Lombardo keen to break thrash stereotype

Former Slayer sticksman Dave Lombardo says he experiments with various musical styles as he doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as just a thrash drummer.

The Philm mainman has written and recorded music with his groove metal band Grip Inc, worked with Faith No More frontman Mike Patton in experimental outfit Fantomas and collaborated with Italian classical musician Lorenzo Arruga to record Vivaldi: The Meeting.

And he says he’s always finding new music to inspire him.

He tells Music Radar: “That’s always been one thing that’s driven me: to explore and experiment because I was so pigeonholed at such an early stage in my career because of Slayer.

“I’m not just this thrash metal drummer, I have a love for all styles of music.

“There’s still more I need to discover, there’s still music I’m continually coming across that blows me away. There seems to be more on the horizon for me than ever.”

And the drummer says a reunion with Patton on the first Fantomas material since 2005’s Suspended Animation could be in the pipeline.

He continues: “Let’s just say that Mike and I have been in communication, we’ve been texting each other, like we always have. We always keep tabs on each other, which is great. I love our friendship and I hope that we do get together, that’d be awesome.”

Philm released their second album Fire From The Evening Sun last year, while the sticksman recently revealed he hadn’t spoken to Dave Mustaine about joining Megadeth following the departure of Shawn Drover.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.