Drummer Jon Dette (TESTAMENT, SLAYER, ANTHRAX) recently released a new video where he offers a “small but powerful drumming tip” on what he refers to as a staple to SLAYER’s drum sound.
In the video below, the former SLAYER stickman, who played as the group’s drummer from 1996 to 1997 and again on the road in in 2013, says (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “A tip for this week is a SLAYER tip, for SLAYER songs. And in my opinion, it’s one of the coolest little things that you hear in SLAYER drumming, particularly Dave’s [Lombardo, original SLAYER drummer] drumming. And that is what we could either call a ruff or a diddle or grace notes — whatever you wanna call it. It’s just one of those little things, almost like you hear it but maybe you don’t hear it, if that makes sense. It’s just this little thing — it’s brilliant; it’s amazing; I love it. It’s one of my favorite things to do, whether I’m playing a SLAYER song or even ANTHRAX songs or any other songs. But what I wanted to point out is not only what’s done but a mistake that I see some people making. I made the same mistake early in my drumming journey as well.
“So I’m going to demonstrate the correct way and what we would call the incorrect way,” he added. “Again, there’s no right or wrong way to do stuff, but if you wanna learn the right way that we do it, then I’m gonna show you the way that it’s done. So with that, then you can roll however you want to at that point.”
Before joining SLAYER, Dette played on TESTAMENT’s 1995 release “Live At The Fillmore”. In more recent years, Dette had played occasional shows with ANTHRAX as a temporary replacement for Charlie Benante, who had been undergoing physical therapy for carpal tunnel syndrome.