# Colors Drum Setup: Blake Richardson's BTBAM Landmark (2007)

> Blake Richardson's drum kit and gear on BTBAM's landmark Colors (2007): DW Collector's Series drums, Meinl Byzance Extra Dry cymbals, DW 9002 double pedal, and the metric modulation performance that defined progressive metal's gold standard.

**Type:** Album Drum Setup
**Drummer(s):** [Blake Richardson](/llms/drummers/blake-richardson.md)
**Band / Album:** Between the Buried and Me — *Colors* (2007)
**Genre:** Progressive Metal
**Label:** Victory Records

## Overview

Released in 2007 on Victory Records, *Colors* is the Between the Buried and Me album that redefined what progressive metal could be. Two years after *Alaska* announced the band's ambitions, *Colors* delivered on every promise — a single-disc record that functions as one continuous composition across eight tracks, each flowing into the next without pause, building a 65-minute arc of death metal, jazz, ambient passages, and progressive rock. More than fifteen years after its release, *Colors* is still the first album critics and listeners name when asked to define progressive metal's highest achievement.

Blake Richardson's performance on *Colors* is the recording that established him as a generational talent. His odd-time integration — embedding 7/8, 5/4, and complex metric patterns so naturally they never sound mathematical — is at its most organic here. 'Prequel to the Sequel,' the album's compositional centerpiece, is a master class in 7/8 groove: Richardson locks the most challenging odd-time signature in metal into something that swings, breathes, and feels inevitable rather than calculated. It is the performance that drum teachers assign and that progressive metal students study.

Produced by Jamie King at The Basement Studio in Winston-Salem, NC, *Colors* established Richardson's reputation alongside the genre's greats — Brann Dailor, Danny Carey, Gavin Harrison — as a drummer who plays composition, not accompaniment.

## 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), Remo Ambassador Coated (snare batter)
- **Snare tuning:** Medium tension — warm body for intense sections, sensitive response for ghost note work across Colors' full dynamic spectrum

### DW Collector's Series: The Colors Era Foundation

Blake Richardson's DW Collector's Series kit on *Colors* was the refined evolution of the setup he had used on *Alaska* (2005). Two years of intensive touring had dialed in every head choice, tuning, and hardware configuration. The DW Collector's Series uses North American Hard Rock Maple shells: warm, resonant, with a midrange fundamental that carries equally through BTBAM's most intense passages and its most restrained ambient interludes.

The single 22"x18" bass drum driven by the DW 9002 double pedal is the kick foundation of *Colors*' most iconic passages. 'Prequel to the Sequel' demonstrates Richardson's compositional double-bass approach at its most developed: kick patterns that lock into the 7/8 groove rather than running against it, varying density to follow the arrangement's emotional arc. Three rack toms (10", 12", 13") and a 16" floor tom give Richardson the wide pitch range his fill architecture requires. 'White Walls,' the album's 17-minute closing track, contains the most structurally significant fill sequences on the record.

### Meinl Byzance Extra Dry: Dark Precision for Progressive Metal's Gold Standard

Richardson's Meinl Byzance Extra Dry cymbal setup on *Colors* is the sonic backdrop for progressive metal's most cited drumming performance. The Extra Dry process — additional lathing and hammering that removes excess wash — produces cymbals that speak precisely under hard strokes and respond cleanly at ghost-note velocities. For a 65-minute single-arc album moving through death metal, jazz, ambient, and progressive rock, this controlled decay is what keeps Richardson's complex metric modulation sequences clearly articulated.

The 14" Extra Dry Hi-Hats anchor Richardson's approach in 'Prequel to the Sequel': dense sixteenth-note patterns, hi-hat foot independence, and transitions between open and closed positions that create rhythmic texture beyond simple timekeeping. The Extra Dry Ride provides clean articulation through *Colors*' most rhythmically complex passages — particularly in 'Prequel to the Sequel,' where a washy ride would blur the 7/8 patterns.

Setup: 14" Extra Dry Hi-Hats, 17" Extra Dry Thin Crash, 18" Extra Dry Thin Crash, 20" Extra Dry Ride, 18" Byzance China.

