Most of the drummers are taking special care about their drum kits, especially when it comes to the looks. They are cleaning them, buying drums in beautiful finishes and adding some extras to make their precious sets look even better. But we all know, that great looking drum kit is often not enough. People want to have things that are unique than most of the drums others have. They want to have some thing beyond awesome while on stage. That’s why some drummers have enormous kits with six bass drums, some of them have minimalistic kits and finally some of them are putting crazy stuff like extra lights, puppets, weird cymbals etc. We really enjoy this kind of drummers and we have picked up ten of them. Let’s see who it is!
- Terry Bozzio
This man is well known to the drummers’ community. His enormous set makes other drummers go crazy! But he hasn’t constructed this monster just to show off- every element is important during his show. Every tom is tuned to certain sound, every hi-hat and splash matters. We were sure about one thing- if you think about big and freaky drum kit you first that comes to your mind must be Terry Bozzio’s one!
2. Harry Miree
He is such a unique artist. Harry is a professional session and your drummer and also a YouTuber. He is the founding member of the rock group called Boom City. Now he performs with such acts as LoCash and vocalist Clare Bowen. He was heavily inspired by Carter Beauford from Dave Matthews band and he spent a lot of time studying the open handed technique. He brought his thoughts on the drum kit and now he plays on something like a lefty kit, but it’s just the illusion. Harry came up with it by himself and it came from the natural approach to the drum kit, just as everyone would do without having any drum knowledge before. Of you want to understand his way of thinking- check out this video video.
3. Aquiles Priester
Brazilian drummer who worked with such artists as Tony McAlpine, Hangar, Angra, Primal Fear or W.A.S.P. He is literally surrounded by drums, and he hits them with great precision. That’s why he was auditioned for the next Dream Theater’s drummer. Unfortunately he didn’t pass the test but this event made him more recognizable in the community. Now his big set is equipped with red Paister Colorsound cymbals and red Evans Hydraulic drumheads. It looks killer!
4. Daru Jones
We saw this incredible musician during this years’ NAMM Show in Anaheim. His feeling and tremendeous grooves blew our minds away. Micro kit with drums set at very strange angle, using his signature 12″ Paiste PST-X DJs 45 cymbals (yes, ride was also 12″) and drumming ideas which were absolutely fantastic- it was like meeting a true mystic! We were thinking that it’s not quite a good way of doing it. But the sounds that he produced made us also think that we were totally wrong. Photo above shows Daru with his larger kit used with Jack White’s band.
5. Trilok Gurtu
This great Indian drummer and percussionist perfectly blends folk music from his region, world music, jazz and blues. He is also well known for working with big names of these genres. He played with John McLaughlin, Jan Garbarek or Gary Moore. His drum kit is a special mix of the tribal instruments such as tabla, darabuka and everything he can use to play his hypnotic tunes with a traditional drum kit.
6. Brandon Mullins
He is the ex-drummer of the hardcore band Beartooth. The music his former band plays is quite fast and very energetic. You may think that to play some awesome fills to it you will need some tom-toms and more cybals. Wrong! Brandon knew that one bass drum, floor, ride, hats and snare are just enough. His kit wasn’t as impressive as his buds from Vans Wraped Tour etc. (After The Burial, Attila) but it’s not the count that matters!
7. Bobby Jarzombek
This drummer is well known from his precise and effective way of playing. He has worked with Riot, Rob Halford and Sebastian Bach (the one from Skid Row, just to be sure). There is an interesting video on YouTube, where Bobby plays incredibly difficult tune on quite big drum kit. There are also many cymbals. The two stays BEHIND him. You may ask why did he hang them there? To make his awesome playing even more awesome! It’s just great to watch when he smacks them wich such ease. It may be not practical, but still… It’s pretty awesome!
8. Frank Beard
The engine of ZZ Top. Frank knows how to chose his drums when it comes to be a sharp dressed man. Big set, massive like a truck on the roads of Texas. Skulls on bass drum heads, skulls on the extra long tom in the middle, special fiery finish- definately look to kill. You can think that it’s more like a heavy metal style. But come on, it’s ZZ Top. They don’t care what you think of them. They are going full throttle!
9. Danny Carey
Drummer of the legendary band called Tool. He is very interesting person. His unique drum parts (inspired by ancient geometrical sciences) and instruments which look like they were taken from the encyclopaedia of black magic makes us think that he really likes books by Aleister Crowley (and yes, he owns these books). Pads has some occult symbols on them. Same thing with his brand new ride by Paiste. This picture shows less scary version of his kit. It’s confusing and amazing in the same time. And of course Danny owns one of the Paiste drum kits made entirely of Bronze. Cool.
10. Neil Peart
Everybody knows him. The one and only Neil Peart of Rush! His enormous kit looks like the inside of some kind of Nautilius from Julius Verne’s novel. It’s called time machine and it truly shows the artistic expression of mr. Peart. Classical with a little bit of modern spirit in it, stylish and ready to kick some butts! We can imagine seeing this beauty with some lights flashing on it. Marvellous…
If you have your types of drummers with unique drum kits let us know in the comments section!
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