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Drummers, eh. I always liked them, especially as when a bass player. It was always nice to have someone to blame and as a drummer was the only life form lower than a bassist, I formed a special bond with them! But here comes Cryptopsy drummer Flo Mounier with a double disc instructional DVD on extreme drumming, to try and put paid to the all the lies about drummers.

And who knew? It's actually quite difficult. There's much more to it than sitting there trying to keep time with two sticks. Well, there is the way Flo does it. And only a drummer could sit in the one place long enough to watch it all the way through - it lasts a mammoth 200 minutes!

The first thing to praise are the production values which are top notch, considering he's put this out himself. Good work, fella. Disc one is the actual instructional part, which goes into great detail about hand & foot techniques, warm up routines, upper and lower body warm up for practices and shows, warm up for the feet with no practice equipment, stretching & workout tips and speed, endurance & control building exercises. Which, frankly, sounds too much like hard work. Safe to say any drummer I ever played with warmed up with a crate of warm beer and a loud belch, but then, they were rubbish. Probably the most interesting bit for a non seat warmer was the grind library, which shows you how to achieve evey kind of beat from grind through to blast and beyond!

Disc 2 is a performance disc where you can see the results of all the hard work Flo has put in. Now be warned, it starts with sixteen minutes of drum solo, so don't do why I did, which involved putting my jacket on and going to the bar. Pure instinct and I apologise but that's what many decades of gig going does for you. By the time I got back, it was into some excellent Cryptopsy material from behind the drums during the Canada 2004 and USA 2005 tours, which was an excellent perspective. You also get soundchecks, an Adrenaline TV documentary, some Cryptopsy rehearsals of Phobophile and Cold Hate, Warm Blood.

If you are a drummer, then this can't be recommended highly enough, and for the passer by, it more than holds your attention - sorry again about the drum solo.

:twisted :twisted :twisted :twisted out of 5
flomounier.com