Drummer Dave Lombardo has recorded and performed in a surprising range of contexts, from conducted improvisation with John Zorn to electronically reshaped duels with DJ Spooky to the high-intensity post-hardcore vignettes of Mike Patton’s Fantômas, but for most listeners he’ll always be best known for his work in Slayer. His furious double bass work and ability to drive the band to greater and greater peaks of energy, particularly onstage, were a model for a generation of thrash and death metal drummers.

Born in Havana, Cuba and steeped in Latin music as a child, Lombardo was first inspired to play percussion by a Santana album. When he was still in high school, he and guitarist Kerry King formed Slayer in early 1980s Southern California, recruiting second guitarist Jeff Hanneman and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya to complete the lineup. He made five albums with them and toured the world until 1992, left, then came back a decade later, only to depart again, for good this time, in 2010. In between and afterward, he played with other metal bands like Testament, Grip Inc., Suicidal Tendencies and the cello ensemble Apocalyptica, appeared in one of visionary artist Matthew Barney’s Cremaster films, worked with Patton and Zorn, collaborated with Spooky, released a wild album of interpretations of Vivaldi compositions, performed on movie scores, and much more. The following is a guide to the many paths Dave Lombardo has traveled over the last 40 years behind the drums.

Slayer
Reign In Blood
Def Jam LP 1986
South Of Heaven
Def Jam LP 1988
Seasons In The Abyss
Def American LP 1990
Christ Illusion
American Recordings CD 2006
World Painted Blood
American Recordings CD 2009

Slayer’s third album, 1986’s Reign in Blood, was a gauntlet thrown down so hard it cracked the earth. Produced in dry, minimalist fashion by Rick Rubin and engineer Andy Wallace, the songs flew by – 10 in 28 minutes, with all excess stripped away. Lombardo’s thunderous beat and ground-shaking double bass solo on “Angel Of Death” caught the world’s attention, but his almost hardcore punk playing on “Epidemic” is what perks up diehards’ ears.

On South Of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss, Slayer proved they could incorporate slower tempos and melody without losing any of their intensity. They made several albums without Lombardo in the 1990s and early 2000s, but when he returned for 2005’s Christ Illusion and 2009’s World Painted Blood, his furious attack propelled them to new creative heights.

Fantômas
Fantômas
Ipecac CD 1999
The Director’s Cut
Ipecac CD 2001
Delìrium Còrdia
Ipecac CD 2003
Suspended Animation
Ipecac CD 2005

In 1998, newly ex-Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton recruited Lombardo, Mr Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn, and Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne for a project that blended grindcore, modern classical, movie soundtracks and cartoon music into jump-cut compositions à la John Zorn. Patton constructed the music painstakingly, then brought his all-star team together to execute it in the studio and onstage, and it’s breathtaking, particularly on the self-titled debut album and 2005’s Suspended Animation. The changes come so fast you can barely focus on them as a listener; trying to imagine playing this music can induce a panic attack, yet onstage, Lombardo executed it all with aplomb, staring directly into Patton’s eyes from across the stage. The Director’s Cut is a collection of reworked movie themes, while Delìrium Còrdia is a single hour-plus track composed of short sections assembled into an epic suite.

John Zorn
Xu Feng
Tzadik CD 2000
Music Romance Vol 2: Taboo And Exile
Tzadik CD 1999

Xu Feng is one of John Zorn’s early game pieces, composed immediately after his classic Cobra. Named for a Chinese martial arts actress (a still from her film Raining On The Mountain appears on the cover), this recording is arranged for three pairs of musicians: Fred Frith and John Schott on guitars, Chris Brown and David Slusser on electronics, and Dave Lombardo and William Winant on drums and percussion. It’s a 75 minute odyssey of sudden noises, thunderous outbursts of drums (Lombardo is instantly recognisable even in this abstract context), and the occasional hard-charging riff.

Taboo And Exile, the second volume in Zorn’s Music Romance duology, features different ensembles on virtually every track. Three pieces — “Sacrifist”, “Thaalapalassi” and “The Possessed” — feature Lombardo teamed with Bill Laswell, and Frith on guitar. On the first two, Marc Ribot is there, too, shredding it up, and on the third, Zorn himself joins. Zorn, Frith, Laswell and Lombardo played a series of gigs in 2000 under the name Bladerunner, but this one noisy dub-metal track is the only studio documentation of their existence.

DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid & Dave Lombardo
Drums Of Death
Thirsty Ear CD 2005

This collaboration between the illbient avant-garde DJ and metal’s most bombastic drummer allowed Lombardo to explore his funk-rock side, laying down gigantic, stomping beats as Spooky drifted through on a wave of warped electronic noise. Multiple guests showed up to the party, including Chuck D of Public Enemy, guitarist Vernon Reid of Living Colour, Meat Beat Manifesto multi-instrumentalist Jack Dangers, and Dälek. The result is high energy if scattershot, at its best recalling avant-dub-metal Bill Laswell projects like Praxis.

