Drum Teacher Reacts: GENE HOGLAN | Death Track Playthrough 'The Philosopher' | (2020 Reaction) 

Hey! Check out my REACTION PLAYLIST... ru-vid.com/group/PLqspKksRqaUURy8K34sBSKvuGo3ApmLC2

I'm a sound engineer and have worked with Gene once. He was very polite and respectful. It's great when your heroes are good people.

Chuck Schuldiner is not just some guy screaming in your ear. He is the godfather of death metal. And may he rest in peace. Go and check out more of DEATH... Everything the band did was amazing. And Gene was a perfect fit for the group.

I will never forget when Death played in Dortmund on a festival and worked backstage preparing food and stuff and Gene suddenly stood before me with a bottle of Jim Beam in hand asking me if I wanted to have a drink. He and Chuck have been so friendly and welcoming, Chuck even gifted me a hoodie with all their signatures. These guys will always have a very special place in my heart. May you rest in peace, Chuck!

Here's a quote from Gene in an interview from 2010 : "My style was unorthodox because I’m ambidextrous. My main leading hand is my left hand so anyone that would try to teach me would say “you can’t play like that.’ And I’m like ‘why not, there don’t have to be any rules.’ It just fueled my fire."

Gene Hoglan AKA "The Atomic Clock" can make a metronome play out of time. Super chill guy, extremely skilled. The double ride/ambidextrous thing is quite common amongst metal drummers.

Little does anyone know, Gene is still playing the outro in his basement with new fills each time.

That entire album "individual thought patterns" is INCREDIBLE. The bass work is top notch. Its perfect. Check it out.

Gene is entirely self taught and possibly the nicest guy you'll ever meet.

Gene is the OG. Despite how lunatic fast he is, he plays smart, never over plays the song and sticks to what musically fits. And he's s accurate as hell.

His work on Symbolic is, IMO, the best metal drumming ever. Yes, some folks are faster nowadays, but Gene is supremely creative, fast, groovy. He has it all. He'd look more stressed waiting in line at the supermarket.

Gene is extremely skilled drummer, one of the best. Plus he is really one of the nicest guys in the world.

Not only is he ambidextrous, he also sets his drum set up so that one side is tuned higher than the other, including cymbals. He is a maniac and in my top 10 drummers.

This guys got no idea of how the recording of this song fades out way too early and what a treat it is to death fans hearing this.

That guitar and bass conversation at the end of the song is something else.

And this song was first recorded with Gene in 1993. WHO played like this back then ? He did. Truly amazing. 1995 Death album called Symbolic. Amazing

i met Gene in 2014 in cleveland on the Death DTA run, he was very kind and gentle, was EXTREMELY appreciative of us driving from detroit to see them. chatted for a few hours in the cold, signed my setlist, and wished us a safe trip home and a happy thanksgiving. dude is the real deal, genuinely nice, and humble as all hell. a class act.

I met Gene in the crowd before a SYL show once. Two things: he's very tall in person and he's also one of the nicest and soft spoken guys ever. Totally not what you'd expect based on visual appearance.

Gene's free floating pearl snare has got to be the greatest punchiest sounding snare ever

I'm kinda jealous you're discovering this guy for the first time.

A couple years back Testament and Anthrax toured together and many of the shows, if not all, he pulled double duty. He's recorded and toured with some of the best, truly a metal drumming icon!

That's a great point about horror movies and heavy metal. I personally think the two go together like peanut butter and chocolate...there are so many themes that overlap for both: the exploration of the dark side of humanity, the nature of evil, the aggression, the violence, the shock value. Silly and juvenile sometimes? Yes. Still fucking awesome? HELL YES. I definitely think people who didn't really fit in growing up or who feel somewhat alienated by society gravitate towards darker, less accessible fare like horror and metal...I certainly did, even though you wouldn't think I was into either if you saw me: I'm a just clean-cut, short-haired, glasses-wearing, nerdy computer engineer. Like you said, most of us are just normal people who happen to love all things horror and metal for whatever reason.

This is such a treat!! I'm a massive Death fan and the last 90 seconds of that song is one long fade out. That's the first time I've heard the end of that song in full amplification to be able to hear Chuck's guitar and Steve's bass. Those three are really high caliber in their musicianship. It's what's made them all famous. Gene is a legend in the metal community, Chuck tragically died over 20 years ago but was the Godfather of death metal, and IMO, the best guitar player of all time. Steve diGiorgio is the bass player and is also an icon in the metal community, he's right after Les Claypool and Geddy Lee in my books. NZ is my ultimate destination. I have never been. I literally live on the other side of the world from you (East Coast of Canada) but I stumbled across a local NZ band, only famous in NZ somehow, and they were mind blowing!! They disbanded now but you should really check out Cripple Mr. Onion, they started out in Christchurch and moved to Auckland before they broke up. You really should check them out!!

