Dave Lombardo has always been associated with percussion instruments and the world famous Slayer band, one of the top four founders of the thrash metal music style. However, in his life and creative career there is much more that is interesting.
Who is Dave Lombardo?
Of course, Dave Lombardo can be attributed to one of the most influential drummers in the history of heavy music. His style of playing the drums, that at the beginning of his career, that today, remains very peculiar and absolutely unique. Speed, skill and aggression - these are the main distinguishing features of his style.
Of course, Dave Lombardo, whose photo is presented above, is more positioned as the drummer of Slayer. It is not surprising, because it was he, along with Carrie King, now deceased Jeff Hanneman and Tom Araya, who stood at the origins of the ascent of the legendary group. But in due time conflicts constantly arose in the team, and Dave left the main staff several times. But he managed to work with no less well-known groups, whose names are written in golden letters in the history of heavy music.
Dave Lombardo: biography
But it was not always so. Many do not know that the future "godfather of double bass barrels", called such a title by the prestigious edition of Drummer World, was born on February 16, 1965 in Havana. Although he did not even think of becoming a professional musician in childhood, nevertheless, like many young people of his generation, he was brought up to the music of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. But it was the Led Zeppelin group that had the primary influence on young Dave.
When he was five or six years old, he gladly tapped empty matchboxes, trying to play along with his favorite band. At the age of twelve, his hobby grew into the fact that he became a member of his first team, called Escape. It was far from professionalism, and rather it could be called a kind of hobby. In addition, Dave's parents began to notice that the guy’s interest in music had clearly increased and he wasn’t interested in anything else, although in his circles, with a group that sometimes performed under the name Sabotage, he became a rather famous person. At that time, his playing style was formed under the influence of another famous team - Kiss, whose fan was young Dave Lombardo.
So everything would have remained just a hobby, but in 1981 there was a meeting with Carrie King, which determined the fate of Dave. At that time, King made friends with Hanneman in the hope of gathering a new band and invited bassist Tom Araya to his place, with whom he had previously played on the same team. Dave Lombardo was in the first roster by accident. At that time, he worked as a pizza delivery man and was just fulfilling an order for King, who told Dave that he was playing the guitar and was assembling a new line-up. After listening, Lombardo was accepted. That is how Slayer appeared with its energetic satanic music, although satanism can be called more likely an outward manifestation or shocking of the collective, rather than a belief or some serious hobby, like the current representatives of black metal.
Since then, his professional career has been going on for over thirty years. He has achieved so much that it is not surprising that the Classic Rock magazine gave him sixth place in the list of the best drummers of all time.
Discography (excerpts)
It was with the Slayer group that Dave Lombardo became famous. The discography of the group with him totals 7 full-fledged studio albums, not counting the huge number of world tours.
Among the albums recorded in the main composition of Slayer, it is worth noting Show No Mercy, Hell Awaits, Reign In Blood, South Of Heaven, Seasons In The Abyss and others. It is noteworthy that Dave Lombardo left the main composition several times. For example, after recording the 1986 album Reign In Blood, Dave left for the first time, seemingly because of financial disagreements, but returned in 1988 to record Seasons In The Abyss. The next time he left the band in 1992, he founded his own project called Grip Inc. Despite all this, cooperation with the Slayer group was periodically renewed from 2003 to 2013 with some interruptions. However, in early 2013, it was officially announced that Dave Lomabrdo was finally dismissed from the team. The reason was called all the same - financial disagreements.
Interesting facts from life
However, Lombardo never despaired, although he considered himself to be too shy person (but not on stage). He managed to work with such thrash metal giants as Testament, recording together with the group as a session musician the sensational album The Gathering (1999). From 2003 to 2010, he participated in the recording of several albums of the Apocaliptica group, did not stop working with the Fantomas collective, not to mention how much time he spent in the studio with other musicians compiling training materials regarding his own school of playing drums or on the set, where he participated in the filming of documentaries and series. And in 2013, he took part in the recording of musical material together with the legendary Brazilian team Sepultura.
It is also interesting that Dave’s son, Jeremy, decided to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious father and already at school age created the group Rain Falls Gray, which gravitates more to the style of metal core. Like his father, Jeremy plays the drums.
But most surprisingly, Dave Lombardo is left-handed, but he was forced to study drums as a right-hander (his teacher did not want to take the young man to study). Actually, now the musician does not make a difference on stage, although he admits that playing “on the left side” is both more convenient and more interesting for him.
Instead of an afterword
Such is the living legend of thrash metal - Dave Lomabrdo. Many drummers have a lot to learn from him. Maybe he doesn’t particularly abuse the variety of rhythmic patterns, like the same Lars Ulrich from the Metallica group, but the aggression and technique of performing any composition is at such a high level that many can simply envy. And is this not one of the main distinguishing features of heavy music?