page_title: Dave Lombardo
section_title: Side projects
hierarchical_section_title: Dave Lombardo / Music career / Side projects
caption_attribution_description: Dave Lombardo at Mama's Music Store, Telese Terme (BN), Italy
context_page_description: David Lombardo is a Cuban-American drummer, best known as a co-founding member of American thrash metal band Slayer. Lombardo played drums on nine Slayer albums, including, Reign in Blood and Christ Illusion. He received critical praise for both of these albums. Lombardo's music career has spanned forty years, during which he has been involved in the production of thirty-five commercial recordings covering a number of genres. He has performed with numerous bands, including Grip Inc., Philm, Fantômas, Testament, and Suicidal Tendencies, in addition to Slayer. Lombardo is currently playing drums with Fantômas, Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Cross, Mr. Bungle and the Misfits.
  Lombardo is widely known as an aggressive heavy metal drummer. His drumming has been praised as "astonishingly innovative". Drummerworld named him "the Godfather of Double Bass". He has had a significant influence on the metal scene and inspired modern metal drummers, particularly extreme metal drummers.
context_section_description: In 1999, Lombardo collaborated with Italian classical musician Lorenzo Arruga to record Vivaldi – The Meeting. The seven-track album had drum improvisations on Vivaldi's work including two pieces from The Four Seasons composition. In 2000, Lombardo released a book titled Dave Lombardo:Power Grooves. The book and video contained warm ups, eight, sixteen, and double bass grooves, riding the toms and more.
  The year 1999 also saw Lombardo perform drum work on the Testament album The Gathering, rounding off a veritable "supergroup" with Steve DiGiorgio and James Murphy. He has appeared on two albums by John Zorn: Taboo and Exile (1999) and Xu Feng (2000) performing with Zorn, Bill Laswell, Fred Frith, William Winant and others. He also played in Paris with Zorn, Laswell and Frith in an improvisatonal quartet project called Blade Runner.
  1999 also saw the release of avant-garde sculptor/filmmaker Matthew Barney's "Cremaster 2", inspired by the life of Gary Gilmore. Lombardo played an epic drum solo accompanied by a swarm of angry bees on the track "The Man in Black".
  In 2005, Lombardo recorded Drums of Death with DJ Spooky. Spooky played some records with Lombardo playing along and interpreting his own rhythms. Spooky recorded the session and took the tapes to his New York recording studio, downloaded it onto his computer, and mixed the beats and drums incorporating scratching and other DJ techniques. Scott Peace-Miller of Glide Magazine noted, "Lombardo's influence is front and center in the driving, up tempo "Quantum Cyborg Drum Machine," and the almost straight-up thrash of Kultur Krieg."
  Lombardo recorded six tracks with the Finnish cello metal group Apocalyptica on their 2003 album Reflections. Members of Apocalyptica had approached Lombardo in 1998 at a drum clinic in the Netherlands titled "Headbangers fest", and asked if Lombardo would like to do a duo with the band, which he agreed to. Both Lombardo and Apocalyptica enjoyed playing a duo and Lombardo said to Apocalyptica, "Whenever you need a drummer, call me!". The band sent the recording tapes of Reflections to his home studio in California where he recorded the drums. Lombardo's later Apocalyptica contributions have consisted of playing the drums for the track "Betrayal/Forgiveness" on the 2005 album Apocalyptica for the track "Last Hope" on the 2007 album Worlds Collide and for the track "2010" on the 2010 album 7th Symphony.
  In October 2009, it was announced that he had recorded a cover of "Stand by Me", featuring Lemmy on vocals and bass, and produced by DJ and producer Baron. The song was made for legendary pro skateboarder Geoff Rowley.
  In 2014, Lombardo firmly planted his feet in the world of television and film. His signature sound can be found on many recordings, such as the Season 7 soundtrack for Californication,  Dawn of the Dead (2004), and Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015).
caption: Dave Lombardo after a clinic in Italy – May 8th, 2014
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