown". Lombardo is proud of Grip Inc. and believes it made him more creative as a musician.
Fantômas
In 1998, Lombardo joined a side project called
Fantômas with former
Faith No More vocalist
Mike Patton. The band formed when Lombardo attended a Faith No More concert and was approached by Patton concerning his "fusion" project (Grip Inc.). Several months later following the break-up of Faith No More, Lombardo received a phone call from Patton who asked if Lombardo would like to join his own fusion project. Lombardo accepted and replied "Fuck yeah!"
Lombardo asserted it was the hardest music he's played, saying "Slayer doesn't even come close. Slayer was hard in a physical way, but this is physically demanding as well and requires 'feeling'. (The kind of connectedness that demands) no clicking of sticks." The drummer described the sound of Fantômas by stating "if
Picasso was a musician, this would be his music."
In 2005 Lombardo recorded
Drums of Death with
DJ Spooky. Spooky played some records, with Lombardo playing along and interpreting his own rhythms. Spooky recorded the session and took the tapes to his New York recording studio, downloaded it onto his computer, and mixed the beats and drums incorporating
scratching and other DJ techniques. Scott Peace-Miller of
Glide Magazine gave the album, noting, "Lombardo's influence is front and center in the driving, up tempo "Quantum Cyborg Drum Machine," and the almost straight-up thrash of Kultur Krieg."
Lombardo recorded five tracks with the Finnish
classical heavy metal group
Apocalyptica on their 2004 album
Reflections. Members of Apocalyptica had approached Lombardo at a drum clinic in
Holland titled "Headbangers fest", Slayer guitarist Hanneman wanted him to return, while Lombardo believed King had his reservations following his negative review of Lombardo playing with Testament. Initially, King didn't think of Lombardo as a candidate and believed Lombardo wouldn't be able to perform to a satisfactory level. However, King was 'blown away' by Lombardo in rehearsals stating "he's got the feet and he's got the hands, he's not missing a step". Slayer needed a drummer to replace
Paul Bostaph, who left the band because of a chronic elbow injury.
Lombardo accepted to resume drumming duties and toured with Slayer as part of
Ozzfest, H82k2, Summer Tour, and the 2004
Download Festival. While preparing for the Download Festival in England,
Metallica drummer
Lars Ulrich was hospitalized for a mysterious illness. While fans were pleased with Jordison and Lombardo's performance, many fans walked away disappointed after waiting over 90 minutes with no announcement of the delay, and the hour long set, which was deemed short. Lombardo recorded his final album to date with Grip Inc. in 2004,
Incorporated. He asserts the band is on the 'back burner', because of time taken up touring with Slayer. Slayer bassist
Tom Araya said, "It's kind of right back where we started. He's an amazing performer. We took off right where we left off, you know? It's like he was never gone. He's working with Kerry on his tunes. He's helped out a lot actually!"
While
Christ Illusion received mixed reviews, Lombardo's return was praised by critics. Chris Steffen of
Rolling Stone asserted "
Christ Illusion is
God Hates Us All without the memorable riffs, at least their awesome drummer Dave Lombardo shows off some chops, particularly on the raging "Supremist". Don Kaye of
Blabbermouth gave the album a mediocre review, although praised Lombardo. Kaye wrote, "One thing's for sure: Lombardo's influence on this band is absolutely undeniable. With no disrespect to
Paul Bostaph, a fine drummer (and
Jon Dette, who also did some work with the group in the mid-Nineties), Lombardo is simply essential to the Slayer sound. He is one of metal's all-around best drummers, perhaps the very best in the field of thrash /speed metal, and his power, style, and chops — not to mention his intangible chemistry with the rest of the group and those amazing flying feet — bring Slayer's overall performance, intensity and music to a higher level".
Style and equipment
Lombardo is known for his fast, aggressive style of play utilizing the
double bass technique which has earned him the title "the godfather of double bass" by Drummerworld. Additionally to him as an influence,
Arch Enemy drummer Daniel Erlandsson feels Lombardo is "really tasteful in his playing, and doesn't over play. Yeah, he's pretty tasteful. He's gifted with a groove that not many speed metal, or metal drummers generally, have."
"Have you every seen the movie The Natural? That's Dave. He doesn't have to try to be good. He comes into the venue 10 or 15 minutes before we hit the stage and he doesn't warm up. He just goes and does it, after me and Jeff [Hanneman,guitarist] have been warming up for like an hour."
Lombardo has used a TAMA drum set since he was fourteen, first purchasing a TAMA Swingstar and a Paiste cymbal package sold at
Guitar Center.
Per Möller Jensen of
The Haunted cites Lombardo as a major influence, having grown up listening to Slayer; the band was a big influence on his style and The Haunted's.
Suffocation drummer
Mike Smith also cites Lombardo as an influence.
Richard Christy, former member of
Death was "blown away" by Dave's performance and double bass on the album
Reign in Blood, as was
Cannibal Corpse drummer
Paul Mazurkiewicz. Ray Herrera of the band
Fear Factory cites Lombardo as one of his major influences, as do
Pete Sandoval of
Morbid Angel, ex-
Cradle of Filth drummer
Adrian Erlandsson,
Joey Jordison of
Slipknot,,
The Rev of
Avenged Sevenfold, and
Krisiun drummer
Max Kolesne. Patrick Grün of
Caliban was inspired to play drums by Lombardo, while
Jason Bittner of
Shadows Fall was particularly inspired by Lombardo's double bass, utilizing double bass when starting his own music career.
Discography
Further Information
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