From what I've heard in interviews and seen live, he tends to switch back and forth between left and right leads on his hands and feet. The consistency is incredible, all the strokes have the same power at every speed and from both sides, and the versatility is off the charts

Gene is a top 10 DM drummer for sure. His work in Death is among the cleanest and most groovy you'll hear. Individual Thought Patterns is such a good record. Also, RIP Chuck.

I watched him play with his band dark angel when I was 16 or 17 I’m 53 now and Gene is still killing it mad respect

One of the things that sets Gene apart for me is his groove. He's really funky in a weird way. It's a shame that his drums in Testament are totally overproduced, so his personality doesn't get to shine through as much.

To put it simply: Gene Hoglan is not human and his drumming knows no bounds. I personally think his work with Brendon Small (Dethklok) is some of his best work.

He is a Legend, death, strapping young lad, testament, Opeth, dethkolk and a few other bands and he is still going strong!!!!

Gene is an amazing left handed drummer, with a very unusual style, had the opportunity to hang with him for a couple of years before he recorded the death Albums, Great human being.

Absolute monster. Plays in leg weights. Often for the first few songs of his sets until a track with lots of fast kick drum stuff. Then he drops the weights and let's his feet fly. There's a cool drumeo sesh/interview on RU-vid from gene to.

check out his stuff with strapping young lad, like Skeksis from taht same seesion.

He's ambidextrous, plays in boots with ankle weights with like 20 different bands. Best drummer ever.

Hey guys! As a way to prioritize the amount of reaction requests I'm getting via email/instagram and in the RU-vid comments... I am going to try and do the Patreon picks first. There is no limit on the Patreon (could be $1/month). www.patreon.com/AndrewRooneyDrums I still love you if you are NOT a Patreon contributor. And I will still try and get to your pick. It's a just a reward for those that help out with costs/time involved with doing the vids. Disclaimer: No guarantees. I can only do what I can do. If a vid is blocked... it's blocked. I'll do my best! Note: Patrons also get exclusive access to the vids that get blocked :) Thanks for watching!

Gene Hoglan has such a great aura because he's a great guy, in interviews he's a humble, funny and easy going guy, in fact a lot of metal musicians are easy going and cool guys

Great review. He's one of the best to do it. He once stood in last second for a band called Opeth and played Strapping Young Lad at the same festival. He's amazing. Not all metalheads are satanic, fyi. They can be political, religious, or focus on realities most wont' talk about (environmentalists like Gojira and Fit for an Autopsy).

So many phenomenal drummers out there!! WHOA!! Ty

He’s incredibly talented experienced and great sound.. a real power house player..awesome

I don’t know if I have just been living under a rock but I never knew Hi-hat chocking was a thing! Simply a legend

Gene is one of my greatest inspirations since before i started to play drums. I say before, 'cause i listened to Death years before playing and Gene really impressed me. He's one of the reasons i started playing

That footwork on the bridge part is absolutely phenomenal. The way he is EXTREMELY precise yet makes it look so easy is just baffling.

He's absolutely amazing. He was in testament too as well as the ones you mentioned. Metal bands try to recruit him all the time because of his obvious abilities. He was one of the only drummers that did the open playing and the first that I saw that had rides on the left and right of the kit. You should check out death(the album symbolic). In my opinion it's one of thier best. Whole albums great. Incredible drumming,guitar,and bass. Very well put together. Excellent musicianmanship and arrangements. Cool,wierd,and funky time signatures. Chuck Scholdner(not sure if spelled correctly) is also a legendary guitarist(rip). The band death is also arguably the original progenitor of death metal.🤘😝🤘

i saw Gene play live, a month ago. truly memorable evening.

For my money, outside the super-extreme metal drummers, he's one of the all-time great metal drummers.

He OWNS the drums by swagger and power, as Bonham did

So much intention in every instance! Lyrical and musical drumming in death metal man that’s art

He's the drummer on my fav Death album, favourite Strapping Young Lad album and more. He's absolutely amazing, named the atomic clock for a bloody reason and I've heard nothing but positive comments about him as a person. Often watch his performances just because I know it's gonna be good.

Gene Hogland is an absolute legend. Glad you mentioned his rapsheet!

This guy taught Lombardo double bass while he was his tech Absolute legend All the Strapping Young Lad stuff is top notch as well

He is ONE of the BEST METAL DRUMMERS EVER. You should listen Individual Thought Patterns and Symbolic from my FAVORITE BAND DEATH. \m/

I would definitely recommend watching Eloy Casagrande play Sepultura’s Manipulation of Tragedy. He’s so dynamic and powerful in his playing. Definitely one of my favorite drummers to watch

Who doesn't love Gene? Class act.

