#24: JADE SIMONETTO (HATE ETERNAL)
MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Drummers, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play drums (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Hate Eternal’s Jade Simonetto…
Name Jade Simonetto
Age 27
Motto “Steroids = Success” (not srs)
Bands Hate Eternal, Camille Rhodes
Kit size Reasonable
Too many cymbals and shit? Maybe.
Hotness 8
“It’s not rare to see Jade practicing his double bass or on pads after playing a headlining set. Who the fuck does that?” asked Hate Eternal frontman Erik Rutan in a MetalSucks interview back in April. Good question! The answer: The drummer who replaces mega-stud Derek Roddy. The drummer whose boss is Rutan, an extreme metal titan and unrelenting excellentist. The drummer charged with propelling two monster Hate Eternal albums. That’s who hits the practice room in every spare moment.
So, astounding chops aside, it’s heart that characterizes Simonetto: He foreswears shortcuts (but defends triggers), pointing to the five weeks of tracking for Hate Eternal’s 2011 triumph Phoenix Amongst The Ashes as evidence of his and Rutan’s shared quest for realness. (With some helpful software, the same sessions could’ve wrapped in a week.) And for his efforts, brutal death metal fans enjoy two masterpieces of groove and blunt force: Phoenix and 2008’s masterful, drum-loud Fury & Flames. Alive in Simonetto’s beats is a human pulse, a throbbing accent that rivets ears to Hate Eternal’s labyrinthine jamz.
Which is awesome. For as the Metal Drummer transformed from flailing powerhouse to motionless, clenched athlete with fluttering wrists poised above kit, drums became as busy as guitars and departed from the confines of time-keeping and rhythm. Drums can be a lead instrument now — just as death metal vocals are kinda a rhythm instrument — but in Simonetto’s hands, every cymbal and tom serve the groove, locking the listener to the many, many changes flying past them at baffling speed. Basically, he’s an ace marksman mounted atop a huge canon in the Hate Eternal army. Be glad he’s forever practicing his aim.
-ADF
THE LIST SO FAR:
#25: Mike Portnoy (Adrenaline Mob)