Lorenzo Arruga, Dave Lombardo & Friends
Vivaldi: The Meeting
Thirsty Ear CD 1998

On this 1998 album, Lombardo and keyboardist/composer Arruga joined forces to adapt and rework sections from various Antonio Vivaldi operas. Arranging them for a small chamber ensemble that included flute, oboe, harpsichord, organ and female vocals, they created something that was part classical and part progressive rock, with splashes of jazz and a heavy dose of drum thunder. Lush and romantic at times, highly aggressive at others, it’s extremely suspenseful music, because you’re never sure what you’re going to hear next.

Philm
Harmonic
Ipecac CD 2012



Lombardo initially formed Philm in the late 1990s with vocalist and guitarist Gerry Nestler and bassist Juan Perez, but he quit to return to Slayer in 2001. In 2010, he and Nestler reunited, recruiting bassist Francisco ‘Pancho’ Tomaselli of 1970s funk legends War. Harmonic, released on Ipecac, veers between Helmet-esque, post-hardcore alt-rock and atmospheric instrumentals that veer into noisy jazz fusion at times. Lombardo’s drumming is complex and thoughtful, aggressive when that’s called for but eschewing metallic bombast.

Testament
The Gathering
Spitfire CD 1999

Suicidal Tendencies
World Gone Mad
Suicidal CD 2016
Get Your Fight On!
Suicidal CD 2018

When playing straightforward metal, Lombardo still manages to light a fire under his bandmates. Testament were thrash also-rans, respected by diehard fans but never considered anywhere near the genre’s top rank. When Lombardo joined for their 1999 studio album The Gathering, his taut pounding gave their music the extra something it needed, driving them to depths of heaviness they hadn’t explored in years.

On the latter-day Suicidal Tendencies albums with Lombardo behind the kit, the band leaves behind the technical/progressive thrash of albums like How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can’t Even Smile Today, Lights…Camera…Revolution and The Art of Rebellion, instead blasting out hard-charging punk and primitive headbanger anthems. Lombardo’s playing is stripped-down and powerful, keeping a deceptively simple beat while pushing the energy level into the red, matching vocalist Mike Muir’s bug-eyed mania.

Christopher Young
The Monkey King
Intrada LP 2015
The Monkey King 2
Intrada LP 2016

Jonathan Bepler
Music For Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 2
Self released CD 1999

Lombardo’s power, speed and precision behind the kit have occasionally drawn the attention of film composers. He collaborated with Christopher Young – who’s worked extensively in the horror and thriller genres since the 1980s – on the scores to two wildly successful films based on classical Chinese literature. Lombardo can be heard pounding out the rhythm behind a massive orchestra and choir, giving the music a degree of whomp rarely heard in a concert hall.

Lombardo’s contribution to avant-garde visual artist Matthew Barney’s film Cremaster 2, for which the music was composed by Jonathan Bepler, is much stranger, befitting the larger project. Cremaster 2 is largely an abstract meditation on murderer Gary Gilmore, whose quest for execution was the subject of Norman Mailer’s novel (and a subsequent TV film) The Executioner’s Song. Lombardo plays on one track, “The Man In Black”, delivering a slowly rising and eventually apocalyptic drum solo as Morbid Angel bassist Steve Tucker intones lyrics drawn from Gilmore’s writings in a demonic roar. Their contributions are mixed by composer Jonathan Bepler with the sound of 200,000 bees, creating an abstract and nightmarish sonic experience.

Dead Cross
Dead Cross
Ipecac LP 2017
II
Ipecac LP 2022



Venamoris
Drown In Emotion
Three One G LP 2023



Dave Lombardo
Rites Of Percussion
Ipecac LP 2023

Lombardo’s current projects span a wide range. Dead Cross, the avant-grindcore band he formed with vocalist Mike Patton, guitarist Michael Crain, and bassist Justin Pearson, combines the superficially simplistic pleasures of hardcore punk and thrash metal with the sudden tempo changes and mood swings of some of Patton’s (and John Zorn’s) other projects. Everything on their two albums to date is delivered at a fever pitch of intensity, whether fast or slow, and Lombardo’s drumming is more punk propulsion than metal bellicosity.

By contrast, Venamoris, his project with his wife Paula, is the softest thing he’s ever played on. Their first album together is aptly titled Drown In Emotion; her tremulous vocals and introspective, romantic lyrics are laid on a foundation of piano and blues-rock guitar, with Lombardo keeping a simple, subtle beat underneath, sometimes even playing with brushes.

His first true solo release, Rites of Percussion, is a suite performed on two different drum kits, about a thousand different hand-held and orchestral percussion instruments, piano, and a bit of synth. It includes everything from complex Latin polyrhythms to death metal blasting, from funk and go-go to thunderous hard rock to ritual patterns drawn from Santería.

Read Phil Freeman's interview with Dave Lombardo in The Wire 471. Wire subscribers can also read the article online via the digital library.