DrumTHRONE: Kevin Talley

Kevin Talley is a legend in the underground metal scene and the dude is only 33 years old. He joined Dying Fetus when he was a teenager in 1998 and has been pummeling his way across the metal world ever since. Keeping track of the all the bands Kevin has played with over his career would require a graphing calculator and a coffee break but lets just say he's played with A LOT of top notch metal bands throughout the 2000's and it's safe to say he's made all of them better for it.

So Kevin first made a name for himself in Dying Fetus. I already gushed about the mighty Fetus in a previous Crunch Time post HERE, but long story short, Kevin's drumming on their 2000 album, Destroy The Opposition, is phenomenal. This is the record that put Mr. Talley on everyone's radar. After this he (and 3/4 of the Fetus dudes) jumped ship and formed Misery Index. Here's a clip of Kevin recording Misery Index's 2004 EP, Dissent.

In case you didn't notice from the video above, Kevin Talley plays drums like a fucking mad man. He hits loud and hard. I remember watching his instructional DVD and he said he never uses double strokes, always sticks with singles because he wants the maximum amount of power from his hits. Well, mission accomplished buddy. The last time I saw Kevin play was with Six Feet Under on this past summer's, er,  Summer Slaughter Tour and man he straight up demolished those drums. 

So Kevin is renowned for his creative grooves (especially in Dying Fetus where it sounded like he was playing Hip Hop beats sometimes), speed (Misery Index) and rock solid timing (Chimaira). He's also kind of like the #1 hired gun drummer in the extreme metal world. I watched him play for both The Red Chord and The Black Dahlia Murder (filling in for their MIA drummers) in ONE night. The drummer from Hate Eternal quit the band before a major European tour, they called Kevin and he learned their entire set in 8 hours. The drummer from Devildriver gets food poisoning...they call Kevin and he hops a plane, learns the set in 3 hours and plays their show that night. 


Perhaps the coolest thing about Kevin Talley, at least in my book, is that he auditioned for Slayer back in 2002 and pretty much NAILED it. He was the top pick before Dave Lombardo (founding member of Slayer and DrumTHRONE honoree) rejoined the band that year. How amazing is it that this dude leaves home at age 18, becomes a professional musician and not only has a thriving career playing with Dying Fetus, Misery Index, Chimaira, Daath and now Six Feet Under, but he basically was accepted into Slayer. SLAYER man! All this and he's barely in his early 30's. Talley is living the dream.