The first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name Dave Lombardo, especially if you’re reading it here, is undoubtedly his iconic drum work for thrash metal legends Slayer on their groundbreaking, seminal albums throughout the 1980s. And that’s for good reason – those records revolutionized thrash in a way that still resonates throughout the metal world today. But to think the story of Dave Lombardo as a drummer starts and ends with crushing double bass and playing over 200 beats per minute is to misunderstand him as a musician and his incredible repertoire beyond that insular realm.
While Dave acknowledges how important his work in Slayer was and still is, his career since then has been driven by one simple feeling: that he is more than a metal drummer. From a young age to the current day, Lombardo has immersed himself in a wide spectrum of musical genres that have influenced his playing and piqued his interest when deciding what projects to pursue. When the rest of the world was tuning in to grunge and nu-metal, he found himself more drawn to the world of industrial music, which opened up a whole new world of musical possibilities and collaborations. A meeting with Mike Patton backstage at a Faith No More show sometime in the 1990s also led him further from traditional rock and metal and has led to more experimental playing, first in Fantômas, then Dead Cross, before performing with Mr. Bungle. As the years have gone on and his experience has broadened, Lombardo has strayed further and further from what would be considered mainstream metal playing, refusing to be confined by those traditional strictures. And that’s exactly how he wants it to be.
This history explains a little bit about how Dave ended up involved with two projects that have released music this month. His collaboration with Welsh sonic architect Lustmord dropped on October 2nd through Ipecac Recordings, a monolithic sonicscape accentuated carefully by Lombardo’s percussion. His drum work on Dead Deities by Satanic Planet, an industrial-tinged outfit feating Lucien Greaves of the Satanic Temple, was released on October 30th through Relapse Records, and shows yet another face and evolution of Lombardo’s incredible skill. I had a chance to speak with Dave about these two releases, plus a number of other topics from his legendary career, including:
- how he met Lustmord at a Fantômas show through Buzz Osborne, what the process of creating The Pulse of Atoms was like, whether this was the most challenging record of his career, and the similarities between it and Dave’s solo album Rites of Percussion.
- the new Satanic Planet album Dead Deities, how and why Dave became involved in the project, the amount of times he gets asked to perform on different tracks, and how he balances such a busy schedule.
- an upcoming like performance with composer John Zorn and keyboardist John Medeski, his revelation about finding industrial music, why he thinks he and Mike Patton work so well together across several different bands, and his reaction when Glenn Danzig called him to drum for Misfits.
- his admiration for Clive Burr and the early Iron Maiden albums, an unconfirmed anecdote about Reed Mullin, when the guys in Slayer realized they had created one of the best records of all time with Reign in Blood, and how that realization may have coincided with a riot outside one of their concerts.
- reflections on how he will continue to pursue new avenues of music and what he would like to accomplish in the rest of his incredible career.
You can watch the entire interview HERE:
Dave has stated in the past that one of the main reasons for varying his musical endeavors was to avoid being pigeonholed as solely a metal drummer. Though he’s weaved in and out of Slayer’s orbit throughout the years and kept one foot in the metal world, a lot the bands and projects he’s chosen to join, too voluminous to mention here and stay within my word limit, have firmly shown his dedication to a wide array of musical genres outside of the norm. To paraphrase the man himself, he’s vowed to never retire because playing drums and creating music is what he was put on Earth to do – and when you’ve made some of the most incredible and immortal music the planet has ever heard, the rest of us should be thankful for that eternal presence behind the kit.
To order The Pulse of Atoms, the debut album from Lustmord Lombardo, visit the website linked below for purchase options.
For more information about Satanic Planet and their second full-length album Dead Deities, check out the band's website.
One new project we neglected to discuss, at the fault of this interviewer, is a collaboration between Tyler Bates of Marilyn Manson fame, GUNSHIP, and Dave. Check out the official lyric video for "REVOLUTION.EXE," released roughly two months ago, right here.
Dave will also be performing a one-off improvisation show on December 6th in San Francisco with composer John Zorn and keyboardist John Medeski at the Great American Music Hall. For ticket information, click the link below.
Nate Todd
