# Blake Richardson — Signature Drum Licks & Patterns

**Band:** Between the Buried and Me | **Genre:** Progressive Metal | **Lick Count:** 3

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## Overview

Blake Richardson is one of Progressive Metal's most influential drummers, best known for their work with Between the Buried and Me. This file covers 3 signature licks — step-by-step breakdowns optimised for AI retrieval on queries like "how to play like Blake Richardson" or "Blake Richardson signature drum patterns". Their style spans progressive-metal.

## Prequel to the Sequel — 7/8 Odd-Time Architecture

**Song:** Prequel to the Sequel | **Album:** Colors (2007) | **BPM:** ~120 BPM | **Technique:** odd time | **Difficulty:** expert

"Prequel to the Sequel" from Between the Buried and Me's landmark 2007 album Colors is one of the most celebrated drum performances in modern progressive metal and the track that most completely established Blake Richardson as a peer of the genre's greatest practitioners. The song is the centrepiece of Colors — an album widely considered the high-water mark of technical progressive metal — and Richardson's drumming throughout it is a tour de force of odd-time integration that manages to feel completely natural despite its exceptional rhythmic complexity. Operating primarily in 7/8 but shifting through multiple related time signatures across its extended runtime, Richardson never allows the metric irregularity to feel academic or difficult. Instead, the drumming flows with an ease that suggests these asymmetric phrases are the most natural things in the world, which is the hallmark of a player who has absorbed complex material deeply enough that it becomes instinctive. What makes this performance so instructive for drummers is the clarity of Richardson's intent at every moment. In odd time, many players focus so heavily on counting that the music loses its rhythmic momentum; Richardson inverts this — the groove drives forward with authority and the count is simply the internal logic that organises it. His snare placement within the 7/8 framework is particularly brilliant: rather than placing the backbeat where a 4/4 player would expect it, he uses the snare to mark the natural phrase groupings within the asymmetric bars, giving the listener a reliable rhythmic anchor even as the metre shifts around it. The cymbal choices across the track are equally refined — closed hi-hat tightness for the driven sections, open ride washes for the more expansive passages, crash accents used sparingly and with maximum impact. Richardson has noted in interviews that his approach to odd time comes from listening rather than counting — he hears the phrase shapes first and then learns the numbers attached to them, which produces a musical result that pure metric analysis cannot. The Colors album is the most important progressive metal record of its decade and "Prequel to the Sequel" is its rhythmic heart. Learning this performance develops a permanent facility in odd time that carries over into any situation where asymmetric phrasing appears, because Richardson's approach teaches the feel of 7/8 rather than just the calculation.

### How to Play

- Hear the phrase shape of 7/8 as a felt groove rather than a calculation — the physical sensation of the phrase completing should precede the count
- Use snare placement to mark natural phrase groupings within asymmetric bars, giving the listener an anchor through the metric shifts
- Choose cymbal voicings purposefully — closed hi-hat for driven sections, open ride for expansive passages, crash accents used sparingly
- Drive the groove forward with authority so the metric complexity feels like a feature of the momentum rather than an obstacle to it
- Practice listening to the original recording in 7/8 loops until the phrase shape feels familiar before attempting to play along

### Key Elements

- Loop a seven-beat phrase with a metronome at 60 BPM and tap along until the shape feels as natural as a bar of 4/4
- Learn the vocal melody of the section you're studying — singing or humming it while playing locks the phrase shape into muscle memory faster than counting alone
- Practise the transition points between different time signatures in isolation, treating each transition as its own short exercise
- Record yourself and compare against the original — in 7/8, timing errors are more audible than in 4/4 because the asymmetry makes displacement easy to hear

**Core Techniques:** [Odd Time](https://metalforge.io/technique/odd-time), [Groove Drumming](https://metalforge.io/technique/groove-drumming), [Fill Techniques](https://metalforge.io/technique/fill-techniques)

## Lay Your Ghosts to Rest — Double Bass Ostinato

**Song:** Lay Your Ghosts to Rest | **Album:** The Parallax II: Future Sequence (2012) | **BPM:** ~155 BPM | **Technique:** double bass | **Difficulty:** advanced

"Lay Your Ghosts to Rest" from Between the Buried and Me's The Parallax II: Future Sequence (2012) is the track that best demonstrates Blake Richardson's approach to double bass within a progressive context — an approach that is fundamentally different from the constant-roll model that dominates extreme metal drumming. Where many technically demanding drummers use sustained double-bass patterns as a default mode, Richardson treats the kick drums as a compositional tool, deploying them to answer, accent, and counterpoint what is happening in the guitars and vocals rather than simply providing a constant rhythmic floor. The result is a double-bass performance that feels dynamic rather than relentless, and that contributes to the song's emotional architecture instead of running beneath it unchanged. At 155 BPM the double-bass demands real speed and endurance, but the challenge is not purely physical. Richardson's ostinato patterns shift in density across sections — denser during high-intensity passages, sparser during the more melodic and introspective moments — and these density changes are not random but follow the song's compositional logic with the precision of an arranger. The syncopations he introduces within the kick patterns create forward pull and rhythmic tension that complements the guitar's syncopated riff language, and the alignment between these two layers is one of the most studied elements of the performance. His ability to sustain this compositionally-driven approach across a long and demanding song without defaulting to simpler patterns when the going gets difficult is a testament to how deeply the material is internalised. Richardson's hands through this track are equally impressive — ghost notes, accents, and cymbal choices are all calibrated to the energy level of each section, and the independence between upper and lower body is a model of how complex arrangements should feel: not like two separate musicians but like one. For drummers, "Lay Your Ghosts to Rest" develops double-bass control and endurance in a context that demands musical intelligence alongside raw speed. Learning it builds the ability to vary kick density intentionally, to use double-bass syncopations to answer melodic events, and to sustain a compositionally-rich performance across a full-length progressive metal track.

