Blast beat
In Adam MacGregor's definition, "the blast-beat generally comprises a repeated, sixteenth-note figure played at a very fast tempo, and divided uniformly among the bass drum, snare, and ride, crash, or hi-hat cymbal.
"[2] Blast beats have been described by PopMatters contributor Whitney Strub as, "maniacal percussive explosions, less about rhythm per se than sheer sonic violence".
[citation needed] Although most commonly associated with hardcore punk and extreme metal, the earliest forms of what would later become the blast beat are noted to have appeared in jazz music.
A commonly cited early example that somewhat resembles the modern technique is a brief section of Sam Woodyard's drum solo during a 1962 rendition of "Kinda Dukish" with the Duke Ellington orchestra.
[5] Prior to these two examples resurfacing and receiving the attention in the 2010s, AllMusic contributor Thom Jurek credited Tony Williams as the "true inventor of the blastbeat" for his frenetic performance on "Dark Prince" for Trio of Doom in 1979, officially released only in 2007.
An early example of a proto-blast beat can be found in the Tielman Brothers' 1959 single, "Rock Little Baby of Mine" during the instrumental break.
[7] Drummer Steve Ross of the band Coven also plays an "attempt" at a blast beat in the track "Dignitaries of Hell" off the group's 1969 album, Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls.
English band Napalm Death coined the term "blast beat",[12] although this style of drumming had previously been practiced by others.
Daniel Ekeroth argues that the [hardcore] blast beat was first performed by the Swedish group Asocial on their 1982 demo.
Harris is credited with developing the term "blast beat", describing the fast notes played on the kick and snare.
[16] Harris started using the blast beat as a fundamental aspect of Napalm Death's early musical compositions.
It was finally with Napalm Death's first full-length album Scum (1987) that blast beat started to evolve into a distinct musical expression of its own.
[17] The blast beat evolved into its modern form as it was developed in the American death metal and grindcore scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Pete Sandoval, drummer of Terrorizer (1986–1989) and later Morbid Angel (1984–2013), purportedly was the first to use blast beats in metronomic time (and not as arhythmic or non-metric white noise) and thus gave it a more useful musical characteristic for timekeeping.
Typical blast beats consist of 8th-note patterns between both the bass and snare drum alternately, with the hi-hat or the ride synced.
Variations exist such as displacing hi-hat/ride, snare and bass drum hits and/or using other cymbals such as splashes, crashes, chinas and even tambourines for accenting, for example when using odd time or playing progressively.
