Dave Lombardo might have been the jackhammer heart of Slayer, but there’s more to him than just thrash. If you really want to get his pistons pumping, you’ll get him talking about industrial metal.
“When people were getting into nu metal and grunge, I ventured into the industrial scene and felt more at home there than anywhere else,” he reveals today. “I just found bands like Nine Inch Nails, Laibach and Einstürzende Neubauten so exciting.”
Born in Cuba in 1965 and fleeing with his family to the US as a toddler, he made his name in the 80s as one of the architects of thrash metal. Since then, his career has taken him down some weird and wonderful avenues, from providing the rhythmic attack for Suicidal Tendencies, Testament and Misfits to his collaborations with Mike Patton in Fantômas, Dead Cross and the resurrected Mr. Bungle. Forty years on from Slayer’s debut album, Show No Mercy, he’s busier than ever, playing in Biffy Clyro frontman Simon Neil’s extreme metal side-project, Empire State Bastard, and releasing his very first solo album, instrumental drum solo showcase Rites Of Percussion. It’s a wonder that he has time to talk, but we pinned him down for long enough to look back at the part he played in the birth of thrash, his rollercoaster relationship with Slayer and just what he thinks of Lars Ulrich’s drumming.
“Major! I was two years old when we arrived in the US. We flew directly to California and hooked up with my brothers
