He’s a two-time Grammy winner, custodian of the drum stool for countless bands and of course, the legendary engine room for much of Slayer’s best work. But this album, the first solo release from Dave Lombardo, is something of a challenge to work with. First, you really need to expel any thoughts of thrash metal, or even music in the wider sense, for this is a journey into sound, an exploration through imagery, creativity, and exploration.
Over the course of 35 minutes and 13 tracks, Dave Lombardo carves out a series of freeform patterns, formed through instinct and experience. There’s no definitive route, no rhythm, just songs that develop as they move, swirling with fantastical style, casting cinematic soundscapes, throwing up images that concentrate the mind, whilst at the same time allowing you to drift into the world which Lombardo sculpts and crafts.
It’s difficult to pick out individual tracks, for the whole album seems to flow in an organic kaleidoscope of movement. Using a wide range of percussion, and a wide range of additional instruments, including a grand piano, a flock of shakers, maracas, Chinese and symphonic gongs, Native American drums, congas, timbales, bongos, batás, wood blocks, djembes, ibos, darbukas, octobans, cajóns, and cymbals, Lombardo perfects layer after layer of sound that gels together. Sometimes it’s a little jarring, such as the intro to “Despojo”, with an abstract time signature and filmic feel. It could be a track from an arthouse movie, or even a deep horror flick. It contrasts with some of the other tracks, such as the mesmeric patterns of “Warpath”, the power of opening song “Initiatory Madness” and the suspense of “Inner Sanctum” and “Omiero”.
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Lombardo has been thinking and planning this album for a long time. “[Mike] Patton originally gave me the idea as far back as 1998,” Lombardo explains. “He introduced me to Tito Puente’s Top Percussion album. I was already familiar with Tito and was a bit shocked that Patton was so musically diverse, and that he surrounded himself with musicians of the same mindset. That inspired me. I have had ideas that I’ve recorded on cassette over the years, but Patton kept insisting that I had to do a ‘drum album.’ So, the idea behind the album is years in the making. I just had to find the right time—for me—to do it.”
Allowing himself time during the pandemic, Lombardo was able to use the time available to finally bring his ideas to fruition. With two drum kits set up in different rooms, alongside the vast range of other instruments, his downtime became productive, and the result is incredibly interesting. Recorded predominantly at home, with some overdubs at Studio 606, his son mixed the album in early 2022 before mastering was completed by John Golden at Golden Mastering.
Ultimately, whether this will work for many is debatable. You genuinely need to immerse yourself in a darkened room with this wrapping around. Sonic vibrations, eerie, echoing parts (check out “Interfearium”) and occasional waves of tribal patterns all converge into one. It’s not an album that will be right for many settings, but when that mood for something different takes you, then reaching for Rites of Percussion may be just the job.
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Rites of Percussion is out on 5th May
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