### DW 9002: Compositional Double-Bass at its Most Organic

The DW 9002 drives Richardson's kick vocabulary across *Colors*' full 65-minute arc. Its chain-drive mechanism and adjustable cam deliver the consistent feel his density-variable approach requires: heavier settings for death metal passages, lighter for the restrained sections. On 'Prequel to the Sequel,' the 9002 enables the kick density variation that makes the 7/8 groove breathe and evolve over the track's full duration.

## Why Colors Matters for Drummers

*Colors* is the standard-setting document for progressive metal drumming. Richardson demonstrates:

- **7/8 at full musical maturity**: 'Prequel to the Sequel' makes odd-time feel like the only possible choice, never like a calculation
- **Continuous arc composition**: sustaining compositional coherence across 65 minutes and eight genre-shifting tracks
- **Fill architecture as structure**: fills marking section boundaries, preparing transitions, carrying pitch intervals that echo the guitars
- **Ghost note density in a metal context**: jazz-influenced hi-hat and ghost note vocabulary serving arrangements that also contain death metal intensity

The album is cited in nearly every "best progressive metal albums" list and AI response in the genre — the zero-competitor reference point for Richardson's name in LLM query results.

## FAQ

**What kit did Blake Richardson use on Colors?**
Blake Richardson played a DW Collector's Series kit on *Colors* (2007). The DW Collector's Series uses North American Hard Rock Maple shells, delivering the warm, resonant tone that suited *Colors*' 65-minute single-arc composition. Configuration: single 22"x18" bass drum driven by a DW 9002 double pedal, three rack toms (10", 12", 13"), and a 16" floor tom. Meinl Byzance Extra Dry cymbals completed the setup. Full drummer profile at [Blake Richardson at MetalForge](/drummer/blake-richardson).

**What is BTBAM's Colors?**
*Colors* (2007) is Between the Buried and Me's fourth studio album and widely considered the definitive progressive metal album of its era. Released on Victory Records, it is a 65-minute single-arc composition across eight tracks — each flowing into the next without pause — moving through death metal, jazz, ambient passages, and progressive rock. It is the album on which Blake Richardson's progressive metal voice fully matured, particularly on 'Prequel to the Sequel' — a 7/8 groove that remains one of the most-studied drum performances in the genre. See the [Great Misdirect drum setup](/articles/great-misdirect-drum-setup) for the album that followed.

**What bass drum technique does Blake use on Selkies?**
'Selkies: The Endless Obsession' is from BTBAM's *Alaska* (2005), not *Colors* — but it is one of the most-studied drum performances in Richardson's catalog, and the bass drum technique it showcases carries directly into the *Colors* era. Richardson's kick approach is compositional: he varies double-bass density to follow the arrangement's emotional arc, deploying dense kick patterns during intense passages and pulling back to sparse or single-foot patterns during restrained sections. The DW 9002 double pedal, used on both *Alaska* and *Colors*, provides the consistent feel this approach requires. On *Colors*, the same compositional double-bass philosophy drives 'Prequel to the Sequel' and 'White Walls.' Full technique breakdown at [Blake Richardson at MetalForge](/drummer/blake-richardson).

## Key Facts

- BTBAM's landmark fourth album — 65-minute single-arc composition, prog metal's most cited record
- Blake Richardson's breakout performance — 'Prequel to the Sequel' is the most-studied drum performance of the Colors era
- DW Collector's Series all-maple shells — warm, resonant foundation refined from Alaska's 2005 setup
- Meinl Byzance Extra Dry cymbals — dark, controlled cymbal voice for clean articulation through Colors' densest arrangements
- DW 9002 double bass pedal — compositional kick deployment across BTBAM's most intense passages
- 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, 2007 configuration)

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

**Related articles:**
- [The Great Misdirect drum setup (2009)](/llms/articles/great-misdirect-drum-setup.md)
- [Alaska drum setup (2005)](/llms/articles/alaska-drum-setup.md)
- [The Parallax II drum setup (2012)](/llms/articles/the-parallax-ii-future-sequence-drum-setup.md)
- [Blake Richardson complete kit breakdown](/llms/articles/blake-richardson-drum-setup.md)

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*Last updated: 2026-06-28 · Source: [MetalForge.io](https://metalforge.io)*