Editorial feature
The 10 Best Metal Drummers of the 21st Century
Three drummers who defined the sound of modern metal, plus seven more who shaped where the genre went next. Ranked by influence, technical authority, and record-defining contribution.
Ranked by DrumThat’s editors
Three drummers who defined the genre, plus seven more who shaped where it went.
01 · Top tier
Tomas Haake
Haake is the architect of polyrhythmic metal. His independent limb work on records like 'ObZen' and 'Koloss' redefined what a drummer could do inside a single bar. Other drummers count beats; Haake plays inside math. Twenty-five years into his career he’s still discovering pulses nobody else hears, and he’s done it without becoming a metronome — there’s a song-craft underneath the geometry that explains why bands a generation younger keep citing him as the reason they pay rent.
Key tracks
- Bleed (2008)
- I Am Colossus (2012)
- Do Not Look Down (2016)
02 · Top tier
Mario Duplantier
Duplantier brought breath to a genre suffocating on technicality. The Gojira drum sound — broad, oceanic, environmentally-themed in name and feel — owes its identity to his decision to play LESS where a Tomas Haake would play more. His double-kick patterns punctuate rather than fill. His fills land where you didn’t expect them to. Watch him solo and the most striking thing isn’t his speed: it’s how often he stops, listens, and lets the room answer back.
Key tracks
- Stranded (2016)
- The Heaviest Matter of the Universe (2005)
- Amazonia (2021)
03 · Top tier
Ray Luzier
Luzier was a session pro before joining Korn — a David Lee Roth tour, Army of Anyone, dozens of clinics — and that voice is what saved a band twenty albums deep from getting stale. He plays the genre’s hardest single-foot patterns at a relaxed tempo. He hits like a session drummer (controlled, recorded-ready) but with the dynamics of a metal drummer (loud when it counts, vacuum-quiet when it doesn’t). Twenty years from now, drummers will still be transcribing his work on 'The Path of Totality' and 'Untouchables Live'.
Key tracks
- Oildale (2010)
- Let the Guilt Go (2010)
- Insane (2019)
04 · Mid
Daniel Erlandsson
Erlandsson is the model of melodic-death-metal drumming — ferocious double-kick foundations holding up a band that lives or dies by its melodic guitar leads. His blast-beat technique is among the most controlled in the genre, and his tasteful hi-hat work elevates Arch Enemy songs that would otherwise read as guitar-only.
Key tracks
- We Will Rise (2003)
- Nemesis (2005)
- The World Is Yours (2017)
05 · Mid
George Kollias
Kollias holds a place no drumming guidebook before him would have predicted: the Greek death-metal foot-speed virtuoso. His double-kick technique is fundamentally re-engineered — toes-down rather than heel-up, controlled at sustained 250+ BPM — and his clinic videos rewrote what was thought possible for a single drummer.
Key tracks
- Sacrifice Unto Sebek (2007)
- Iskander D'hul Karnon (2009)
- Vile Nilotic Rites (2019)
06 · Mid
Mike Portnoy
Portnoy made progressive metal a category. His twenty-five-year run with Dream Theater established the genre’s technical standard — odd time signatures executed with rock-band feel, multi-tom configurations played with kit-drummer pocket, suite-length compositions held together by a drummer who’d clearly studied jazz before he chose metal. The Liquid Tension Experiment instrumental records remain the technical reference. He’s also the rare metal drummer who returned to a band he’d left a decade earlier and immediately sounded better than the version that replaced him.
Key tracks
- The Glass Prison (2002)
- Pull Me Under (1992)
- Acid Rain (LTE) (1998)
07 · Mid
Vinnie Paul
Vinnie Paul was the architect of groove metal. The Pantera records of the early 1990s — ‘Vulgar Display of Power,’ ‘Far Beyond Driven’ — built modern metal’s rhythmic vocabulary around his half-time grooves and rim-knuckle precision. The kick patterns under ‘Walk’ and ‘Cowboys from Hell’ remain the reference for any drummer learning what a metal pocket actually feels like. His death in 2018 ended one of the most-cited drummer careers in the genre’s history.
Key tracks
- Walk (1992)
- Cowboys from Hell (1990)
- Domination (1990)
08 · Mid
Joey Jordison
Jordison reimagined what a metal drummer could be visually and sonically. The Slipknot debut and ‘Iowa’ combined hardcore-punk speed with death-metal precision; he played them on a kit that rotated, while wearing a mask, while the band built one of the most theatrical live shows in the genre’s history. Underneath the staging was a drummer with technical chops most of his peers underestimated until they tried to learn his parts. His passing in 2021 was felt across every metal scene worldwide.
Key tracks
- (sic) (1999)
- People = Shit (2001)
- Disasterpiece (2001)
09 · Mid
Brann Dailor
Dailor plays metal drums like a jazz drummer. His Mastodon catalog is a study in melodic phrasing applied to riff-based metal — the kit is treated as a melodic instrument, fills move conversationally with the guitar, and his vocal contributions are the unusual extra layer few metal drummers have ever attempted. The catalog from ‘Leviathan’ through ‘Hushed and Grim’ shows a drummer who never repeated a fill and never played a part that didn’t serve the song.
Key tracks
- Blood and Thunder (2004)
- Black Tongue (2011)
- Crystal Skull (2006)
10 · Mid
Lars Ulrich
Lars Ulrich is the most-debated drummer in metal — technical opinions range from ‘serviceable’ to ‘openly inadequate’ depending on who’s talking. The reason he’s on this list anyway: no other drummer has been the rhythmic foundation of more sold records in the genre’s history, and no other drummer is responsible for as many drummers picking up sticks in the first place. Sometimes the influence isn’t the playing — it’s the doorway the playing opened. The kit work on ‘Master of Puppets’ and ‘...And Justice for All’ shaped the sonic template for every thrash drummer that came after.
Key tracks
- Master of Puppets (1986)
- One (1988)
- Battery (1986)
Frequently asked
Metal drumming questions, answered.
Who is the best metal drummer of all time?
What's the difference between a metal drummer and a rock drummer?
Who has the fastest double bass in metal?
What kits do most metal drummers play?
Why don't more women appear on metal drummer lists?
Recommended listening
One signature track per drummer — the recordings to study
- 01 Watch on YouTube →
“Bleed”
- 02 Watch on YouTube →
“Stranded”
- 03 Watch on YouTube →
“Oildale”
- 04 Watch on YouTube →
“We Will Rise”
- 05 Watch on YouTube →
“Sacrifice Unto Sebek”
- 06 Watch on YouTube →
“The Glass Prison”
- 07 Watch on YouTube →
“Walk”
- 08 Watch on YouTube →
“(sic)”
- 09 Watch on YouTube →
“Blood and Thunder”
- 10 Watch on YouTube →
“Master of Puppets”