Drumception 2017: The Black Dahlia Murder’s Brandon Ellis x Megadeth’s Dirk Verbeuren

Drumception is back!

After last year’s highly successful series that saw Gojira drummer Mario Duplantier matched up with guitarists Jason Suecof (featuring Marty Friedman), Wes Hauch (Black Crown Initiate), Justin McKinney (The Faceless, The Zenith Passage), Brody Uttley (Rivers of Nihil), Scott Carstairs (Fallujah), Chris Broderick (Act of Defiance) and Beau Burchell (Saosin), we’ve partnered with Toontrack and Gear Gods once again for a new iteration of the series that’s going to be bigger and better than ever.

Hot on the heels of the release of Superior Drummer 3, the world’s flagship drum programming software, Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren wrote and recorded a completely original song only on the drums. We then sent Dirk’s drum track to five different guitarists — Brendon Small (Dethklok, Galaktikon), Alex Skolnick (Testament), Will Putney (Fit For An Autopsy), Brandon Ellis (The Black Dahlia Murder) and Reba Meyers (Code Orange) — and asked them each to write their own song on top of it. We’ll be sharing all of those finished tracks with the world throughout October and November as part of our second annual Drumception series.

We kick off this year’s Drumception with a jaw-dropping performance by The Black Dahlia Murder guitarist Brandon Ellis. Watch and listen below to see and hear how he took Dirk’s drum track and concocted his own unique creation on top of it.

Download Dirk’s drum track, record your own guitars over it, and enter our Toontrack giveaway right here. At the end of November, Dirk himself will sort through the entries, pick his favorite and award a prize. The drums were recorded using Superior Drummer 3 which is out now and compatible with all major DAWs.