I love lower cymbal setups. they look sick and make for lovely mobility, especially for drummers in the more petite range ☺️

Yes, Mr. Hoglan is an ambidextrous drummer. Very humble, kind person which just adds to the fact that he's one of my personal favorites. That and the fact that he's know as The Atomic Clock. He does some crazy shit on both Death's "Symbolic" and "Individual Thought Patterns". He's currently playing with Testament and he never disappoints behind the kit!

His work with Dark Angel and Death is fast, appropriate and crystal clean.💲💲

the best metal drummer with huge influence. He helps Dave Lombardo to develop double kick technique

There’s an extended version of “the philosopher” on RU-vid, I highly recommend to check that out if you want to hear the original Gene Hoglan drumming on that track. Insane stuff

I'm pretty sure he is genuinely ambidextrous, at least on drums. Only thing I can really add, if no one else has, is he was an early drum tech for Slayer, and he taught Dave Lombardo a few tips about playing on a double bass setup (something that apparently wasn't commonly done in metal or rock at the time). Also, definitely a polite, soft spoken guy. I watched him streaming for some time, and one time even commented that his speech patterns are similar to the way Red Skelton used to talk on stage.

Mr Rooney finall reacting the Mr Hoglan the atomic clock!!! Love to see it! Cheers as always for the content mate

Oh man, he gets into a total zen mode when he plays. I had the pleasure of going to a tiny Gene Hoglan drum clinic and got to meet him. He's a nice guy, too. So talented.

Death was the father of death metal as a genre, but as you can hear from this track it was anything but standard issue death metal. Chuck's vision (RIP) was heavy, brutal but also progressive and highly intelligent. As evidenced by the crazy intricate drumming, unusual phrasing on the solos and crazy fretless bass work. As is so often the case with genius musicians, we lost Chuck way to soon. And despite being a notorious perfectionist, most everyone that worked with him (Gene included) spoke incredibly highly of him. Chuck himself evolved heavily over the years, from a more stereotypical death growl on earlier albums to the vocals on this track which seem to have inspired bands like Gojira to a crazy high rasp on their final masterpiece "The Sound of Perseverance". Gene himself is a mainstay of metal, he's worked with countless bands. I think he's most well known for his work with legendary thrash band Testament, but he also worked with Death, Dethklok and countless other projects. I truly believe part of the reason why Gene stays so busy is because he is one of the sweetest guys out there. All you have to do is sit in on one of his twitch streams. Just the nicest of guys.

He's goooood and his kit sounds great!

On metal drummers looking so chill while doing crazy shit: relaxation is critical for speed, power, and doing it all without hurting yourself. If you get tense, you waste energy and pull muscles. It takes a lot of time to develop the knack for staying loose while playing such aggressive music, but its incredibly helpful, especially if you want to keep doing it as you grow older.

This was awesome!!!! Thanks again!!!

Gene have played in tons of bands and you can always tell is him. rock solid drummer.

YO THANKS FOR THE GALLOPING MIME THATS GOLD MAN! 5:20

"He looks so Zen!" He actually played drums in a song called Zen, by SYL. A very Zen song indeed. ;)

your reaction to the band death makes me so proud of loving them!

Just saw Hoglan playing with Death to All, and I thought the same thing. So nonchalant and yet so on point. His renditions of early death material he wasn't on originally just took them to another level. I was astounded!

Andy your channel kicks major ass.. yhank you buddy.

The music is accompanying Gene, not the other way around. He's a drum wizard. He waves his hand and it's all magic.

Gene Hoglan and Dave Lombardo are two of the most personable drummers out there. And they know each other quite well...

I once met him in The Hague at a clinic at Cesar Zuiderwijk the drummer of The Golden Earing. He told me afterwards that he is left handed but because of saving time while touring with other bands he learned to play a right-handed kits. Greetings from Holland.

Met Gene at a Strapping Young Lad show back in 04 or 05, dude was very nice. He's insane on the kit.

I met Gene around 2010 or early 11 at a fear factory concert! He was a super chill guy and I'll never forget it

Funny fact. Gene was Slayer’s Dave Lombardo’s drum tech way back when. I met Lombardo at a festival in the late 90s, I was wearing my Death tshirt. During our conversation he pointed at it, and said Gene was and is a monster player, double bass for days!

Wow. He was way more relaxed playing that then I was watching it, lol. Excellent!

Horror movies... that’s how I’ve always described some of the more intense sounding metal genres to non-listeners. It’s the musical equivalent of a horror movie

As everyone else has stated, nicest guy in metal. Also, no one mentioned the ankle weights/combat boots combo!

