Sorceress — Heavy Riff-Lock and Live Dynamics — Martin Axenrot (Opeth) Drum Lick | MetalForge
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Learn the Sorceress — Heavy Riff-Lock and Live Dynamics drum lick by Martin Axenrot of Opeth. From Sorceress (Sorceress (2016)). "Sorceress" is the title track of Opeth's twelfth studio album (2016), a record that pushed the band...
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1. Martin Axenrot's Signature Licks — "Sorceress" is the title track of Opeth's twelfth studio album (2016), a record that pushed the band's post-Heritage progressive rock direction into heavier, more riff-driven territory, drawing on 1970s doom, blues rock, and psychedelia rather than the extreme metal vocabulary of the band's early catalogue. By 2016 Martin Axenrot had spent a full decade in the Opeth drum chair, and "Sorceress" showcases the mature, confident version of his playing: a drummer fully comfortable locking into heavy, riff-centric material without reaching for the double-bass-driven aggression of his Bloodbath and Witchery work. The song's central riff is a slow-building, sludge-inflected guitar figure that Axenrot anchors with a heavy, deliberate groove built on emphatic kick placement and a snare that lands with real physical weight rather than a light touch — a deliberate stylistic choice that gives the track its doom-adjacent heaviness despite a tempo that is not, on paper, especially slow. The verse sections alternate between this heavy riff-lock groove and lighter, more open passages where Axenrot pulls back to cymbal-based textures, creating the light-and-shade dynamic structure that runs through the entire Sorceress album. The official live video of the performance, filmed for the record's video campaign, captures Axenrot's physical approach to the kit directly: full-arm strokes on the crashes at phrase punctuation points, a relaxed but heavy backbeat that never rushes even as the guitar riff intensifies, and a visible attentiveness to the other musicians that reflects the ensemble-first mentality he has carried since replacing Martin Lopez. One of the more demanding aspects of the track for drummers to reproduce is the restraint in the kick drum pattern: rather than filling every available subdivision with double bass, Axenrot leaves space in the kick pattern that lets the bass guitar and the low end of the guitar riff breathe, a discipline that requires resisting the more athletic tendencies his death metal background could easily default to. For drummers, "Sorceress" develops the specific skill of playing heavy without playing busy — locking a groove to a doom-influenced riff using kick placement and snare weight rather than speed or density, sustaining a live-performance level of physical commitment through a mid-tempo groove, and building light-and-shade dynamic contrast within a single song. Study the space Axenrot leaves in the kick pattern as carefully as the notes he plays; the restraint is the technique.2. Martin Axenrot Profile — Lock the kick and snare placement to the sludge-inflected main riff with deliberate weight rather than speed or density Leave space in the kick pattern rather than filling every subdivision — the restraint lets the bass and low guitar register breathe Use full-arm crash strokes at phrase punctuation points to match the song's doom-adjacent heaviness Pull back to cymbal-based textures in the lighter verse passages to create light-and-shade dynamic contrast Maintain a relaxed, unhurried backbeat even as the guitar riff intensity builds — resist the urge to rush toward climactic sections
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