Two years in the making "Drums of Death" has finally emerged. — DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid has teamed up with Dave Lombardo (drummer for — Slayer) to see what one of the world's best DJs could do with beats supplied — by t... more »he best thrash metal drummer of all time. Added to the mix, Chuck
D from Public Enemy and legendary Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid have
contributed their enormous talents to the album. To bring it all together Meat
Beat Manifesto co-produced "Drums of Death" along with DJ Spooky.
"Check it like this: the drum is universal - it doesn't matter if it's
hip-hop, drum n bass or thrash metal - it's all about that beat.
Me and Dave Lombardo flip beats to a different drummer -
that's what this project is about: rhythm dialog, building
bridges between scenes and styles. Flippin' the script always
means there's new vocabularies to be explored, and we're
just making up a new language as we go...Slayer was one of
the only rock bands on early Def Jam, and they influenced my
style. Dave's drumming wasmad rugged, and he was the
rhythm unit. Like the illest live band in hip-hop, The Roots, has
Q?est-love as their rhythm section, Slayer has Dave.
Think of this as a dialog about that kind of cultural collision"
-DJ Spooky
Thirsty Ear is proud to present these world class artists as they
Two years in the making "Drums of Death" has finally emerged.
DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid has teamed up with Dave Lombardo (drummer for
Slayer) to see what one of the world's best DJs could do with beats supplied
by the best thrash metal drummer of all time. Added to the mix, Chuck
D from Public Enemy and legendary Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid have
contributed their enormous talents to the album. To bring it all together Meat
Beat Manifesto co-produced "Drums of Death" along with DJ Spooky.
"Check it like this: the drum is universal - it doesn't matter if it's
hip-hop, drum n bass or thrash metal - it's all about that beat.
Me and Dave Lombardo flip beats to a different drummer -
that's what this project is about: rhythm dialog, building
bridges between scenes and styles. Flippin' the script always
means there's new vocabularies to be explored, and we're
just making up a new language as we go...Slayer was one of
the only rock bands on early Def Jam, and they influenced my
style. Dave's drumming wasmad rugged, and he was the
rhythm unit. Like the illest live band in hip-hop, The Roots, has
Q?est-love as their rhythm section, Slayer has Dave.
Think of this as a dialog about that kind of cultural collision"
-DJ Spooky
Thirsty Ear is proud to present these world class artists as they
have never been seen before.
Troy Collins | Lancaster, PA United States | 04/26/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Long anticipated and well worth the wait, Drums of Death is a supergroup recording if ever there was one. DJ Spooky and Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo initially conceived the project as a duo which eventually morphed into a full band project. Multi-instrumentalist / producer Jack Dangers (aka: Meat Beat Manifesto) signed on as did Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid along with a few vocal appearances by Public Enemy Number 1.
Chuck D unleashes his trademarked delivery on three cuts which evokes Public Enemy's salad days, when the Bomb Squad had Rick Rubin's support to sample and pillage until pure waves of sound were at their disposal. Now those sound waves come courtesy of DJ Spooky and Jack Dangers' limitless arsenal of sound, with additional shredding support courtesy of Vernon Reid. Considering "Brother's Gonna Work it Out," "B-Side Wins Again" and "Public Enemy # 1" are all old Public Enemy tunes, it's interesting to hear how well these re-imagined hip-hop classics fit into a more modern program and how, by their inclusion, a historical continuum is created. Dalek even shows up to rap on "Assisted Suicide" backed by a surprisingly effective vocal sample of avant garde composer Meredith Monk.
The album is primarily instrumental with the main players reveling in their respective genres to magnificent effect. As expected, there are moments of churning speed metal but relentlessly funky bass, shuffling break beats and spacey dub reggae appear as well. The turntable mixing and sampling is old school cool crossed with sci-fi ambience. DJ Spooky and Dave Lombardo even break it down to a show stopping duo in "Incipit Zarathustra." "Drums of Death" is an impressive assemblage and a cogent study in rhythmic texture with the boys showing off some improvisational chops on "The Art of War." There have been numerous hip-hop, rock and jazz collaborations before but none have been as intriguingly cohesive as this. Tentatively part of Thirsty Ears' new "metallic blue" series... one can only imagine what will come next."
When it's good, it's really good
Blorg | San Francisco | 06/03/2005
(3 out of 5 stars)
"As an experiment, this is great stuff, and several tracks work exactly as you would expect them to, given the musicians that you have here. Several tracks fail spectacularly, and several tracks are about half as good as they could have been. I'll give Spooky (or anyone) major props for trying a collaboration like this, but my overall feeling is that this could have been a masterpiece, and instead it's only good in short bursts. Buy it if you're feeling adventurous."
Spooky is off the chain !
Ryan K. Fogleman | killer cali | 05/10/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Oh my God ! Spooky with the god father of political rap (Chuck D) is almost too much to listen to on a workday !
Spooky and Dave's beats are sick and Chuck D is the perfect addition to this CD. B Side wins again is so sick I almost lost my mind listening to it at work ! :-)
Much ups to Chuck, Dave, and Spooky...real "rebels without a pause"!"
Strong mixes
Kritikos Observatio | The Realm of Sound | 07/11/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Dj Spooky`s new album, Drums of Death, is packed full of high-energy remixes and original tracks. This all-star collaboration brings together elements of Heavy Metal, Hip Hop and Electronica, creating a powerful new sound.
Great job musically! I would suggest this album to anyone who is into fusion and hybrid music, although it might be a bit much for the mainstream listener."
Public Enemy #1 + Slayer + Spooky = Love
D. Anderson | 03/13/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Drums of Death featuring Dave Lombardo (of Slayer) and Chuck D (of Public Enemy) is a collaborative effort to which I had never thought could exist. However when you listen to the full CD, you will see how it does indeed work so well. The remix of (one of my personally favorite P.E. tunes) B-Side was done so well, it blew me away. There are Lots of recorded Loops and samples of Dave Lombardo's drumming, that Spooky uses to beat juggle and use for fills in other tunes. Lombardo is featured in full on other tunes on this album, as well. Chuck D of Public Enemy fame does a very classy job at doing his MC mastery on several tunes on this FULL length album. It reminds me of the full efforts that public enemy put into the collaborative work that they did with Anthrax in the '80s. Most importantly, do not judge this album by the posted clips on the page listing. The tunes on the album did not seem at all as if they were the same songs, that the clips reflect. I'm a music lover, a DJ, and a sentimentalist. I give this album an A+. Well done Spooky."