So here’s the situation: you’re a pretty good guitarist, and an adequate bassist. You’ve got the idea to start one those one-man-band projects. But there’s a complication: you don’t have a drummer. You don’t play drums, or you tragically suck at drums. And you wouldn’t be able to fit an acoustic kit in your small apartment anyway; even if you could, it seems highly unlikely your neighbours wouldn’t object.
You’ve got a couple options. You can buy a quiet, entry-level electronic kit, maybe some Roland V-Drums, and start practising. Or, you can take a slightly easier approach: program all your drum tracks from scratch.
When I started getting into recording bands in the mid-90s, drum machines just couldn’t cut it for extreme music. They worked for simple rock beats, or industrial and electronic music, but that’s about it. Blast beats? Forget it.
By the mid-2000s, everything had changed. Programming convincing, natural-sounding drum tracks using software samplers became a viable, respectable option. Toontrack’s Drumkit from Hell library changed it all. In fact, one of my favourite albums of the era, Anaal Nathrakh’s The Codex Necro, featured entirely programmed drums, and the album was likely better for it.
Now, we’re in 2022, and often I don’t even recognize programmed drums when I stumble across them. It’s a matter of choosing the best drum samples for the job, and some libraries sound and work out better than others.
So here’s my picks for the best drum sample libraries and software for death metal, black metal, deathcore, or what-have-you.
EZDrummer 3
Recommending EZDrummer might inspire some yawns, but Toontrack dominates this scene for a reason beyond their marketing, and EZDrummer, though more expensive than my other picks, is completely worth the $179 price tag. The default library that comes with the plugin is perfectly useful alone, but the real versatility and power comes from their add-on libraries, which they release on a regular basis.
Of course, Toontrack offers the professional-grade Superior Drummer as well. It’s pretty great–probably the best drum software overall–and if you’ve got cash to spare, I’d highly recommend it.
But for my purposes and budget, it’s overkill. It offers a some handy features that EZDrummer lacks—being able to blend in an additional snare or kick sample with the primary sample is nice, and Superior is great for replacing drums on acoustic tracks. You can even process all your drums from within the plugin. But if you’re only going to be programming your drums from scratch, I just don’t believe those extra features justify the paying the higher price. And it’s worth noting that many of the EZDrummer add-ons are reworked, slimmer versions of the more expensive Superior add-ons anyway.
There’s currently around ten different EZX sample libraries crafted specifically for metal. Of those, three stand above the rest: Modern Metal, Dark Matter, and Metal Machine.
Modern Metal
Recorded by Will Putney (Thy Art is Murder, Misery Index, Lorna Shore), Modern Metal is easily the most versatile library: of all the EZX add-ons, it contains the largest variety of metal-ready kicks and snares (seven and twelve respectively), as well as the largest number of micing variations. There’s something here for every genre of metal.
The raw samples in this library are also, in my opinion, more natural-sounding that those found in the other EZX libraries. If they have been polished and processed, it’s entirely transparent.
Typically, I avoid using any of the mix-ready presets included with drum libraries (and would advise others of the same), preferring to route them to tracks in my DAW and process them manually. And generally I want to start with the cleanest samples I can get—straight from the mic.
So among the EZX libraries Toontrack offers, this one is the most well-rounded, versatile, and gives you the best opportunity to craft a unique drum sound. Ideally, you don’t want anyone to be able to immediately identify the drums in your finished tracks as Toontrack samples. I don’t, at least.
Dark Matter
Recorded by Tue Madsen (Behemoth, Meshuggah), Dark Matter is my second-favourite EZX library primarily because I love the way the raw samples sound. The Yamaha and Pearl kits, in particular, are awesome, with a lot of depth and presence. They sound “bigger” than the samples in Modern Metal, more powerful.
The library is a stripped-down port of the larger Death & Darkness library for Superior Drummer. Having used both, I can attest that the samples in the EZDrummer version are just as good. You’re missing a few articulations and a few microphones, but you’re still left with more than enough for killer results.
I should mention that there’s a companion EZX to Dark Matter, called Death Metal, that was recorded by Mark Lewis (Cannibal Corpse, Whitechapel, Morbid Angel). It offers something closer to an old-school sound, so if you’re recording a lot of 90s inspired death metal, this is a good option too.
Metal Machine
Recorded by the legendary Andy Sneap (Arch Enemy, Exodus, infinitely more) and Testament drummer John Tempesta, the real draw of the Metal Machine library, for me, is how well it cuts through a mix. It’s great for putting together a quick demo with minimal effort.
The library isn’t as large as either its corresponding Superior Drummer library (Metal Machinery) or Modern Metal (which boasts seven different kicks compared to Metal Machine’s three kicks). Although there’s a handful of snares included, the library is largely centered around Tama and Ludwig. But the quality is undeniable, and the samples work extreme well for thrash, deathcore and the more polished styles of black metal.
Getgood Drums Invasion
Getgood Drums offers a few different sample libraries, but for metal, and especially extreme metal, the one to get is Invasion.
It’s a slightly cheaper alternative ($119) to Toontrack while matching (and in some cases exceeding) their quality.
There’s four different kicks, seven snares, the toms are Yahama, and the cymbals are Byzance—a brand you often don’t come across in drum libraries.
There is a caveat—at least for me—in that Invasion is a Kontakt library. It works with the free Kontakt player, so you won’t have to lay down any more cash, but I have never taken to Kontakt, and would prefer a dedicated engine/plugin.
But that’s a personal preference, and has nothing to do with the quality of library—many, many people prefer these samples over Toontrack.
Ugritone Kvlt Drums II
I used Ugritone’s Kvlt Drums II on a Slayer cover awhile back. When I played it for a few friends—people who’ve also been involved in metal and recording for decades—they were surprised to hear “real drums”, and blown away to find out that they were programmed.
There’s not a more natural sounding drum library for metal out there. And I don’t really know how they pulled it off; this library just has something special about it that the others don’t. A common complaint about Toontrack and other prominent libraries is that there’s a “plastic” or over-produced quality to them. Fair enough. I don’t think anyone could ever say that about Ugritone.
The reason it didn’t top the list comes down to this: I think the effectiveness of these drums depends on the style of music you’re recording, and your mixing ability. I’ve had great success using them for 80s thrash, old-school death metal, and that early, second-wave black metal (which is the point).
But if you’re aiming for the pristine sound of the modern metal production found on recent death metal and deathcore albums, styles that more or less embrace the flawless sound of programmed drums (even when it’s a real drummer), Ugritone might not be the way to go. If you typically rely on presets, and only presets, this may not be the sample library for you. Even the presets included require some additional processing to get the best results.
But there is one more enticing detail: the price. This library, including the engine, will only set you back $59 when it’s not on sale. And the sales are frequent—in fact, I think they’re almost always offering at least 15% off. So even if you’re not going to be using Kvlt Drums on every project, it’s a library worth picking up. To date, I’ve purchased all of their libraries except the latest punk & grind kit, and it still cost me less than Ezdrummer alone.
Summary
Obviously this round-up merely scratches the surface of what’s out there, and personal preference is considerable factor. If none of highlighted libraries work for you, here’s couple other popular options to check out.
Addictive Drums 2 by XLN Audio
Steven Slate Drums 5.5 by Steven Slate Drums