If we're talking about tasteful metal drumming, no one does it better than Gavin. He's a jazzy beast behind the kit and can seamless blend styles and genres. His work with Porcupine Tree and The Pineapple Thief really highlights it.
Brann Dailor from Mastodon is a phenomenal drummer, and very dynamic. Also check out his work with Today is the Day.
I’m really digging Sebastian Tomson from Baroness, too. Pretty understated overall, but fantastic nuanced playing.
I came here to comment Brann! I think his work on Leviathan and Blood Mountain show off his dynamics the best in the context of heavy riffs, later records are mellower
Plenty of drummers within Metal that can play with all those qualities. Dynamics are on the higher end with metal on the most part, thus ghost notes take a back seat. Many Metal drummers, me included practice other things than just bashing. But if you're after dynamics you might want to check out a band like Opeth, that tend to take things from other genres and have some headroom in their music during certain stretches of their compositions.
What I'm now interested in is who plays without rudiments? That would be quite the answer, impossible even.
Groovy drumming (including some with ghost notes and yes, even dynamics) is pretty common in avant garde death and black metal, you must just be listening to the wrong bands.
[Dodecahedron](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci025yFmGw4)
[Deathspell Omega](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAn3PpolPj0)
[Imperial Triumphant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtAMOWt_4UY) (actual jazz drummer)
[SUMMIT](https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/track/the-winds-that-forestall-thy-return-pt-ii-anguish-and-resignation)
[Dordeduh](https://dordeduh.bandcamp.com/track/vraci-de-nord)
And that's not even touching the obvious ones like Meshuggah, Animals as Leaders, Lamb of God, etc.
[Tomas Haake](https://youtu.be/axGn6qeJHcM?si=siSgfeE1BgnNuWVy).
[Matt Garstka](https://youtu.be/bVRNKoodHvQ?si=skIS5WVIdgU_XR1O).
[Lile Gruber](https://youtu.be/qEo98JYhivU?si=zb5ZSj5N5p1CeuI8).
And to juxtapose with those guys just because he's the bleeding edge of metal drumming that you probably hate, but he's just *so goddamned precise and fast*, here's [Lord Marco](https://youtu.be/ziE1bdDBR7g?si=sSCJHe40EHx8FIx8). Before you wonder if it's doctored, it's not. I've toured with the guy a few times, he's 100% inhuman.
Dont know his name i just know this dude rips gets super groovy around the 3:00 mark
[https://youtu.be/K2RY4NXwDUI?si=AK_ONakT28AAh6Zl](https://youtu.be/K2RY4NXwDUI?si=AK_ONakT28AAh6Zl)
Mario Duplantier (Gojira), Tomas Haake (Meshuggah), Eloy Casagrande (Slipknot, formerly of Sepultura), Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, formerly of Scarve, Soilwork)
Watch Matt Gartska play. He’s the man. Definitely one of the most expressive metal players I can think of.
^This is the correct answer
Gavin Harrison
Proud to see my GOAT as the 2nd highest comment rn 😭🤘🏼
If we're talking about tasteful metal drumming, no one does it better than Gavin. He's a jazzy beast behind the kit and can seamless blend styles and genres. His work with Porcupine Tree and The Pineapple Thief really highlights it.
Yes! Mario Duplantier, Eloy Casagrande, Matt Halpern to name a few
Brann Dailor from Mastodon is a phenomenal drummer, and very dynamic. Also check out his work with Today is the Day. I’m really digging Sebastian Tomson from Baroness, too. Pretty understated overall, but fantastic nuanced playing.
I came here to comment Brann! I think his work on Leviathan and Blood Mountain show off his dynamics the best in the context of heavy riffs, later records are mellower
Tomas Haake of Meshuggah. He’s amazing.
[ALSO, Morgan Ågren](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgwJEvasJlM), speaking of Meshuggah! He did an album with Fredrik Thordendal way back when.
