Dave Lombardo
Rites Of Percussion

Rites of Percussion represents the solo debut album of the good Dave Lombardo. Released in May of last year, it is undoubtedly one of the works I preferred in 2023, even though it took me several months to understand and fully appreciate it. Because it is a decidedly disorienting work for someone like me who has known the drummer for decades and expected something unprecedented in terms of speed; but that's not the case here because we are really at the antipodes.

For those who don't know, hopefully very few on the site, Dave has been one of the armed forces of Slayer and it is easy for me to identify him as one of the best drummers I have ever heard. A war machine, with an inimitable use of the double bass drum that marked essential albums for Thrash Metal like Reign in Blood, a true cornerstone and starting point for the most crude and violent Metal. He has played with figures like John Zorn and Mike Patton, showcasing his refined instrumental art on records by Fantomas, Mr. Bungle, Dead Cross, Testament, Suicidal Tendencies, Grip Inc., plus dozens of other collaborations. From a quick calculation I've done, there are about a hundred albums that always see him as an absolute protagonist with his tentacular instrument.

Seen live with Slayer, Fantomas, and Grip Inc., remaining "stunned" by his proverbial precision and technique, with an additional disarming ease of execution, seemingly without ever exerting effort. Truly something unique not only in the metal realm!

Encouraged by his friend and companion in a thousand musical escapades, Mike Patton, during the pandemic biennium 2020-2021, Dave decides to lay hands on a solo project he had conceived since 1998. He had all the necessary time to dedicate himself to an ode to percussion, recording in his home transformed into a studio with the collaboration of his son. A free and creative flow of sounds, with the drums and double bass drum not as prominent as I would have expected. Dave hinges on the presence of a piano, congas, cymbals, bongos, Native American drums, plates, maracas for a final result not easy to assimilate.

A perfect work for a film soundtrack, where the tribal nature of a sound always under control reigns supreme. Dave never stabs the listener in the side; he prefers to work with finesse, enchanting with passages that seem completely improvised due to how disorienting they are. You enter an endless whirlwind of polyrhythmic percussive variations, played with innate elegance, having fun and never over the top.

It should be listened to as a whole, in fact, it lasts just over half an hour, and for this reason, I don't even find it necessary to go into detail about the thirteen tracks that compose this true explosion of sounds.

Ad Maiora.