Death always had excellent drummers

I’ve never even seen hi-hats played that low before.

Gene was one of my bucket list drummers to see live (Neil Peart, Terry Bozzio, Gene, Mike Portnoy) and I was so happy to see him play live with Dethklok. He's an absolute monster, and by all accounts an absolute gentleman.

One of the best drummers around

Gene is a rare breed in drummers. Self taught and can play anything and any style as well. He is ambidextrous for sure. The only other summer that I know in his same class would be Gar Samuelson (ex Megadeth)

A nice guy and very talented drummer👍

Gene has a style. I mean, you just know it's him. Plus, his stuff while playing with Death is SO creative. This song alone has so many different sorts of fills and it's just inspiring to hear him play.

I saw Hoglan with strapping young lad, at Dynamo Open Air 1998. He went on stage briefly just to do a quick sooncheck if his drum were set allright. He quickly tried a very agressive drums testing. He did it if it took really no effort, but I saw peaces of wood of his drumsticks just flying away. It was almost if he played the drumsticks looked like reduced to dust in no time. If I am correct, he was on a clinic in Holland to show what he could. He had weights (from like weightlifters training) on his legs, and still he was lightning fast with double bass pedals. When the weights were removed, he was so fast it almost sounded like a continues note rather than hearing the actual bassdrum. I am sure I don't want to be in an argument with him, more hits per second than Bruce Lee

Gene is a legend. I am a huge Death fan. Good stuff.

He is a genius, and unbelievable double bass player. I seen him so fast and clean, with big heavy work boots before. Unheard of in heavy boots!!!!!!

One of the greatest to ever do it.

An absolute originator. His work, especially with Strapping Young Lad (Devin Townsend was the singer, also tracks drums on his solo work) was groundbreaking. The reason for the boots, used to/may still be weighted as well are to pull his feet down so his motion is more of a lift of the foot than just a push/press.

Gene Hoglan are so good. The band that recorded this were phenomenal. Of course Chuck Schuldiner on vocals/guitar, Gene Hoglan on drums, Steve Di Georgio on fretless bass and Andy LaRocque on guitar. Steve and Gene from Testament and Andy from King Diamond

Did anyone mention, just for further amazement, that Gene generally plays with his giant t Doc Martins and occasionally ankle and wrist weights that he just decides not to take off after warming up?

One of the nicest guys in metal.

I fucking love watching the reactions of people who aren’t familiar with certain Metal musicians when they actually get to see them play on video and see how complex and intricate some of these guys are when they’re manning their station. Gene is a master. He might not be as fast as some of the really extreme guys but he makes up for it in feel and technicality, and in spades. One of my favorite drummers. I bought Individual Death Patterns back in the early ‘90’s when I was in my last years of high school and even though I was a guitarist who worshipped Chuck, may the Legend rest in peace, Gene’s drumming blew my mind because I’d never heard anything like that before. I thought he was the best drummer in the world until a few months later when I heard Morbid Angel‘a Covenant album. Pete Sandoval was and still is a true drumming god. Some of these newer guys who focus just in hyperspeed bore me to tears. Give me a good old ‘90’s Metal drummer any day of the week.

I first learned of Gene through Dark Angel, who I saw on the Scars tour, and love that band. I saw Death before Gene joined as well as after (perks of living near Tampa), and he undoubtedly added a new dimension to the Death sound and Individual Thought Patterns is a genre classic. There are only a handful of drummers I pay attention to with Gene being one and Tomas Haake (Meshuggah) being another. Dave Lombardo also, of course, but it was Gene who taught him to double bass.

to me...one of the major keys that make Gene a monster drummer is the clean way that he plays....man....so hard...so heavy but sooooo Clean

Gene was originally left handed until one night on a death angel tour he slept funny and trapped a nerve and when he woke up a couple hours before the gig he could barely move his left arm and could only manage a backbeat. so he was flung into the deep end and did the gig playing right handed and manged and then wanted to work on improving total ambidexterity and over the years mastered it in hands and feet (check his vid Skesis for a good show of that). the open handedness comes from him being to fat back in the day to cross arms quickly without hitting his beer belly! Just found your channel and love your take on the drums reaction. If you want to see some of Gene's best works check out his video of Skesis. or for in my opinion his best work and my fav drum track of all time check out his work of Almost Again by strapping young lad, it a masterpiece! sadly there's no vid of gene playing it just the recording but Krim does a good cover if you want a drum cam.

Always keep im Mind that this Track was made in the Mid 90´s. This is awesome

An awesome drummer! One of many great drummers who have played for Death ie Sean Reinert and Richard Christy and Chris Reifert