Check out the metal/prog drummer Travis Orbin of the Darkest Hour Band absolutely destroy a drum session! From the looks of the video and reading the description, it looks like this is a preliminary recording session for a side project of Orbin’s called Cartoon Theory, on the song “Wizardy Mind”.
From the description, you can tell that Orbin is pumped on the song, and is even taking notes for improvement.
What I like about Travis is that he has one of the most unique drum set ups that I’ve ever seen. His snare is centered between his legs, and he only uses two toms (Not normal for that type of music), which are placed on his left and right side. He also has two different hi-hat’s placed on his right and left as well. I have never tried this set up myself, but I can already tell that it would lead to some very different ideas.
Let’s not forget that his drumming on this track is pretty insane. As is growing much more common in the metal and prog genre, you can see how Orbin utilizes the use of linear drumming patterns to create cool sounding fills that go over the barline. He uses those two hi hats well, and his snare sounds awesome! You can tell he is a studied musician as well by checking out his crazy transcription here.
Take your notes from Travis Orbin: Practice hard, record yourself, listen back, make notes on improvement, write everything down, and just strive to be better.
