It's crazy to go from roadie for Slayer right out of high school to Dark Angel, then Death, then Strapping Young Lad, to simply being the tour drummer for a whole host of bands. It doesn't get much better for a musician than that.
It is very hard for me to explain the impact that Individual Thought Patterns has had on my life. Human will always be a DM classic but ITP just knocked something loose in my brain and I get super emotional every time I listen to it.
I saw the Individual Thought Patterns tour in San Francisco in 1993. Amazing. Steve D. was playing a 4 string fretless and Gene was playing a Pearl Custom Z 8 piece double bass kit with Paiste cymbals. He was a machine. This was when he was heavier physically. I was amazed that he could play the patterns- not only his, but Sean’s as well with such precision. Great interview!
Great Interview Best drummer Herd him first on leave scars Then I hear he was on individual thought patterns Thank you for this Takes me back Gene so into this chat
What an exciting musical project to be a part of! I enjoy hearing the excitement in Gene's voice. EVERY Death release is special in whatever it brought forward in that piece of time. I hear people claiming LEPROSY is brilliant, and saying SYMBOLIC and PERSEVERENCE suck. I have heard other's Proclaim PERSEVERENCE and SYMBOLIC over LEPROSY. I exist as a DEATH fan. I love everything Chuck put out. Nothing stay's the same, and it shouldn't. Everything moves forward, whether we like it or not. True artistry is reflective of this, even the great bands that have been accused of releasing the same album over and over again, Maiden and Slayer to name a couple. But what is funny is that Maiden and Slayer did NOT in fact release the same album over and over again, thus the anger and rejection by some fans concerning " Diabolus in Musica" or " somewhere in Time". Great bands have a reference point to a sound, and from that particular sound they head out and explore different Avenue's of expression within it. No one would be in danger of playing a DEATH release and not knowing it was DEATH within a few moments. Consistantly awesome.
Death ITP was my fist introduction to DM no so long after discovering Trash. I was 12yo. I remember listening to it on stereo chain in summer on the balcony with my brother. Gene playing was the start of me paying attention to the drums. Remember I was not used to DM and I was blown away by the drum. My thought was "How is this guy doing to remember how to chain foot, snare and cymbals in that exact order?" I also had hard time getting all that was going on at the same time and at that pace. I remember liking the album but finding that the songs sounded all the same. It took me a bunch of listen to digest all that complexity. And it is the part of what makes listening to a record enjoyable for me. Anyhow, Death is in my top bands and Individual has a spe4cial place in my heart. Great interview! Love Gene!
So I'm listening to this series and REALLY appreciating all of the work you've done and that you continue to dig a little deeper into Control Denied as well. The most REVEALING part of this interview was Gene saying that he wrote 6!!! more songs with Chuck after Symbolic and that some of that material made it to TSOP! WHAT THE F#CK!? Let's not even talk about The Moment of Clarity missing FIRST Control Denied album. Sheesh. ANYWAY! Thank you for this interview and all the others you've done with the Death guys, I really appreciate it as a fan and remasterer of Death material myself it means the WORLD to me to hear these insights. Thank you!
Not lazy. You think Chuck wouldve settled for lazy given they had over half a year to record? Its obviously less complex than the 2 before it but not due to laziness.
Individual thought patterns was a good record, Symbolic was way less interesting.. to say the drumming on death records didn't get good until human is laughable, Bill played killer parts on both records for the material..
