Metal drum patterns.

8 metal patterns at 150 BPM. Play one, change any step, take it to your DAW as MIDI.

Metal moves the energy from the snare to the kick. The backbeat stays on two and four, the ride or hat marks the eighths, and underneath the kick plays eighths, sixteenths or the gallop, often with two pedals. At the extreme the kick and snare alternate on every sixteenth and the beat becomes a blast. At the other end, a breakdown or a doom riff slows everything to a crawl and the same kit sounds twice as heavy.

Basic. Kick on one, the and of one and three, snare on two and four, ride in eighths.

Ride
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Double kick eighths. Kick on every eighth under the backbeat: the double-pedal groove.

Crash
Ride
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Gallop. Kick in the x-xx shape on every beat, snare on two and four: the gallop.

Ride
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Blast beat. Kick and snare alternating on sixteenths with the ride on the kicks.

Ride
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Thrash skank. Kick on the beats, snare on the offbeats, at 180: the thrash beat.

Ride
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Breakdown. Half-time at 90: snare on three, kicks in sixteenths under the first beat, crash on the beats.

Crash
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Doom. At 60, kick on one and the and of two, snare on three, ride on the eighths: slow and heavy.

Crash
Ride
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Two bars, kick sixteenths. Bar two fills the kick with sixteenths into a crash.

Crash
Ride
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

How a metal beat is built

The kick

The snare on two and four

A ride in eighths

Then a variation: Double kick eighths

The basic metal beat: kick on step 1, the and of one (step 3), beat three and the and of three (step 11); snare on 5 and 13; ride on the eighths; 150 BPM, no swing. Double kick puts a kick on every eighth under the same backbeat. The gallop is x-xx on every beat, kicks on steps 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and so on, at 160. The blast beat alternates kick and snare on sixteenths, kick on the odd steps and snare on the even ones, with the ride on the kicks, at 200. The thrash skank puts the kick on the beats and the snare on the offbeats at 180. The breakdown is half-time at 90: snare on step 9, a burst of kick sixteenths under beat one, a crash on every beat. Doom is 60 BPM with the kick on one and the and of two, the snare on three and the ride ringing. The two-bar pattern fills the second half of bar two with kick sixteenths into a crash.

More drum patterns

The beat you want is in a song you’re playing.

DOT records anything your Mac plays, with its BPM, so you can loop the part and program it here.

DOT Audio Recorder

Free to try · $49 once · macOS 14.4 or later

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Questions.

What tempo is metal?

Anywhere from 60 for doom to 250 for grind; the grid opens at 150. Thrash sits at 170 to 200, metalcore breakdowns at 80 to 100 in half-time, and blast beats start around 180.

What is a blast beat?

Kick and snare alternating as fast as the drummer can play, usually sixteenths at 180 to 250, with a cymbal on the kicks. It's on this page at 200; raise the tempo if you want the grind.

How do I program double kick that sounds real?

Alternate the two kick rows, Kick and Kick 2, hit for hit, and let the second be a touch softer, the way the weaker foot is. The MIDI export keeps them on one note, so in the DAW spread the velocities.

More free tools

All free tools →

Drum sequencer

Program a beat on a 16-step grid.

Drum pad

16 pads on your keyboard, your own sounds too.

Metronome

A steady click, and a click track to download.