Unholy War · Atheist

132 bars at 267 BPM -- fast, and 1:59 of it without a break -- on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom, mid tom, floor tom, kick and hi-hat foot.

MetalProgressive150 BPM and up
TEMPO
267 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
132
LENGTH
1:59
DIFFICULTY
95/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 36% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 8-10, 12-14 and 16-18, and 13 more places -- 36.4% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and most of the song is already under your hands.

LOOP · 267 BPM
UNHOLY WAR · BAR 8
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

8 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 2, 4, 6, 39, 43, 46 and 6 more.

LOOP · 267 BPM
BAR 2 · LANDS ON BAR 3 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 267 BPM
BAR 39 · LANDS ON BAR 40
LOOP · 267 BPM
BAR 43 · LANDS ON BAR 44 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 267 BPM
BARS 46-47 · LANDS ON BAR 48 · PLAYED 2 TIMES

4 more fills are written out on the fills page.

EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

132 bars across 9 sections: 90 keep time, 13 are fills and 16 are stops. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 8-22.

CHORUS
PART I
CHORUS 2
PART K
PART V
CHORUS 3
OUTRO
OUTRO 2
6 groovesDKBVI+1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Unholy War?

267 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in thirty-second notes. At that speed the thirty-second notes are the whole difficulty, so the room will take it down to a quarter of it and climb back.

Is Unholy War hard to play on drums?

95 out of 100. Hard, and what makes it hard is how many notes a second it asks for. The beat itself is 85 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

132 bars, about 1:59 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 42 exercises over 18 sittings, about 24 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

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

How many fills are in Unholy War?

8 fills to learn, played 12 times: bars 2, 4, 6, 39, 43, 46 and 6 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 132 BARS ANALYSED
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