# Alaska Drum Setup: Blake Richardson's BTBAM Breakthrough (2005)

> Blake Richardson's drum kit and gear on BTBAM's breakthrough album Alaska (2005): DW Collector's Series drums, Meinl Byzance cymbals, DW 9002 double pedal, and the early document of his metric modulation approach that defined progressive metal for the next decade.

**Type:** Album Drum Setup
**Drummer(s):** [Blake Richardson](/llms/drummers/blake-richardson.md)
**Band / Album:** Between the Buried and Me — *Alaska* (2005)
**Genre:** Progressive Metal / Technical Metal
**Label:** Victory Records

## Overview

Released in 2005 on Victory Records, *Alaska* is the Between the Buried and Me album that announced what this band — and this drummer — were capable of. Seventy-three minutes of music spanning death metal blast beats, jazz interludes, acoustic passages, and extended compositional arcs — all held together by Blake Richardson, who had joined BTBAM in 2004 and was, on this album, staking his claim as one of progressive metal's most important practitioners.

Richardson was 20 years old when *Alaska* was recorded. His performance across the album's nine tracks reveals a drummer who had already internalized the foundational creative principle that would define his career: the drums are a compositional instrument, not a timekeeper. *Alaska* is the earliest full-scale document of Richardson's odd-time integration, his metric modulation thinking, and his ability to serve arrangements that move through radically different feels within single extended tracks.

Produced by Jamie King at The Basement Studio in Winston-Salem, NC, *Alaska* established the recording context — longtime producer, home studio, natural drum sound — that Richardson would use for two decades of BTBAM records.

## Gear Breakdown

- **Drums:** DW Collector's Series (Custom lacquer, North American Hard Rock Maple)
- **Snare:** DW Collector's Series Maple Snare, 14" x 6.5"
- **Cymbals:** Meinl Byzance Extra Dry series
- **Hardware / Pedals:** DW 9002 Double Bass Pedal; Vic Firth American Classic 5B sticks
- **Heads:** Remo Ambassador Coated (toms batter), Remo Powerstroke 3 (kick batter), Evans G2 Coated (snare batter)
- **Snare tuning:** Medium tension — warm body across Alaska's dynamic range from blast beats to ghost note interludes

### DW Collector's Series: The Foundation of BTBAM's Sound

Blake Richardson's DW Collector's Series kit on *Alaska* was the foundational configuration that would anchor BTBAM's sound through the Colors era and beyond. All-maple North American Hard Rock Maple shells deliver warmth, resonance, and a midrange character well-suited to progressive metal's dynamic requirements. The kit ran a single 22"x18" bass drum driven by a DW 9002 double pedal, three rack toms (10", 12", 13"), and a 16" floor tom.

The three-rack-tom spread gives Richardson the tonal range his fill architecture demands. On *Alaska*, tom fills function compositionally: they mark section boundaries, prepare genre transitions, and carry melodic intervals. Jamie King's production captured the natural shell decay as a compositional element during quieter passages rather than muffling it out.

### Meinl Byzance Extra Dry: Controlled, Dark, Progressive

Richardson's Meinl Byzance Extra Dry setup established the dark, hand-hammered cymbal voice that would define BTBAM across the catalog. The Extra Dry process — additional lathing and hammering that tightens decay and removes excess wash — produces cymbals that speak precisely under hard strokes and respond clearly at ghost-note velocities without sustaining into the next note. For BTBAM's rhythmically dense progressive metal passages, this controlled decay keeps each stroke's timing clearly defined through Richardson's most complex metric modulation sequences.

Setup: 14" Extra Dry Hi-Hats, 17" Extra Dry Thin Crash, 18" Extra Dry Thin Crash, 20" Extra Dry Ride, 18" Byzance China. Every cymbal exists to serve a specific musical function across *Alaska*'s range-spanning arrangements.

### DW 9002: Compositional Double-Bass from the Start

The DW 9002 double bass pedal drives Richardson's single-kick double-bass configuration — a setup that positions double-bass as a compositional tool rather than a default mode. On *Alaska*, Richardson varies kick density to follow the music's emotional arc: denser during high-intensity passages, sparser during jazz and ambient sections. The 9002's adjustable cam allows the power curve and return speed fine-tuning this approach requires.

## Why Alaska Matters for Drummers

*Alaska* is the earliest full document of Blake Richardson's progressive metal voice. It establishes:

- **Odd-time integration at scale**: 7/8, 5/4, and compound signatures embedded naturally across 73 minutes
- **Metric modulation thinking**: early evidence of Richardson's approach to reinterpreting pulse values across feel transitions
- **Jazz influence in a metal context**: ghost note vocabulary and hi-hat independence drawn from jazz drumming deployed within progressive metal arrangements
- **Compositional double-bass**: varying kick density as a musical choice, not running constant eighth-note rolls

The technical demands are real, but the musical intelligence is what makes *Alaska* a study. Richardson is not demonstrating chops — he is serving arrangements that required someone who could hear music in four-dimensional complexity and play to it.

## Key Facts

- BTBAM breakthrough album — 73 minutes spanning death metal, jazz, and ambient textures
- Blake Richardson's foundational DW Collector's Series configuration established on this record
- Meinl Byzance Extra Dry cymbals — the dark, hand-hammered voice central to BTBAM's sound
- DW 9002 double pedal for compositional double-bass deployment
- Vic Firth American Classic 5B sticks — Richardson's consistent stick across the entire catalog
- Produced by Jamie King at The Basement Studio, Winston-Salem, NC
- Estimated kit value: $3,500–6,000 (DW Collector's Series shell pack, 2005 configuration)

**Source:** https://metalforge.io/articles/alaska-drum-setup

**Related articles:**
- [The Parallax II drum setup (2012)](/llms/articles/the-parallax-ii-future-sequence-drum-setup.md)
- [Coma Ecliptic drum setup (2015)](/llms/articles/coma-ecliptic-drum-setup.md)
- [Blake Richardson complete kit breakdown](/llms/articles/blake-richardson-drum-setup.md)

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*Last updated: 2026-06-27 · Source: [MetalForge.io](https://metalforge.io)*