SLIPKNOT · DRUM BEAT

The drum beat in New Abortion (Studio Version)

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 66, 68 and 70, and 24 more places -- 16.2% of every bar the kit plays. This one moves around more than most: the beat is where to start, not the whole job.

TEMPO
216 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
204
LENGTH
3:46
DIFFICULTY
61/100

The beat, written out

LOOP · 216 BPM
NEW ABORTION (STUDIO VERSION) · BAR 66

It is played on crash, snare and kick, counted in sixteenth notes. On its own it scores 14 out of 100 -- straightforward -- and the thing that decides that is how many notes a second it asks for.

The whole song is 61 out of 100, so the beat is not the hard part: what costs you is everything around it, the joins and the fills.

How to get it under your hands

The room opens this beat on its simplest reduction, at 162 BPM, and adds the notes back a rung at a time -- 3 of them. Nothing is a matter of opinion: each rung has a tempo to reach and a gate to pass before the next one.

  1. Kick and snare, whole. The feet and the snare exactly as written, and nothing else. This is the part to know by heart.
  2. As written. Open hi-hat, ghost notes, accents and the crash where they belong.

Tempo goes 162, 189 and 216 BPM, and the gate at each one is 8 loops in a row with no wrong note and no wobble in the time.

PRACTISE THIS BEAT →

Questions

What drum beat does New Abortion (Studio Version) use?

A one-bar groove on crash, snare and kick, in 4/4 at 216 BPM, counted in sixteenth notes. It is written out above, and it covers 16.2% of the bars the kit plays.

Where does the beat come in?

Bars 66, 68, 70 and 74, and 23 more places. The time is kept on the kick and crashes to start with, and it changes 19 times over the song.

Is the beat in New Abortion (Studio Version) hard?

14 out of 100 on its own -- straightforward. The song as a whole is 61 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 204 BARS ANALYSED