If Darkness Had A Son · Metallica

202 bars of 4/4 at 124 BPM, about 6:29 of playing, on crash, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom and kick.

Metal120 to 149 BPMAdvanced
TEMPO
124 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
202
LENGTH
6:29
DIFFICULTY
55/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 22% of the song

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 43-49, 63-70 and 81-87, and 4 more places -- 22.3% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

LOOP · 124 BPM
IF DARKNESS HAD A SON · BARS 63-64
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

12 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 57, 92, 95, 128, 130, 132 and 9 more.

LOOP · 124 BPM
BAR 57 · LANDS ON BAR 58 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 124 BPM
BAR 92 · LANDS ON BAR 93
LOOP · 124 BPM
BAR 128 · LANDS ON BAR 129 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 124 BPM
BAR 130 · LANDS ON BAR 131

8 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

202 bars across 17 sections: 152 keep time, 15 are fills and 7 are stops. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 1-28.

PART B
PART E
PART J
CHORUS 2
PART J
CHORUS 4
PART Y
PART J
CHORUS 5
OUTRO
7 groovesHYJEB+2Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is If Darkness Had A Son?

124 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 If Darkness Had A Son 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 36 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

202 bars, about 6:29 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 57 exercises over 17 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, 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 If Darkness Had A Son?

12 fills to learn, played 15 times: bars 57, 92, 95, 128, 130, 132 and 9 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 202 BARS ANALYSED
MORE BY THIS BAND

Other Metallica drum parts

EVERY METALLICA CHART →
AT THIS LEVEL

Play something else today

EVERY SONG A-Z →