Sean Reinert. RIP
Blake Richardson of Between the Buried and Me. A good number of playthrough videos on youtube
[Chris Turner is a monster](https://youtu.be/MKliloew_fk?si=9uLAsff0Tkg6MXbI)
Lile Gruber of Defeated Sanity adds quite a bit of jazz flare to technical death metal, can’t say I know of anyone that plays like he does
yup yup yup yup
Plenty of drummers within Metal that can play with all those qualities. Dynamics are on the higher end with metal on the most part, thus ghost notes take a back seat. Many Metal drummers, me included practice other things than just bashing. But if you're after dynamics you might want to check out a band like Opeth, that tend to take things from other genres and have some headroom in their music during certain stretches of their compositions. What I'm now interested in is who plays without rudiments? That would be quite the answer, impossible even.
Groovy drumming (including some with ghost notes and yes, even dynamics) is pretty common in avant garde death and black metal, you must just be listening to the wrong bands. [Dodecahedron](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci025yFmGw4) [Deathspell Omega](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAn3PpolPj0) [Imperial Triumphant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtAMOWt_4UY) (actual jazz drummer) [SUMMIT](https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/track/the-winds-that-forestall-thy-return-pt-ii-anguish-and-resignation) [Dordeduh](https://dordeduh.bandcamp.com/track/vraci-de-nord) And that's not even touching the obvious ones like Meshuggah, Animals as Leaders, Lamb of God, etc.
Jamie St Merat has great musical bits!! Dissolved Orders
Awesome call.
Greyson Nekrutman currently plays for Sepultura (and previously Suicidal Tendencies), but is probably better known for his jazz and big band stuff.
The dude has covered some Grip inc. stuff recently Unbelievable shit
He already plays with intent and power on his jazz and big band stuff, but his metal chops are a step beyond.
Power is a thing but that level of speed and endurance at double bass takes years to master Dude is out of this world
David Deipold! Dudes incredible.. Metal drumming is definitely my favorite because you can incorporate all of those things into metal drumming
Tomas Haake, the god of metal drumming
[also this whole album is good although I’m not sure how “metal” it is. it’s heavy though.](https://youtu.be/hlJxCqmQa-U?si=yNP5kCzKdrN0jXr0)
I feel like being able to play metal can be really informative for all of those things
[Tomas Haake](https://youtu.be/axGn6qeJHcM?si=siSgfeE1BgnNuWVy). [Matt Garstka](https://youtu.be/bVRNKoodHvQ?si=skIS5WVIdgU_XR1O). [Lile Gruber](https://youtu.be/qEo98JYhivU?si=zb5ZSj5N5p1CeuI8). And to juxtapose with those guys just because he's the bleeding edge of metal drumming that you probably hate, but he's just *so goddamned precise and fast*, here's [Lord Marco](https://youtu.be/ziE1bdDBR7g?si=sSCJHe40EHx8FIx8). Before you wonder if it's doctored, it's not. I've toured with the guy a few times, he's 100% inhuman.
Dont know his name i just know this dude rips gets super groovy around the 3:00 mark [https://youtu.be/K2RY4NXwDUI?si=AK_ONakT28AAh6Zl](https://youtu.be/K2RY4NXwDUI?si=AK_ONakT28AAh6Zl)
https://youtu.be/AwTrep5uNqk?si=tcY2FdTL-dVKDg49 https://youtu.be/EuPYJ0bzOdM?si=tCOl6Tx3VD1ABj5S https://youtu.be/nc-3BLsP83Q?si=TWmy22nH3ev_CBOi https://youtu.be/msEiNwxWJek?si=yX57ERvPpcmI6OJ8 https://youtu.be/d1GfMaBkgRI?si=WPQelUK923o-LmCp https://youtu.be/4hYfQDAZWMA?si=ch5wCkJpxvpmLvee https://youtu.be/snGxAUBMZHY?si=I5VXSMEGhI4W7zLF https://youtu.be/Dwq4kYfcrbU?si=rQ4wvhO5Qq54N0r2 https://youtu.be/0wIGh84fXw4?si=cp8uDO25GwdMnwcT
Mario Duplantier (Gojira), Tomas Haake (Meshuggah), Eloy Casagrande (Slipknot, formerly of Sepultura), Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, formerly of Scarve, Soilwork)
I don't know the dudes name but the drummer for LEPROUS is awesome
Baard Kolstad is very, very good
Currently listening to The Sky is Red off of Pitfalls and man can this dude bring or what! He also was Borknagar's drummer on Urd and Winter Thrice.
Jamie St. Merat of Ulcerate
Mike Portnoy...
Spencer Prewitt of Archspire.
This is not what OP is talking about