Rob Speedking Stephenson

Somewhere Out in Space (SOIS), Powerplant (PP) and No World Order (NWO) are still by far my fav GammRay albums! I saw them when they did a 10 day Majestic tour here in the US and one of their stops was at the now defunct Jaxx Nightclub (Now Empire) near DC. Was almost a religious experience! I'm still trying to get used to the newer albums, but they all have their strong points. I'm very curious to see how the new drummer handles the music now that Dan Zimmerman is gone.

I had the pleasure to interview Stefan of Van Canto when I was still doing my radio show on HRRL. I love how they have the balls to do what they have done and made damn good compared to other acapella groups. From what he told me and from what he said in his behind the scene vids, most of their original music is written on the guitar first and then he goes back and rearranges it for voice. The process is pretty badass! Love the covers as well!

I know thrash is mainly the Big Four and other 80s acts like Exodus' date=' but I can't say I've ever heard too much about other newer (as in the last 10 years) thrash acts. Can somebody point me in the right direction there?[/quote'] May I direct you to my band thrash metal band, Hypokalypse from Richmond, Virginia (Home of Lamb of God and GWAR). We had the priviledge to open for Megadeth, Straight Line Stitch, Dave Brockie (of GWAR) and booked to soon open for The Browning and Mastodon! You can find us at: Reverbnation.com/Hypokalypse, Facebook.com/Hypokalypse and on Twitter: @Hypokalypse. Here's a sample of our music...our music video for our song, "Blitzkrieg" featured on out EP, "Declaration of War": Hypokalypse - Blitzkrieg MUSIC VIDEO - YouTube Enjoy!

I would have to disagree to a certain extent. When I first saw Lars Ulrich play back in the 80's, he was my inspiration to become a metal drummer. In my opinion, he didn't get worse as the years went on...he got lazy. VERY lazy.

I always thought Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden had a brilliant drumming style just in the way he goes about it' date=' Nick Menza (former Megadeth drummer) is another favourite of mine, but I would recommend looking at drummers outside of metal and rock as well, for example there are some brilliant jazz drummers out there[/quote'] That's basically how I learned as I grew. Back in the late 80's when I first started playing the kit, I would take what I had learned from school and apply the skills to the bands I was interested in. At the time, I was slamming out to Metallica, Anthrax, Iron Maiden and Motley Crue during my practices. It wasn't till later when I got with my first band in 1990 that I was introduced to Neil Peart and Rush. Now, I am NO WHERE near his skill, but till this day, I still like to use some of his soloing style for my small solos when I perform. What aspire to (even though I'm on the door-step of 40) is to eventually reach the soloing skill of Tommy Aldridge. Nothing too technical, but to be exciting to watch live.

Out of all of my show pics, this particular pic is my fav: [ATTACH=CONFIG]514[/ATTACH]

Hey, wassup metalheads!!! I'm Rob, drummer to Hypokalypse out of Richmond, Virginia. Some of you might know me as "DJ SpeedKing", host of The WAKE UP DEAD Morning Show that used to be on HardRockRadioLive (Internet radio). Anyhoo, you can always catch me on Facebook or Twitter (@djspeedking1) and you can follow the band on Twitter (@Hypokalypse) and on Reverbnation/Facebook. Until then, let's open up a few good beers, crank up some loud ass metal and let's party!

Ok, here's mine...both with long hair (mullet) and without (current style). Enjoy! [ATTACH=CONFIG]512[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]513[/ATTACH]