67 Best Metal Drummers
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Gee Anzalone
Gee Anzalone is the drummer for DragonForce, which is one of the most intense bands that I know. Being the drummer for DragonForce is enough to position anyone on a top list of metal drummers, as everything Gee plays with the band is highly complex.
He also has a YouTube channel where he posts drum covers, advice videos, and general discussions about drumming and the music industry.
Bobby Jarzombek
Bobby Jarzombek is currently playing in a country band, but he’s spent most of his career playing drums in metal bands. He’s played with Riot, Halford, Juggernaut, and plenty of other metal bands over the years.
He’s also worked as a drum educator, filming educational courses to teach drummers how to play metal and other styles.
Pete Sandoval
Pete Sondoval is an extreme metal drummer who has primarily played with Morbid Angel and Terrorizer.
While he’s played live with other groups, those are the two bands that he’s recorded multiple albums with.
His skills lie in his speed behind the kit, and he has incredible control over his double bass drumming techniques.
Bill Ward
Bill Ward is the oldest drummer on this list, making him one of the earliest names in the metal music industry.
He was an original member of Black Sabbath, and he played drums with the band for about two decades.
A lot of drummers that I’ve mentioned cite him as one of their big influences.
Kevin Paradis
Kevin Paradis is a French metal drummer with a huge reputation in France. He’s tracked albums with dozens of bands, and he’s remained one of the go-to session metal drummers in the country for well over a decade.
Daniel Erlandsson
Daniel Elandsson is another popular extreme metal drummer, and he’s mostly known for playing drums for Arch Enemy.
He was the first drummer for the band when it formed in 1995, but he took two years off to pursue other projects. He joined again after that, and he’s been playing with the group ever since.
Chris Turner
Chris Turner is the drummer for Oceans Ate Alaska. He has a great modern touch to his metal drumming, incorporating inspiration from hip-hop and trap music.
My favorite thing about his playing is how powerful he is. Every note is incredibly effective, yet always very tight.
Clay Aeschliman
Clay Aeschliman is a progressive metal drummer that plays drums for Polyphia. He has a similar drumming style to Matt Garstka and Matt Halpern, as he’s able to play incredibly complicated patterns in odd times.
There was a viral video going around of him playing an entire gig without the click track in his ears. His drum tech was tapping the tempo on his leg the whole time. It was really impressive!
Luke Holland
Luke Holland was one of my earliest drumming influences. With him being one of the first drummers to post covers on YouTube, I watched all of his videos on repeat when I was a pre-teen.
While he plays plenty of electronic and hip-hop music, he’s mainly a metal drummer. He was a main member of The Word Alive for several years, and his work with Jason Richardson is great to listen to.
I love how he blends hip-hop influences with his metal drumming, as I think it makes him sound quite unique.
He’s had massive success as a YouTube drummer, but he’s also taken the traditional route of touring the world with different bands.
El Estepario Siberiano
El Estepario Siberiano is another massively popular drummer that has gained fame from posting videos on social media.
He’s the most followed drummer on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, and I think he’s one of the hardest-working musicians out there.
He does a lot of flashy playing with one hand, but he’s also a brilliant drummer when playing traditionally.
He plays all kinds of music, but his routes are in metal drumming. With his immense speed behind the kit, he seems right at home every time I see him play a metal song.
While he’s mostly a social media drummer, he was a regular touring member of the band Saratoga between 2020 and 2023.
Christoph Schneider
Christoph Schneider is the drummer for Rammstein, which has been one of the most popular metal bands in the world for decades.
While Rammstein is a German band, most metal lovers like listening to them even though they don’t understand the lyrics.
Schneider is one of the rare drummers that has been playing for one band for most of his career, and Rammstein definitely wouldn’t be the same without him.
