Or less awful?

Music Radar is taking votes for its annual best-metal-drummer award. Crowning a “best” musician in any genre is always a thankless, ultimately fruitless, and sometimes downright dangerous endeavor, but none of us semi-evolved simians can resist a list for long. MR’s candidates are more hit than miss at least, a good mix of legendary and new(ish) shredders, so we tip our sticks to that.

Did your fav player make the cut? I voted for Brann Dailor…because I’m quite old I suppose but also because he’s super amazing and I’ve lately been thinking quite a lot about Mastodon, the namesake band of a certain decentralized Twitter alternative. Voting ends on November 20, 2022.

Candidates for Best Metal Drummer of the Year

• Art Cruz – Lamb of God
• Ben Gordon – Parkway Drive
• Brann Dailor – Mastodon
• Casey Grillo – Queensrÿche
• Charlie Benante – Anthrax
• Charlie Engen – Five Finger Death Punch
• Christoph Schneider – Rammstein
• Dan Searle – Architects
• Daniel Erlandsson – Arch Enemy
• Danny Carey – Tool
• Dave Turncrantz – Russian Circles
• Dirk Verbeuren – Megadeth
• Eloy Casagrande – Sepultura
• Fabio Alessandrini – Annhihilator
• Jay Weinberg – Slipknot
• Jon Larsen – Volbeat
• Marco Von Allmen – Zeal & Ardor
• Mario Duplantier
• Matt Alston – Machine Head
• Matt Garstka – Animals as Leaders
• Max Portnoy – Tallah
• Michel “Away” Langevin – Voivod
• Mike Wengren – Disturbed
• Nicko McBrain – Iron Maiden
• Ray Luzier – Korn
• Thomas Haake – Meshuggah
• Thomas Hedlund- Cult of Luna
• Zack Simmons – Goatwhore
• Zyon Cavalera – Soulfly

7/16      San Diego, CA (Coors Amphitheatre)
7/18      Phoenix, AZ (Cricket Wireless Pavilion)
7/19      Albuquerque, NM (Journal Pavilion)
7/20     Denver, CO (Coors Amphitheatre at Fiddler’s Green)
7/22     Kansas City, MO (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre)
7/23     St. Louis, MO (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater)
7/25     Dallas, TX (Smirnoff Music Centre)
7/26     San Antonio, TX (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater)
7/27     Houston, TX (Sam Houston Race Park)
7/29     Tampa, FL  (Ford Amphitheatre)
7/30     West Palm Beach, FL  (Cruzan Amphitheater)
8/1       Virginia Beach, VA  (Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater)
8/2       Pittsburgh, PA (Post-Gazette Pavilion)
8/3       Scranton, PA (Toyota Pavilion)
8/5       Boston, MA  (Tweeter Center for Performing Arts)
8/6       Uniondale, NY (Nassau Coliseum)
8/8       Toronto, ON (Downsview Park)
8/9       Detroit, MI (DTE Energy Music Theatre)
8/10     Chicacgo, IL  (First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre)
8/12     Atlanta, GA (Lakewood Amphitheatre)
8/13     Indianapolis, IN (Verizon Wireless Music Center Indianapolis)
8/15     Camden, NJ (Tweeter Center At The Waterfront)
8/16     Hartford, CT (New England Dodge Music Center)
8/17     Washington, DC (Nissan Pavilion)
8/19     Buffalo, NY (Darien Lake Performing Arts Center)