The inverted/reversed blast beat (snare and hi-hat on the One instead of on the Ands) has been a staple in Greek Black Metal since the early 90s:

Rotting Christ @ :00


Varathron @ 2:17


Necromantia @ 23:40


Agatus @ 15:50


Katavasia @ 10:30


Of course it's used elsewhere in extreme metal, but Greek Black Metal has it in seemingly every song. Does anyone know the history behind why it's used so frequently in this particular scene? Does it all come from Rotting Christ or someone else?

Rotting Christ, Varathron and Necromantia are the main exponents of early Greek black metal, all were from Athens and the band members knew and collaborated with each other. One can appreciate how similar the productions of their early albums sound, surely they were influenced by each other and the fact that these 3 bands used a drum machine probably encouraged this kind of drum beat in those early iconic works.

It would make sense then that many Greek black metal musicians would realize this and use that kind of beat as a tribute to those original bands, causing what you just defined as "Greek Beat".

I think its either a drum programming quirk by origin or maybe influence from Blasphemy who did it first afaik.

Huh, never thought of the drum machine angle. You both mentioned that but I'm struggling to find examples.

I'm now realizing His Majesty at the Swamp used a drum machine, and the beat first appears at 2:20 in Lustful Father. There are no "regular" blast beats on the album so maybe it is indeed a drum machine quirk. That said, the album came out a few months prior to Thy Mighty Contract and it seems unlikely the Rotting Christ drummer copied the beat from Varathron's drum machine.

Gonna start digging through the demos to try to pin down the "first" use. Thank you for attending my research project.

Really interesting thread/question. Also, love the term "greek beat". I remember my former band talking about this, and I think I had wanted to play like this a few times, but just kept reverting to the normal blast haha...
I'm not sure where it started, but, I'm quite certain that's also a drum machine on Thy Mighty Contract. Not so on Passage to Arcturo and I dno't think you can hear any of those beats there.

In terms of the Greek beat, I personally find both Rotting Christ and Varathron to be the best at it, with Necromantia being a close second. I would love to see this type of beat use in other bands outside Greece, but I suppose that would ironically make the Greek black metal scene less unique.

Right? It's so counter-intuitive. I try it all the time and I naturally revert as well. That's part of why I started thinking about it, because it's so unnatural to play and surprisingly difficult.


Found this on wikipedia. Turns out it was a frankenstein e-kit with real cymbals played by Themis: https://web.archive.org/web/20201029060 ... /a/knn44eW

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Yeah. That band was quite influenced by the classic Greek black metal bands. So copying the weird quirks was something taht came up once or twice. I guess like anything else with techniques, if you practised it enough it'd probably become a bit more normal. But it does also suggest to me that maybe it was a bit of an accident, and initially came about because of a non-drummer doing some quick programming.
I figured Non Serviam was an e-kit, but Contract could have been full-on a machine, and in fact most of the early 90s Greek bands had this kind of drum sound ... even Septic Flesh. I think it might have been because most of them recorded at magus Daoloth's studio, Storm, and he didn't have the facilities to set up and mic a proper kid. While that early Rotting Christ stuff is my favourite, the drums did improve some on subsequent albums.

What I heard is that Storm Studios was physically not large enough to fit in a full kit, so everyone used a smaller e-kit or outright had programmed drums.

I think I found first use in this scene? Rotting Christ's Animal Revenge from The Other Side of Life split. Recorded in 1989 during their grindcore years. This was Themis playing, not a drum machine:



Interestingly, the Varathron demos (side note: Genesis of Apocryphal Desire is a fucking masterpiece, wow) that Themis played on did not include the beat at all. Though my working theory right now is "Themis started doing it and everyone worshipped Themis" rather than the drum machine explanation. But, still working my way through all the demos and stuff the other Greek drummers did during that time.

The first Greek band I thought of who may have influenced this drumming style is Flames. I know they used a drum machine and it often had this reversed thrash beat sound, as already mentioned due to the limitations of a drum machine.

Damn, good call on Flames. Though I don't hear the beat specifically on the first album, the (horrendous) drum machine there has a ton of beats with the snare on the One which is very similar. Will check out the rest of their stuff as well, thanks!

interesting thread! the greek scene was /is very particular in sound

I personally find the Greek beat easier to play if I do double kick instead of traditional one foot and I suspect thats also how more than a couple bands also actually play it.

I find that too! It just doesn't quite sound the same for me. Trying to tighten it up so I can do it only with my left foot like I do normal blasts.

besides Flames, Samael was another big influence on the Greek black metal bands of the late 80’s. by ‘89 you had Varathron, Rotting Christ, Morbid Execution, Mortify and others. Someone had gotten their hands on Samael’s Macabre Operetta demo for sure.

The drums are so off-time on Macabre Operetta it's impossible to say if the beat is intentional there, but that definitely seems like a plausible theory!

I think the beat actually comes from Bathory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RD--fvzAKg

Can't believe no one mentioned this yet, since it was one of the most influential bands for the Greek scene.

it's pretty much the right speed, sounding more like a blast than the usual thrash beats, but I still think the "bar" starts with a bass drum hit on the first beat.
Certainly sets the drum machine precedent though. haha

Interesting to think about how this beat came to be prominent in Greek metal. I cannot contribute any further insight than what's been posted above, but I can share this neat Rotting Christ riff which keeps swapping between inverted and regular blasts just for fun (2:35 onwards)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdasUo-RDJA

I adore that song! Interesting that Themis has started to use the more frequently as time goes on, it's such a quintessential part of Aealo and Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού. I almost called this thread The Rotting Christ Beat.





No, this is definitely the beat in question. The bass drum is on the Ands. But yeah good call on Bathory, that definitely has to be a piece of the puzzle.