Friday 5: 5 Reasons To Wack It For Brooks Wackerman
Happy Friday, MetalSucks reader! Welcome to MetalSucks Friday 5, our awesome series that appears every Friday (duh) on MetalSucks (duhh) and involves the quantity of five (duhhh).
Here’s how it works: A list of best/worst/weirdest/whatever five somethings is posted by one of your beloved MetalSucks contributors or by one of our buds (like you?). Then you, our cherished reader, checks it out, has a chuckle, then chimes in with a list of the same. No sweat, just whatever springs to mind, k? (Just like that movie about those losers working at a Chicago record store!) After all, it’s Friday — the day dedicated by the gods to mindless, fun time-wasting.
Today, let’s celebrate metal’s adoption of an awesome drummer!
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THE FIVE
In what five ways is Brooks Wackerman a huge score for his new bosses in Avenged Sevenfold ?
THE LISTER
Anso DF, MetalSucks senior editor
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“Prove It” by Bad Religion
from The Process Of Belief
2002 | Epitaph
This week, fans of awesome drumming took a ride on an emotional roller coaster: this rad drummer Brooks Wackerman announced his departure from an awesome old-ass pop-punk band that he had helped to invigorate a decade ago. Bummer. In the shoes of his former bandmates, I’d consider that a daunting vacancy. We fans too were stressed out at this point, but before anybody could mourn, we learned of his new gig in a big commercial metal band. Sweet! Right?
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“Cyco Vision” by Suicidal Tendencies
from Freedumb
1999 | Suicidal
It must be tough to be replaced by Brooks Wackerman. Not there’s any shame: His predecessors in Suicidal Tendencies, Bad Religion, and now Avenged Sevenfold vacated the position under no shameful circumstances — they were temporary hires or had suffered an injury — yet they must sweat about the fact that suddenly their best stuff seems a tad weak next to Wackerman’s. It’s the difference between a sprinter leading a pack and a sprinter pulling a sled with the pack on it.
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“All There Is” by Bad Religion
from The Empire Strikes First
2004 | Epitaph
Bad Religion’s third era was marked by the return of guitarist Brett Gurewitz, by their return to Epitaph Records, by the end of their deals with Atlantic then Sony, a three-guitar BR. Its second album, The Empire Strikes First, was produced by Gurewitz and singer Greg Graffin. on his drum parts. From that we might infer that Wackerman not only wrote the many snappy beats in “All There Is,” but also identified where they were needed and how much. It’s like, say, if Da Vinci painted the “Mona Lisa” only after actually creating its human subject from scratch. That analogy is an overstatement but you feel me.
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“Sorrow” by Bad Religion
from The Process Of Belief
2002 | Epitaph
In joining Avenged Sevenfold, Wackerman again finds himself in a band that’s paused at a fork in the road: AX7 is overdue to have its own sound (which seems terrible but is not) and it’s preventing them from becoming a real force. For most bands, this hurdle is cleared in a band’s infancy, their fake-it-til-ya-make-it days now hidden on demos and maybe a little debut album. But not for AX7, a handful of big releases and an eternity later, AX7 offers no novelty or singularity, just the sound of guys who like iconic records. Is Wackerman the key?
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“Beyond Electric Dreams”
from The Empire Strikes First
2004 | Epitaph
AX7 has tipped their hand that they maybe seek a boost from an expert on dynamics and momentum. They have a big fanbase, they are doing whatever possible to be great. Improvement is what everybody wants from even the bands they hate. If that’s AX7 for you, you’re free to think that this move is a waste of Wackerman, a blow for Bad Religion, and the last desperate move for a kinda big band. Let’s bet on it :) Good luck Avenged Sevenfold!
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Your turn! Have a great wknd!
