Top 10 Metal Drummers Who Also Produce & Engineer | MetalForge

The best metal drummers who are also producers and engineers, ranked. Mike Portnoy, Joey Jordison, Hannes Grossmann, Igor Cavalera, Richard Christy and more — the drummers whose careers extend behind the board.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which metal drummers are also record producers?

Mike Portnoy carries producer credits across Dream Theater and his numerous side projects (Liquid Tension Experiment, The Winery Dogs, Transatlantic), and Joey Jordison held a formal "record producer" title throughout his Slipknot career. Hannes Grossmann runs his own studio in Germany, producing and mixing other artists' metal albums between his work with Obscura and Alkaloid, and Mario Duplantier has produced Gojira's own recordings alongside his brother, guitarist Joe Duplantier.

Do any metal drummers work outside of music production?

Richard Christy is the clearest example: after drumming on Death's final album "The Sound of Perseverance" (1998) and Iced Earth's "The Glorious Burden" (2004), he left metal drumming behind in 2007 for a second career as a writer and producer for radio, most notably on The Howard Stern Show. Igor Cavalera made a similar genre pivot after leaving Sepultura, becoming an electronic music DJ and producer through his project Mixhell.

What's the difference between a drummer who produces and one who just endorses gear?

A drummer with a genuine production credit is directly involved in shaping a finished recording — arrangement decisions, mix balance, guiding other musicians' performances — beyond playing their own drum part. That's distinct from an artist endorsement, which is a gear relationship rather than a creative role in the studio. Navene Koperweis's return to co-produce Animals as Leaders' "The Joy of Motion" after leaving the band, and John Otto producing the drums on rapper Diabolic's debut album, are both examples of production work entirely separate from the drummer's own performance credit.

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1. Mike Portnoy — Metal's most decorated drummer, with a producer credit to match. Mike Portnoy is credited as a producer across his own extensive catalog, including Dream Theater's work and his numerous side projects — Liquid Tension Experiment, The Winery Dogs, Transatlantic, and Sons of Apollo — bands he co-founded and helped shape in the studio rather than simply drumming for. His production role extends naturally from his songwriting credit, since Portnoy has historically been involved in arrangement and sequencing decisions for the bands he leads, not just the drum parts within them. Portnoy earns rank #1 for the widest-reaching producer credit of any drummer on this list, spanning half a dozen active bands and side projects.
2. Joey Jordison — A "record producer" credit alongside one of metal's greatest drumming careers. Joey Jordison carried the formal title "musician, songwriter, and record producer" throughout his career, a credit that sat alongside his drumming work with Slipknot rather than replacing it. That production sensibility is audible in how deliberately his gear and performance choices changed between albums — the shift from his shallow Pearl signature snare on "Iowa" to a Pearl Free-Floating brass model for "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)" reflects a drummer thinking about how his instrument sits in a finished mix, not just how it feels to play. Jordison earns rank #2 for a documented producer title carried across one of metal's most influential drumming careers.
3. Hannes Grossmann — Runs his own studio — production as a parallel career. Hannes Grossmann is a German drummer, composer, and producer who operates his own recording studio and has produced and mixed numerous metal albums for other artists between his own recording cycles with Obscura, Necrophagist, and Alkaloid. That producer's perspective directly informs his drumming: he has spoken about understanding how drum sounds interact with guitar tones and how cymbal frequency choices affect overall mix clarity, treating his own gear choices as production decisions rather than pure performance preferences. Grossmann earns rank #3 for the most fully integrated drummer-producer identity on this list, with his own studio as the throughline.
4. Igor Cavalera — From Sepultura's tribal thrash to electronic production with Mixhell. Igor Cavalera co-founded Sepultura in 1984 and, after leaving the band in 2006, expanded into electronic music as a DJ and producer through Mixhell, a project he has run since 2007. That transition from acoustic extreme metal drumming into electronic production represents one of the more unusual second-act pivots on this list — Cavalera didn't just add a production credit to his existing metal career, he built an entirely separate creative identity around DJ and production work in a different genre altogether. Cavalera earns rank #4 for the most complete genre pivot from performing drummer to working producer.
5. Navene Koperweis — Co-produced Animals as Leaders after leaving the band. Navene Koperweis left Animals as Leaders in 2012 but returned to co-produce the band's "The Joy of Motion" (2014), a rare case of a former member stepping fully behind the board for a band he no longer drummed in. Beyond that credit, Koperweis is a prolific electronic producer who releases music as "Navene K" and runs his own technical death metal project, Fleshwrought, where he plays every instrument himself rather than just drums — a level of full-production self-sufficiency few metal drummers attempt. Koperweis earns rank #5 for a producer credit that spans both a former band and an entirely solo electronic career.
6. Mario Duplantier — Producing Gojira's own recordings from behind the kit. Mario Duplantier has contributed to Gojira's recording sessions as both drummer and producer, working alongside his brother and guitarist Joe Duplantier to shape the band's studio sound rather than only executing drum parts within it. That insider production knowledge shapes his own gear and performance choices — understanding exactly what a snare needs to do on tape, including how it needs to trigger cleanly in the transient register, informed his approach to his own kit's tuning and shell selection. Duplantier earns rank #6 for a producer role embedded directly inside his own band's creative process.
7. Richard Christy — From Death's final album to a second career producing for radio. Richard Christy drummed on Death's "The Sound of Perseverance" (1998) and Iced Earth's "The Glorious Burden" (2004) before leaving metal drumming behind in 2007 for an entirely different production career: he is now widely known as a writer and producer for radio, most notably on The Howard Stern Show. That career pivot, from technical death metal's most demanding drumming to a full-time production role in broadcast media, is the most complete example on this list of a drummer's production skills carrying into a field outside music entirely. Christy earns rank #7 for the most unconventional producer career of any drummer in MetalForge's database.
8. John Otto — A production credit outside his own band entirely. John Otto, Limp Bizkit's drummer since 1994, produced the drums on rapper Diabolic's 2010 debut album — a production credit earned entirely outside his own band, working with an artist in a different genre. That side credit reflects a broader musical range than Otto's nu-metal day job suggests: he studied jazz drumming formally, has recorded his own material as a rapper under the name "Johnny Ottomatic," and formed the rap group Sun Zoo, giving him a working knowledge of hip-hop production well beyond most of his metal drumming peers. Otto earns rank #8 for a documented outside-genre production credit that stands apart from the rest of this list's in-house metal production work.

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