Metal Drumming Basics: Double Bass and Blasts
Metal drumming is the most physically specialised style in popular music. Two skills define it: a double bass foot pattern that runs faster than most players can tap their hands, and blast beats that sustain those speeds for minutes at a time. Everything else is standard rock drumming at volume.
The short answer
Two core techniques.
Double bass means playing a kick pattern with both feet, alternating, rather than a single-foot pattern. The standard motions are heel-up (the whole leg driving the beater) and heel-down (an ankle-driven motion), and most players end up combining them depending on the speed.
Blast beats are patterns where a fast hand figure — a single-stroke roll or a snare-and-cymbal alternation — is played continuously over a fast double bass pattern, usually at 180 to 280 BPM.
Learn them slowly, and learn the relaxation before the speed.
The two foot techniques
Heel-down keeps the heel on the pedal board and rotates the ankle to drive the beater. It is quieter, more controlled and easier to keep even, and it suits moderate speeds — roughly up to 180 BPM in sixteenth notes.
Heel-up lifts the heel and uses the whole leg, with the beater returning off the head. It is louder and can be faster, but it demands more stamina and more careful technique, because a tense leg at speed is what causes most injuries.
The swivel is a heel-up variant where the foot rocks slightly side to side as it strikes, which lets the ankle take some of the load off the shin at very high speeds. It takes months to develop and should not be attempted before heel-up is solid.
Most metal drummers end up mixing techniques. A common pattern is heel-down for mid-tempo grooves and a switch to heel-up or swivel for the fast sections, with the transition practised until it is seamless.
::: callout
The counterintuitive part: the fastest double bass players usually look like they are doing almost nothing. Visible effort is a sign the technique is wrong, because speed at these tempos comes from the rebound and from relaxing the ankle between strokes, not from driving harder. A drummer whose legs are visibly straining is working against the physics of the pedal.
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Beater and pedal setup
The setup matters more in metal than in any other style, because the same mistakes repeated at speed become injuries.
Beater height and angle. A beater set too far from the head means a longer travel, which costs time and energy. Set it closer, and adjust the spring tension lower than feels natural to begin with.
Pedal spring tension. Lower tension makes the beater easier to drive and is where speed work should start. Players often increase tension over time as control improves, but starting high is a common beginner error.
Seat height. Higher than for other styles, so the thigh sits slightly above horizontal and the hip can drive without the knee rising. Too low forces the shin to work at a bad angle, and that is a leading cause of shin and ankle trouble.
Beater choice. Lighter beaters are faster; heavier beaters are louder and hit harder. For speed work, lighter is usually correct, and a hard beater face gives a more defined attack.
Blast beats
A blast beat is a fast hand figure played over a fast double bass pattern. The term covers several related patterns, and the two you will meet most are:
Traditional blast. The hands alternate between the snare and a cymbal — snare, crash, snare, crash — at high speed, while the kick plays sixteenths. It sounds dense and continuous, and the cymbal part is what gives it the wall-of-sound quality.
Bomb blast. Both hands hit together — snare and cymbal simultaneously on every stroke — which sounds heavier and narrower than a traditional blast. It is easier to keep even because the hands move as one unit.
Hammer blast. A slower, more controlled variant, usually one hand on the snare playing continuously and the other on the cymbal. It sits between a blast beat and a regular fast punk beat.
Tempo ranges from about 180 BPM for the slower blasts up to 280 BPM and beyond for grindcore. At the top end, the distinction between a blast and a continuous roll blurs, which is the point.
Building speed safely
This is the section that matters most, because the alternative is an injury that ends the pursuit.
Never practise fast for long. Speed work should be in short bursts — 20 to 30 seconds — with equal rest. Two minutes of continuous maximum-speed double bass is not training, it is damage.
Stop at the first sign of ankle or shin pain. Not at the end of the exercise, at the first sign. Tendonitis develops from repeated sessions that push slightly past the limit, and it takes months to resolve.
Increase tempo in small steps. Five BPM per week is a realistic progression at the top end, and faster progressions lose control rather than gain speed.
Practise the motion slowly and deliberately. Slow repetitions build the specific muscle pattern and the relaxation that makes speed possible. Speed is a consequence of efficiency, not of trying harder.
Warm up properly. Ten minutes of moderate playing before any speed work. Most metal injuries happen in the first five minutes of a session, which is exactly when the muscles are cold.
Build general strength. Ankle and hip-flexor strength support the motion, and a few minutes of dedicated work a week measurably improves endurance at the end of a set.
If you are already experiencing pain, stop and treat it as an injury rather than a technique problem. Pushing through it with more volume or more repetition is how a two-week strain becomes a two-month one, and the drums will still be there in a fortnight.
Kit setup for metal
A metal kit is typically larger than a punk one and arranged for speed of access rather than minimum movement.
The essentials: a double pedal (or two bass drums), a snare within easy reach of both hands, two crashes on opposite sides so a fast alternation between them is possible, and a ride positioned for quick access. Toms are usually shallower and tuned higher for attack rather than resonance, because the music rewards definition rather than sustain.
Cymbals tend to be heavier and louder, and the snare is tuned high and tight with a hard attack. Volume and cut matter more than warmth, which is the opposite of the tuning priorities in most other styles.
Where metal sits among the grooves
Metal shares its basic structure with rock and punk and diverges entirely in the physical demands. A drummer who can play rock at 120 BPM and punk at 180 will find that the metal patterns are recognisable but the feet are a completely separate skill that needs training from scratch.
The hand technique transfers directly, and the blast beat is essentially a fast single-stroke roll with a bass drum underneath — which means practice pad exercises build much of the hand speed required. For the endurance and tempo progression, how to build speed gradually applies to feet as much as hands.
::: verdict
Spend a month on heel-down double bass at 120 BPM in sixteenth notes, 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off, before attempting any blast beat. The urge to jump straight to the fast stuff is the single most common reason metal drummers end up injured and unable to play at all.
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Frequently asked questions
The questions readers send us most about metal drumming basics.
Build from slow, short repetitions with full relaxation, and increase tempo by about five BPM per week. Speed comes from efficiency and reuse of the beater's rebound rather than from effort, so visible straining is a sign the technique is wrong. Practising in 20 to 30 second bursts with equal rest also prevents the overuse injuries that end many attempts.
A pattern where a fast hand figure — usually snare alternating with a cymbal, or both together — is played over a fast double bass pattern, typically between 180 and 280 BPM. There are several variants, including the traditional blast with alternating hands and the bomb blast with both hands together.
Most players use both. Heel-down is quieter and more controlled and suits speeds up to roughly 180 BPM in sixteenth notes; heel-up is louder and faster but demands more stamina. The usual approach is to learn heel-down first and add heel-up for the fast sections.
Yes, and ankle tendonitis and shin splints are common among drummers who practise speed work with a tense foot or past the point of fatigue. Reducing session length, increasing tempo slowly, warming up, and stopping at the first sign of pain all reduce the risk substantially. Persistent pain should be treated as an injury rather than a technique problem.
Basic alternating double bass at moderate tempo is achievable in a few weeks with regular short practice. Playing fast sixteenths at 200 BPM or above, sustained through a song, typically takes years. The limiting factor is relaxation and endurance rather than the motion itself, which is why the early progress is fast and the later progress is slow.