DrumTHRONE: John Longstreth

The Aftermath

John Longstreth is the king of death metal drumming. I'd use more encapsulating terms like "extreme music" or what have you but according to this post on moderndrummer, he hates that. Either way, John is the end all, be all of this shit plain and simple. Speed, precision, technical chops, groove and originality, the man is unstoppable behind the kit and worst of all...he makes it all look so damned easy.

Longstreth's primary focus these days is his band Origin. He's also a member of Gorguts and Dim Mak and has previously worked with Angelcorpse and Skinless. It's ironic that I first became aware of Longstreth's playing in the mid 2000's when Origin's album Echoes of Decimation was coming out and it was during this period that Longstreth had actually quit the band. All the hype for their new release and hearing about "gravity blasts" every 5 seconds made me curious what the hell Origin was so I checked out their previous album and was exposed to Longstreth's insane playing.

John was one of the first metal drummers to incorporate "the free hand technique" (a one handed drum roll explained HERE by Johnny Rabb) into his blast beat repertoire and helped pioneer the gravity blast:

Perhaps the most inspiring/frightening thing about Longstreth is his versatility. Sure, he can just rip through insane double bass speeds and gravity blast until the cows come home if he wanted, but in recent years, John has begun incorporating all the more grooves into his playing. Origin's last two albums are chock-full all sorts of tasty latin/jazz inspired rolls and ride cymbal attacks. Not to mention, the typewriter from hell double bass playing. Yes it seems that with every new album John is somehow getting faster and faster. This is probably due to him constantly challenging himself. Longstreth never seems to settle and is always changing things up behind the kit. Like literally always changing his drum setup on every tour. He has also pioneered yet another technique that is bound to shake up the extreme mu....er, death metal drumming world: his double stroke foot technique.

Here's an old video of John playing with Origin 6 years ago:

notice his tilted snare drum and odd looking posture. This was when John played heels down and needed all that space to leverage his body into hitting those speeds.

Flash forward to 2008 and Longstreth ditches his unique heels down approach and now plays double strokes with his feet (RR LL). Not heel toe, or slide or swivel, straight up double strokes. I remember seeing Origin in 2010 and standing directly to the side of Longstreth. I'd never seen anything like his double strokes before.


So there it is. John Longstreth, my favorite death metal drummer...and not just because I caught one of his drum sticks @ 2009's Summer Slaughter tour either =p

*BONUS LONGSTRETH OVERDOSE CLIP*