The pattern
200 BPM · 4/4 · 16 step
| Instrument | Beat 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Beat 2 | Step 6 | Step 7 | Step 8 | Beat 3 | Step 10 | Step 11 | Step 12 | Beat 4 | Step 14 | Step 15 | Step 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest |
| Snare | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit |
| Ride | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest |
| Crash | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
How to play it and where it comes from
The traditional blast beat (death, black, grindcore): single alternating strokes in sixteenths between kick and snare, with the cymbal (ride or crash) in unison with the kick. Today it is usually played from 180 BPM up (in sixteenths), often 250–280. Other forms: hammer blast (kick and snare together in eighths), bomb blast (snare in eighths over continuous sixteenth-note kick, made famous by Cannibal Corpse), gravity blast (one-handed roll using the rim as a fulcrum), skank/half-time blast (the “Slayer beat”). In black metal the blast supports the guitars' tremolo picking; in death metal it alternates with half-time sections and double kick.