Clockworks Polymetric Groove — Tomas Haake (Meshuggah) Drum Lick | MetalForge
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Learn the Clockworks Polymetric Groove drum lick by Tomas Haake of Meshuggah. From Clockworks (The Violent Sleep of Reason (2016)). Clockworks, the opening track of The Violent Sleep of Reason, is a showcase of everything Tomas Haak...
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1. Tomas Haake's Signature Licks — Clockworks, the opening track of The Violent Sleep of Reason, is a showcase of everything Tomas Haake brings to Meshuggah's mature sound: thunderous polymetric riffing, precise limb independence, and the signature illusion of shifting time over a steady underlying pulse. The drum part anchors the band's long, asymmetrical riff cycles by keeping a constant quarter-note or eighth-note reference - often on the ride or hi-hat - while the kick and snare follow the guitars' odd-length groupings that repeatedly cross the barline before resolving back to the downbeat. This is the heart of the Meshuggah method: the time signature is technically 4/4, but the riffs are phrased in groupings that do not line up with it, so the music feels like it is constantly rotating until the cycle snaps back into place. Haake holds the listener's orientation by being the immovable anchor, his cymbal hand marking the true pulse while the rest of his body articulates the polymetric riff. Clockworks also features some of his most powerful double-bass work, locking the feet to the guitars with the evenness that has defined his playing for three decades. For drummers, this track is an advanced study in polymetric phrasing and independence - the ability to keep one limb on a steady grid while the others play a pattern that disagrees with it. The approach is to first identify the length of the riff grouping, count how many times it repeats before resolving, and then practice the steady cymbal pulse against the polymetric kick-and-snare pattern very slowly. Building this independence is challenging but transformative, and it connects directly to the language Haake established on Bleed and New Millennium Cyanide Christ. Mastering Clockworks gives drummers the tools to play with time itself, treating odd groupings as expressive rather than merely difficult. Loop the trickiest cycles until the resolution to beat one feels inevitable, keep your anchor limb absolutely steady, and you will gain an independence that transfers to almost any rhythmically adventurous music you choose to play afterwards.2. Tomas Haake Profile — Identify the length of each riff grouping and count its repetitions Hold a steady cymbal or hi-hat pulse as your timekeeping anchor Articulate the polymetric kick-and-snare pattern against that pulse Practice the independence very slowly before building tempo Track how the groupings cross the barline and resolve to the downbeat
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