‘I worried it was self-indulgent!’ Dave Lombardo on Slayer, going solo and shaking his banana

At the tender age of 21, Dave Lombardo helped change modern music. The drummer was the propulsive force behind Slayer’s third album, 1986’s Reign in Blood: a record that upped the ante of thrash metal, kicked the doors open for further extremity and remains a landmark of the genre.

“I don’t think we thought we were creating something special,” says Lombardo, now 58. “I don’t think we knew what we were doing. We just knew that whatever it was, it felt good.” Lombardo left and rejoined Slayer several times over their four-decade run, and suggests the band’s combative nature shaped its sound and approach. “We’re like brothers in constant battles. There are always rifts in families, so I feel that was just the nature of the band. In a lot of ways it drove the band to be as aggressive as it was.”

But even before Slayer split in 2019, Lombardo lived a startlingly prolific other life. The Cuban-American musician has collaborated with avant-garde composer and saxophonist John Zorn, classical musician Lorenzo Arruga and hip-hop artists Ice-T and DJ Spooky. He has also remained a consistent force within heavy music, playing with Testament, Annihilator and the Misfits, as well as more outre acts such as Fantômas and Dead Cross.

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This kaleidoscopic résumé is the backdrop to his debut solo album, Rites of Percussion – an instrumental record whose drums, piano and wide range of gongs and percussion speak to a life spent devouring everything from funk and hip-hop to Afro-Cuban, Haitian and west African rhythms. “At first I felt it was maybe a bit self-indulgent,” says Lombardo from his California studio, chuckling when I make parallels with the 80s trend for virtuoso guitar-shredding albums. “I didn’t want it to feel like that. There needed to be a balance and emotional depth – more than just ‘look at me!’ The mission was to compile as many little drum movements as I could, and mould them into a cohesive body of work.”

And Rites of Percussion is surprisingly un-showy, tending toward ambient immersion, cinematic conjurings and transporting moments that border on the kosmisch. The cohesion Lombardo speaks of is there too – no mean feat for an album featuring a bewildering array of drums. “It was a chance to bring out everything,” he says. “I have a collection of congas, bongos, batás, djembes, blocks – things I’ve picked up on the road. And I have a suitcase full of children’s toys – little clappers, shakers that look like bananas and apples that all have different tones and personalities.”

If the idea of the man who drummed on Dead Skin Mask rattling a plastic banana into a microphone feels incongruous, Lombardo makes clear that he’s always been keen to push himself, a lesson he learned from working with producer Rick Rubin. “I remember being in the studio mixing Reign in Blood while Run-DMC were mixing their album and Beastie Boys were doing Licensed to Ill. They were all different, but there was this one guy common to it all.”

In the 90s Lombardo realised that desire when he cofounded the forward-thinking metal act Grip Inc, while an improv gig alongside John Zorn and Mike Patton of Faith No More and Fantômas provided a road-to-Damascus moment. “It felt like a whole new door had opened,” he says of the experience. “I was just like, wow, they understood. I couldn’t believe there were other people that thought the way I do.”

Lombardo had also come to understand that his playing had been less conventional than he had thought. “With Slayer I was unknowingly adding Afro-Cuban patterns to my drum rolls,” he says. “In Angel of Death there’s this double bass pattern where I hit my toms over the top in a syncopated form that has been used by Latin jazz percussionists for years. It wasn’t until later I realised: wow, that’s so Cuban – that’s such a timbale player run!”

Did his Cuban heritage leave him feeling at all separate from the predominantly white 80s thrash scene? Lombardo suggests it was in fact a strength, helping him understand and adapt to the comparative simplicity of 4/4 rock. “Where I did feel a little bit alienated was from my own people,” he admits. “Because Cubans were into Cuban music, into dancing and disco. There were times where other kids would tease me, saying: ‘Oh, he doesn’t think he’s Cuban anymore. He thinks he’s American.’ They couldn’t relate to going to concerts and listening to a band play rock music.”

While Rites of Percussion is one of Lombardo’s most accessible projects, it doesn’t suggest a mellowing out, as recent and forthcoming gigs with Mr Bungle, Suicidal Tendencies, Empire State Bastard (with Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil) and the Misfits go to show. “You can’t imagine how much concentration and memorisation it takes to perform with the Misfits,” he says. Bassist Jerry Only “doesn’t just have me learn songs on the setlist, he has me learn all of them. My wife tests me beforehand, randomly throwing different songs at me.”

Lombardo sees this range and diversity as essential to his psychic wellbeing and his success. “The adrenaline and the excitement of playing thrash is like having a direct connection to your youth,” he says. “But there are always going to be other projects and genres that supplement your curiosity. That helps keep you fresh, active and interested rather than mundane. Ultimately, I’d rather be on the rollercoaster than the merry-go-round.”