Thrash metal legends: Dave Lombardo

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Dave Lombardo has always been associated with percussion instruments and the world-famous band Slayer, one of the big four founders of the thrash metal style of music. However, there is much more to his life and creative career.

Who is Dave Lombardo?

Certainly, Dave Lombardo is one of the most influential drummers in the history of heavy music. His style of playing drums, at the beginning of his career, that today, remains very original and absolutely unique. Speed, skill and aggression are the main distinguishing features of his style.

Of course, Dave Lombardo, pictured above, is positioned more as the drummer for Slayer. No wonder, because it was he, along with Carrie King, the late Jeff Hanneman and Tom Araya, who stood at the origins of the ascent of the legendary group. But at one time, conflicts arose in the team every now and then, and Dave left the main team several times. But he managed to work with no less famous bands, whose names are inscribed in golden letters in the history of heavy music.

Dave Lombardo: biography

Butit was not always so. Many do not know that the future "godfather of double bass drums", named such a title by the prestigious publication Drummer World, was born on February 16, 1965 in Havana. Although he did not even think of becoming a professional musician as a child, nevertheless, like many young people of his generation, he was brought up on the music of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. But it was Led Zeppelin that had the primary influence on young Dave.

When he was five or six years old, he enjoyed banging on empty matchboxes, trying to play along with his favorite band. At the age of twelve, his passion grew into the fact that he became a member of his first band, called Escape. It was far from professionalism, and rather it could be called something like a hobby. In addition, Dave's parents began to notice that the guy's interest in music had clearly increased and apart from it he was not interested in anything, although in his circles, along with a group that sometimes performed under the name Sabotage, he became a fairly well-known person. At that time, his playing style was also influenced by another well-known band - Kiss, whose fan was young Dave Lombardo.

So everything would have remained just a hobby, but in 1981 there was a meeting with Carrie King, which predetermined the fate of Dave. At that time, King hooked up with Hanneman in hopes of putting together a new band and brought in bassist Tom Araya, with whom he had previously played on the same team. Dave Lombardo got into the first team quite by accident. At the time he was workingas a pizza delivery man and was just fulfilling an order for King, who told Dave that he plays the guitar and collects a new line-up. After an audition, Lombardo was accepted. This is how Slayer appeared with his energetic satanic music, although Satanism can be called more of an outward manifestation or outrageousness of the band, and not a belief or some kind of serious hobby, like the current representatives of black metal.

Since then, his professional career has been going on for over thirty years. He's achieved so much that it's no surprise that Classic Rock magazine ranked him 6 on their list of the Greatest Drummers of All Time.

Discography (excerpts)

It was with Slayer that Dave Lombardo became famous. The band's discography with him includes 7 full-length studio albums, not counting the huge number of world tours.

Among the albums recorded with the main line-up of Slayer, it is especially worth noting Show No Mercy, Hell Awaits, Reign In Blood, South Of Heaven, Seasons In The Abyss, etc. It is noteworthy that Dave Lombardo left the main line-up several times. For example, after recording the 1986 album Reign In Blood, Dave left for the first time, seemingly due to financial differences, but returned in 1988 to record Seasons In The Abyss. He next left the group in 1992 and started his own project called Grip Inc. Despite all this, cooperation with the Slayer group was periodically renewed between 2003 and 2013 with some interruptions. However, at the beginning of 2013year it was officially announced that Dave Lomabrdo was finally fired from the team. The reason was still the same - financial disagreements.

Interesting facts from life

However, Lombardo never despaired, although he considered himself a too shy person (but not on stage). He managed to work with such giants of thrash metal as Testament, having recorded the sensational album The Gathering (1999) with the group as a session musician. From 2003 to 2010 he was involved in the recording of several Apocaliptica albums, did not stop working with the Fantomas collective, not to mention how much time he spent in the studio with other musicians compiling teaching materials about his own drumming school or on the set, where he participated in the filming of documentaries and serials. And in 2013, he took part in the recording of musical material along with the legendary Brazilian team Sepultura.

It's also interesting that Dave's son, Jeremy, decided to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious father and already at school age created the Rain Falls Gray band, which gravitates more towards the metal core style. Like his father, Jeremy plays drums.

But the most surprising thing is that Dave Lombardo is left-handed, but he was forced to study drums as a right-hander (his teacher did not want to take the young man to study). Actually, now the musician does not make a difference on stage, although he admits that playing “on the left side” is both more convenient and more interesting for him.

Instead of afterword

This is the lifethrash metal legend Dave Lomabrdo. Many drummers have a lot to learn from him. Maybe, he does not abuse the variety of rhythmic patterns, like the same Lars Ulrich from Metallica, but his aggression and technique of performing any composition are at such a high level that many can simply envy. And isn't that one of the main hallmarks of heavy music?