Isolation Blast & Double Bass — Eloy Casagrande (Sepultura) Drum Lick | MetalForge
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Learn the Isolation Blast & Double Bass drum lick by Eloy Casagrande of Sepultura. From Isolation (Quadra (2020)). "Isolation," another highlight from Sepultura's 2020 record Quadra, is the song Eloy Casagrande uses...
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1. Eloy Casagrande's Signature Licks — "Isolation," another highlight from Sepultura's 2020 record Quadra, is the song Eloy Casagrande uses to show off the extreme-metal end of his vocabulary, and the official drum cam for it is a clinic in controlled aggression. Where "Means To An End" lives in a mid-tempo pocket, "Isolation" pushes into faster, more violent territory, blending blast-beat sections with relentless double bass and the tight, riff-locked grooves that define Sepultura. Casagrande moves fluidly between these gears: one moment he is riding a thrash-style groove with the kick glued to the guitar, the next he drops into a blast section where hands and feet interlock at high speed, then he surges out with a double-bass run that drives the band forward. What makes this such a valuable study is the transitions — the hardest part of extreme metal is not any single pattern but moving cleanly between feels without dropping tempo or letting the dynamics collapse. His blast beats are notably even and articulate, never a smeared wash, and his double bass stays clean even at speed because he keeps his legs relaxed and lets the pedals do the work. For developing drummers the song builds blast-beat coordination, double-bass stamina, and the ability to switch between groove and extreme feels mid-song while staying locked to the band. It also teaches articulation under pressure: at roughly 190 BPM there is no room for tension, so every limb has to stay loose and precise. Studying "Isolation" rounds out the picture of Casagrande as a complete modern metal drummer — equally at home in a heavy pocket or a full-throttle blast — and explains why bands at the very top of the genre have sought him out. Treat the gear changes as their own practice exercise, looping just the bars on either side of each transition, and the whole song will quickly feel less like a sprint and more like a series of grooves you can actually breathe through.2. Eloy Casagrande Profile — Interlock hands and feet cleanly in the blast sections so the beat stays articulate, not a smeared wash Keep the double-bass runs even by staying relaxed and letting the pedals rebound Glue the kick to the guitar in the thrash-style groove sections Practise the transitions between groove, blast and double-bass feels without dropping tempo Stay loose at ~190 BPM so dynamics hold up under the speed
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