Linkin Park Drummer Plays Iron Maiden Classic as He Hears It for First Time: Watch

Colin Brittain, current drummer for Linkin Park, played “Hallowed Be Thy Name” by Iron Maiden in the latest edition of Drumeo’s “For the First Time” series. Drumeo challenges drummers to conceive of and execute the drum parts for a song they haven’t heard before as they listen to the tune minus the drum track. Get Iron Maiden Tickets Here Brittain opens the video by showing his vast knowledge of much of contemporary rock before they land on “Hallowed Be Thy Name.” He winds up only doing a single improvised take, leaning on playing fast double-time grooves and even some punky beats, but still manages at times to intuitively pick up some of the dynamics of Clive Burr’s original arrangement. His expectation of a shorter track length is apparent from the surprise and delight on his face as the closing instrumental section kept going and going, forcing him to dig deep into his bag of beats and rudiments to keep generating drum parts as it continued to test him. The video closes with Brittain listening to the original performance, which he praises for its pocket and depth of arrangement picking up unified rhythmic elements across the various instruments. He then gives advice on improvisa...