Drums of Death

DJ Spooky

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 26, 2005)
• Original Release Date: April 26, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Thirsty Ear
• ASIN: B0007YMV6A
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #103,895 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
The tracks are, in a sense, the diametrical opposite of "nu metal"; Limp Bizkit, for example, uses inept hip-hop beats as a rhythmic base, but "Drums of Death"sound starts with Lombardoâ TMs Rock-with-a-capital-R kit work expansive, thick tom rolls and razor-sharp cymbals. Often this produces hip-hop/electronica-infused metal not vice-versa. Public Enemy frontman Chuck D raps on three tracks, all of them hard rock remakes of classic PE tunes; of these,"B-Side Wins Again"'s the finest, as Chuck rants winningly over Lombardo's lock-step snare, Dangers' chugging electric guitar and Spooky's chiming electronic beats and layered, panic-attack turntable work. (Chuck D's presence is a reminder of the golden age of 1987 when Slayer and Public Enemy were both on Def Jam Records.)

Vernon Reid's howling guitar blends with Lombardo's cut-up, churning drums and Spooky's bleeping turntables on "The Art of War",and the result's not unlike very recent King Crimson."Terrus Nullius"sounds the most like a Slayer song as guest guitarist Gerry Nestler rips out a downstrokey riff and Lombardo finally produces that sternum-rattling double-kick badabadabadabada that is his sonic trademark."Assisted Suicide" has Lombardo playing a comparatively funkier pattern alongside Spooky's metronomic synth and a looped, warbling, wordless vocal from performance artist Meredith Monk. Underground hip-hop emcee Dälek contributes a terrific rap and the track is one of the CD's best.

Best of all, there's "Incipit Zarathustra," a duet of sorts between Lombardo and Spooky no guests. Spooky's ripping, wildly imaginative turntable scratching faces off against Lombardo's drums-tutorial-video collection of patterns and rolls... --All About Jazz

Product Description
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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brother's Gonna Work it Out , April 26, 2005

By	Troy Collins (Lancaster, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars When it's good, it's really good, June 2, 2005

By	Blorg "the quantum mechanic" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Public Enemy #1 + Slayer + Spooky = Love, March 13, 2007

By	D. Anderson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.