Blast Beats Explained: Types and How to Start
A blast beat is a drum pattern where the hands and feet play so fast that the subdivisions blur into a continuous wall of sound. It is the defining technique of extreme metal, and it is less about speed than about division of labour — each limb takes a slice of the beat and never stops.
The short answer
A blast beat distributes a fast subdivision across the limbs so that each one plays a manageable pattern. The classic form:
Snare: alternating hands, usually sixteenths or thirty-seconds.
Kick: continuous or alternating, at the same subdivision.
Cymbal: ride or hi-hat playing quarters or eighths.
At 180 to 250 BPM in sixteenths, the result is a dense, continuous texture. The snare and kick together produce the pulse; the cymbal marks the beat.
The technique is a coordination problem, not a speed problem, which is why it can be learned by ordinary players with enough slow practice.
The three main types
Traditional blast (also called the standard blast). Snare alternates hands in sixteenths or thirty-seconds, kick plays the same subdivision alternating feet or on every note. Cymbal on the beat. The most common form and the one to learn first.
Bomb blast (also called the gravity blast or hammer blast). The snare plays a continuous roll using a single stroke with the stick bouncing — like a very fast buzz stroke at high volume — while the kick plays sixteenths. Slightly less common, very distinctive, and essentially impossible without strong rebound control.
Freehand blast. One hand holds the stick normally while the other uses a fulcrum-free technique to produce a rapid roll. Used by a subset of extreme drummers. Not a starting point.
A fourth term, the hyperblast or gravity blast, refers to playing the snare at double the subdivision of the kick, producing an even denser texture. These names are used inconsistently across the genre, and different scenes mean different things by them.
The tempos involved
Numbers matter here because they explain why the technique is not superhuman.
A traditional blast at 200 BPM in sixteenths means four notes per beat. The snare alternates hands, so each hand plays two notes per beat — which is eighths. The kick does the same. The cymbal plays quarters.
So the hardest single limb is playing eighths at 200 BPM, which is fast but entirely achievable with finger control. The difficulty is that all four limbs do it at once, without any of them faltering.
At 250 BPM the numbers get harder: sixteenths at 250 means each hand plays eighths at 250, which requires solid finger technique and good endurance. That is the practical ceiling for most players.
Starting, without hurting yourself
Step one: one limb at a time, at 120 BPM. Snare alternating sixteenths alone. Then kick sixteenths alone. Then cymbal quarters. Each for a minute. Nothing combined.
Step two: snare and cymbal. Hands on snare, cymbal on quarters. Two minutes at 120 BPM.
Step three: all four limbs at 120 BPM. The full pattern, at a tempo where it is slow enough to feel mechanical rather than musical. This is the coordination step and it takes weeks.
Step four: increase in 5 BPM steps. Never jump. Blast beats punish tempo jumps more than any other technique because all four limbs have to move together.
Step five: endurance. Play the pattern continuously for one minute at 160 BPM. Blast beats are usually sustained for a whole song section, so endurance matters as much as peak speed.
Step six: musical application. Play it in a song structure — a verse blast, a half-time section, a return to the blast. Context is covered in metal drumming basics.
Why the limbs fail differently
Four limbs, four different failure modes, and diagnosing which one is failing is most of the work.
Snare hands. Fail because the alternation becomes uneven. One hand drifts late, the pattern develops a limp, and the wall of sound develops a texture that should not be there.
Kick feet. Fail because the ankles tire before anything else. This is an endurance problem more than a technique one, and it is where double bass drum technique matters.
Cymbal hand. Fails because it is the easiest part, so it gets ignored. A cymbal that drifts out of time is very audible against the snare.
Posture and the whole body. Fails because blast beats require sustained tension, and a player who is tense everywhere runs out of energy in thirty seconds. Relaxation in the limbs that are not playing is a technique in itself.
The volume problem
Blast beats are expected to be loud, and playing them quietly is disproportionately hard.
