Recording drums for metal or other styles of heavy music is different from a typical pop/rock session. You want power, aggression and separation. I have read countless articles and books about drum recording, but most of them have focused on other styles of music. Some of those methods won't work for metal.

I'm a drummer. I play drums in a death metal band called Dauntless and have played drums years before I started recording them. I have been on both sides of the kit, as a drummer and as an engineer. I also run my little studio called Studio Dauntless. I have had the honour of recording many different drummers, and many of them have been a lot better than me.

Today's modern metal drum sound is not very acoustic. Most metal records use sample replacement or blending to make the sound more powerful and consistent. Sometimes using samples is inevitable, especially if you are going for a specific sound. There's nothing wrong with that, but I like to challenge myself. I want to create a great drum sound right from the start and try to keep it acoustic in the mix, although there are sub-genres of metal where the laws of physics make this task impossible - at least with the current drums and technology available.

I will go through every phase of drum recording from the "metal sound" point of view. It will not be pretty. It will not be cheap. It will drive you to the edge! I know these techniques work in practice. Still, there might be better ways to do them. Let me know if you find one!

Santeri Salmi
Drop Hammer Studios