Countdown To Extinction · Megadeth

135 bars of 4/4 at 129 BPM, about 4:10 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

MetalRock120 to 149 BPM
TEMPO
129 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
135
LENGTH
4:10
DIFFICULTY
55/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 39% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 33-39, 41-46 and 71-77, and 5 more places -- 39.3% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 129 BPM
COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION · BAR 34
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

8 fills to learn, played 24 times: bars 20, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 18 more.

LOOP · 129 BPM
BAR 20 · LANDS ON BAR 21
LOOP · 129 BPM
BARS 28-32 · LANDS ON BAR 33 · PLAYED 10 TIMES
LOOP · 129 BPM
BARS 47-50 · LANDS ON BAR 51 · PLAYED 4 TIMES
LOOP · 129 BPM
BARS 85-86 · LANDS ON BAR 87 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

4 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

135 bars across 10 sections: 97 keep time, 25 are fills and 2 are stops. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 103-117.

PART D
PART H
CHORUS
PART H
CHORUS 2
PART Q
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
7 groovesLHDQU+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Countdown To Extinction?

129 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. The room plays it at any tempo from a quarter of that up to the written one, against the record where the record can follow.

Is Countdown To Extinction hard to play on drums?

55 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 33 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

135 bars, about 4:10 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 31 exercises over 9 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

How many fills are in Countdown To Extinction?

8 fills to learn, played 24 times: bars 20, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 18 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 135 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other Megadeth drum parts

EVERY MEGADETH CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →