Darkness Descends · Dark Angel

296 bars of 4/4 at 120 BPM, about 9:52 of playing, on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

MetalRock120 to 149 BPM
TEMPO
120 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
296
LENGTH
9:52
DIFFICULTY
70/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 47% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 58-60, 62-68 and 70-72, and 19 more places -- 46.8% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 120 BPM
DARKNESS DESCENDS · BAR 59
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

18 fills to learn, played 37 times: bars 1, 13, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 31 more.

LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 1 · LANDS ON BAR 2
LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 13 · LANDS ON BAR 14
LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 17 · LANDS ON BAR 18 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 19 · LANDS ON BAR 20 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

14 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

296 bars across 22 sections: 226 keep time, 37 are fills, 6 are stops and 3 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 187-213.

PART V
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
CHORUS 3
CHORUS 4
CHORUS 5
CHORUS 6
CHORUS 7
OUTRO
8 groovesYUVJC+3Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Darkness Descends?

120 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second 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 Darkness Descends hard to play on drums?

70 out of 100: demanding, mostly on the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 49 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

296 bars, about 9:52 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 50 exercises over 15 sittings, about 27 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 Darkness Descends?

18 fills to learn, played 37 times: bars 1, 13, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 31 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 296 BARS ANALYSED
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