Two reasons. First, the dynamics of the pattern depend on the snare and kick being clearly audible above the cymbal, which requires the cymbal to be controlled rather than bashed. Second, quiet playing requires a shorter stroke, which at these tempos means almost pure finger technique in the hands and ankle technique in the feet.
Most players find their blast beat volume is either "loud" or "not happening", with nothing in between. Getting a quiet blast is an advanced goal, and it is worth having because it makes the loud version sound louder.
Sticks and gear
Two practical notes.
Sticks break. A blast beat involves a lot of snare contact and often rimshots, and sticks do not last. Use a durable model and expect a shorter lifespan than in other styles. The trade-offs are covered in best drum sticks.
Pedal setup matters more than usual. A stiff spring and a beater close to the head is the standard configuration for fast feet, and it makes a large difference to how long a player can sustain a blast. See double bass drum technique for the adjustments.
Hearing protection is not optional. Blast beats at volume are among the loudest things played on a drum kit, sustained for minutes at a time. Foam plugs are better than nothing and moulded plugs are better still; what matters is that they are in before the first bar rather than after the ringing starts.
::: callout
The counterintuitive part: a blast beat looks like the fastest thing a drummer does and it is usually learned by slowing it down further than any other technique — players routinely practise it at 100 to 120 BPM for weeks before touching performance tempo. The reason is that a blast beat is four independent patterns that have to stay synchronised, and synchronisation errors are invisible once the tempo rises. Everybody can hear whether a slow blast is correct; almost nobody can hear whether a fast one is.
:::
Practising it in a way that transfers
Three principles, all of which run against instinct.
Practise slowly for longer than feels reasonable. 120 BPM until it is completely mechanical, then move. Most players move up far too early because the slow version sounds unimpressive.
Record and check the cymbal. The cymbal is the limb that drifts, and it is the easiest to overlook while playing. In a recording, drift in the cymbal is immediately audible.
Practise the transitions. A blast beat that starts and stops cleanly is more useful than one that is faster. The entry and exit are what make the technique musical, and they are almost never practised.
The tempo-holding side of this is the same discipline as holding tempo under pressure, which is about staying steady exactly when it is hardest.
Where it is used
Death metal and grindcore. The blast beat is a defining characteristic. Death metal tends to use it in bursts; grindcore uses it almost continuously.
Black metal. Often a continuous blast with a specific emphasis on the cymbal pattern.
Metalcore and deathcore. Blast beats appear as section markers rather than ongoing textures.
Almost nowhere else. A blast beat outside extreme metal is a genre error, and drummers who learn it usually have to learn to stop playing it in other contexts.
::: verdict
Set the metronome to 120 BPM and play a traditional blast — snare alternating sixteenths, kick sixteenths, cymbal quarters — for one continuous minute. If you cannot complete the minute without the cymbal drifting or the hands going uneven, you are at the right tempo and should stay there. Do not move up until the minute is comfortable.
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Frequently asked questions
The questions readers send us most about blast beat.
A drum pattern where the hands and feet divide a fast subdivision between them so that the result is a continuous wall of sound. The snare alternates hands, the kick plays the same subdivision, and the cymbal marks the beat, typically at 180 to 250 BPM in sixteenths.
Typically 180 to 250 BPM in sixteenth notes, though it is often notated in thirty-seconds at half that tempo. The relevant number is the subdivision each limb plays, which is usually eighths — fast, but well within what trained hands and feet can do.
A traditional blast has the snare alternating hands in a normal pattern. A bomb blast (also called a gravity or hammer blast) has the snare playing a continuous bouncing roll from one hand while the feet maintain sixteenths. The bomb blast is considerably harder and depends on very strong rebound control.
At 120 BPM, practising each limb alone first, then combining snare and cymbal, then all four. Stay at 120 until a full minute is completely even, because coordination errors are invisible at performance tempo and obvious when it is slow.
They are demanding rather than inherently harmful. The main risks are tension in the whole body, endurance-related injuries from over-practising, and hearing damage from the volume. Hearing protection is essential, and progression should be gradual rather than by jumping tempo.