[Pete H]

I know there are several brilliant jazz drummers, but I haven't listened to jazz that much that I'd be able to say any opinions.

I'll have to go with a metal drummer and I haven't seen/heard anyone better than Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Grip Inc, Testament, Fantomas, Voodoocult).

When Dave was in Slayer back in the day (he left in the early 90's) I never saw 'em live and only thought that he's great drummer on the same level with Igor Cavalera (Sepultura) and some other best drummers in metal.

Lombardo came back to Slayer few years ago and I saw 'em on their first tour in 2002.

Dave's performance topped everything I'd seen in a long time. He mixed his play a lot and played probably all of the songs differently than on the albums, yet he never missed the basic beat of the songs.

I interviewed Kerry King (Slayer guitarist) before the gig and asked how easily Dave learned the Bostaph's (Slayer's drummer when Lombardo was out) drum parts. King said that Lombardo didn't even try to learn those, instead he listened to the songs once and made his own drum parts.

King also said that Lombardo had been playing Disciple (a "hit" song of their previous album "God Hates Us All") differently at every gig on that tour.

Another great drummer is Finnish Kai Hahto, who's mostly "known" for his work in grindcore act Rotten Sound.

He left Rotten Sound earlier this year because it was too much work to keep in good enough shape to play that kind of music. He's also played jazz, big band music and in many other metal bands.

When he played in Rotten Sound probably half of the crowd was there just to watch his amazing drumming.

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I've got a friend who majored in percussion and he told me that the drummer from Fear Factory uses a timer (I forget the exact jargon) so that for each pedal he presses, two sounds are created. Basically, he's creating a double bass drum sound while only having to use one pedal.

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The device is called a trigger. It reacts whenever drum is hit and then plays a pre-programmed sample.

It's quite common nowadays in metal as it eases the job for both mixer and drummer.

First the drums don't need to be in tune as the sample comes from tape. Also it doesn't matter how hard the drummer hits, 'cos the sample comes as hard as the mixing guy decides.

This makes it possible to play faster.

Usually it plays only one sound per hit, but I've heard that at least on some occasions Raymond Herrera (the Fear Factory drummer) has "cheated" like you said.