Asked by Czech Republic's Metal & Rock Zone to name the most challenging thing he has ever played, Gene Hoglan did not reach for any of the records that made him famous.
"I've always referred to this certain album by the band MECHANISM. The album is called 'Inspired Horrific'," he said. "That band had the most challenging drums I had done up to that point, and I don't think I've done much that's more challenging since. Definitely it was my 'Human' [by DEATH] sort of thing, doing some crazy odd-time things."
Other tests came at speed. "Learning an OPETH set in an afternoon to play with them, that was a challenge. And playing with FORBIDDEN, that's a killer challenge — playing not only Mr. [Paul] Bostaph's stuff, but Mr. [Steve] Jacobs's stuff as well."
He also revisited a complaint that has followed him for thirty years: the drumming on STRAPPING YOUNG LAD's "City", which arrived right after DEATH's "Symbolic". "A lot of people were complaining about my drumming on it, just going, 'What happened? His drumming on 'Symbolic' was killer, and now it's not a million notes at all times.' It's a different approach. You have to serve the song, and I understand how people don't quite understand about serving a song. They just want you to show off at all points of everything. But if you check out 'City', there's no lack of intensity on that record, man. That's a punch to the face a thousand times."
TESTAMENT's "Demonic" pushed the lesson further. "Eric Peterson was not looking for 'Symbolic' drums or STRAPPING drums. He wanted drums for his project."
If there is a label he would accept, it is the unglamorous one. "That would be something that I would much prefer to be known as, like, just a well-rounded drummer. That, to me, is more of a compliment than, 'Wow, he's the fastest.'"
Then he laid out his working ethic. "Drummers are supposed to steal. There's not a lot you can do on the drums in the concept of songs. So we all steal, but I've always felt like if I'm gonna steal something, then I'm gonna have to put two things back into that pot."
One of those deposits is now everywhere. "Like the double-bass pattern that goes along with the riff. I started that back in, like, 1987 or something, '86, when I was writing riffs. And I was, like, 'Hey, that's something I've never heard anybody do before.' And now that's kind of a trope in metal. A lot of folks do that, and that was me."
Nicknamed "The Atomic Clock" and "The Human Drum Machine", Hoglan is self-taught, got his first kit at 13, and started out as a lighting roadie for SLAYER before DARK ANGEL asked him to join in 1984.
Source: blabbermouth.net