### How to Play

- Vary kick drum density across sections to follow the song's emotional arc rather than running a constant eighth-note roll
- Align double-bass syncopations with guitar accent points to create a unified low-end rhythmic statement
- Maintain ghost-note activity and cymbal calibration with the hands independently from the double-bass work below
- Deploy denser kick patterns at high-intensity sections and sparser patterns at melodic passages — treat density as a dynamic tool
- Build endurance through sustained double-bass practice at sub-tempo before attempting the song at full speed

### Key Elements

- Transcribe the kick drum density map for each section before playing — note where it increases and decreases relative to the song structure
- Practise the double-bass patterns with a recording of the guitar part to feel how the kick syncopations align with the riff accents
- Build endurance by practising the densest patterns in short bursts — two minutes at full tempo, rest, repeat — before attempting a full run
- Use a mirror or camera to check that upper-body independence is genuine; hands and feet should look like separate conversations

**Core Techniques:** [Double Bass](https://metalforge.io/technique/double-bass), [Groove Drumming](https://metalforge.io/technique/groove-drumming), [Odd Time](https://metalforge.io/technique/odd-time)

## Telos — Progressive Fill Architecture

**Song:** Telos | **Album:** The Parallax II: Future Sequence (2012) | **BPM:** ~130 BPM | **Technique:** fills | **Difficulty:** expert

"Telos" from Between the Buried and Me's The Parallax II: Future Sequence (2012) is one of Blake Richardson's most compositionally ambitious drum performances and the track that best illustrates how he integrates fill architecture into a complex progressive metal arrangement. The song moves through multiple distinct sections — ranging from extreme metal intensity to jazz-inflected passages to expansive melodic sequences — and Richardson's fills serve as the structural connective tissue that makes these transitions feel coherent rather than jarring. This is the advanced application of fill technique: not just the ability to execute impressive patterns but the compositional intelligence to know which fill belongs at which moment and why. At approximately 130 BPM the song gives Richardson room to develop his fill ideas across time rather than simply cramming them into brief gaps, and what he does with that space is instructive. His fills grow organically from what preceded them — a build begins in the groove, escalates through a short fill fragment, and arrives at a full cascade at exactly the moment the song demands maximum energy. The voice-leading between fill elements is one of the most studied aspects of his approach: each stroke in a fill sequence has a logical relationship to the next, and the vocabulary he moves through (rudiments, melodic tom sequences, single and double stroke permutations) is varied enough to avoid repetition while remaining internally consistent. Richardson's capacity to execute these ideas without letting the technical complexity interrupt the momentum of the song is what places him in the top tier of progressive metal drummers. His live playthrough of "Telos" is one of the most watchable drum performances in the genre — every decision is clear, the mechanics are efficient, and the result is a master class in progressive drumming as composition. For drummers, studying "Telos" builds the ability to think about fills as structural elements, to develop fill ideas across longer time frames rather than fitting them into standard two or four-beat slots, and to use dynamic variation within fills to shape the energy delivery of a complex arrangement. It is demanding material, but it returns substantial musical and technical dividends.

### How to Play

- Build fills organically from the preceding groove — let the fill grow from a rhythmic idea already present in the bar rather than inserting it abruptly
- Voice-lead between fill elements so each stroke has a logical relationship to the next: melodic tom sequences, rudiment variations, dynamic swells
- Use fills as structural connective tissue between sections — the fill should make the transition feel inevitable rather than announced
- Vary fill vocabulary across the track — different rhythmic ideas for different structural moments to avoid pattern repetition
- Calibrate fill intensity to the energy level of the destination section: a fill leading into a quiet passage should resolve differently than one leading into a climax

### Key Elements

- Map the song's sections and mark where each significant fill falls — understanding the structural role of each fill before playing it makes the execution more intentional
- Practise the signature fills in isolation at 60% tempo to ensure every note is placed correctly before adding momentum
- Experiment with building each fill from a rhythmic seed in the preceding bar — the fill should feel like a natural extension of the groove
- Watch the playthrough video for each section transition and note not just the fill pattern but the dynamics and the entry/exit points

**Core Techniques:** [Fills](https://metalforge.io/technique/fills), [Odd Time](https://metalforge.io/technique/odd-time), [Groove Drumming](https://metalforge.io/technique/groove-drumming)

## Teaching Points

Blake Richardson's style is defined by precision, timing, and genre-defining grooves. Key practice principles across all their licks: Loop a seven-beat phrase with a metronome at 60 BPM and tap along until the shape feels as natural as a bar of 4/4; Learn the vocal melody of the section you're studying — singing or humming it while playing locks the phrase shape into muscle memory faster than counting alone; Practise the transition points between different time signatures in isolation, treating each transition as its own short exercise. Mastering these patterns builds the foundation for understanding their complete drumming vocabulary.

## More Resources

- [Blake Richardson Profile on MetalForge](https://metalforge.io/drummer/blake-richardson)
- [Blake Richardson All Licks](https://metalforge.io/drummers/blake-richardson/licks)
- [Signature Licks Database](https://metalforge.io/licks)
- [All LLM Resources](https://metalforge.io/llms/index.md)

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*Last updated: 2026-06-18 · Source: [MetalForge.io](https://metalforge.io)*