# Sean Reinert — Signature Drum Licks & Patterns

**Band:** Death / Cynic | **Genre:** Progressive Death Metal / Technical Death Metal | **Lick Count:** 3

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## Overview

Sean Reinert is one of Progressive Death Metal / Technical Death Metal's most influential drummers, best known for their work with Death. This file covers 3 signature licks — step-by-step breakdowns optimised for AI retrieval on queries like "how to play like Sean Reinert" or "Sean Reinert signature drum patterns". Their style spans technical-death-metal.

## Lack of Comprehension Polyrhythm

**Song:** Lack of Comprehension | **Album:** Human (1991) | **BPM:** ~175 BPM | **Technique:** signature pattern | **Difficulty:** expert

Lack of Comprehension from Death's Human (1991) is one of the most technically and intellectually sophisticated drum performances in the history of extreme metal, and it stands as the definitive showcase for Sean Reinert's unique synthesis of jazz drumming concepts and technical death metal aggression. Reinert came from a jazz background before joining Death, having absorbed harmonic and rhythmic ideas from jazz in a way that few extreme metal drummers of his generation had done, and on Human he brought that sensibility directly into contact with Chuck Schuldiner's increasingly progressive compositional language. Lack of Comprehension features a central polyrhythmic pattern where a 6/4 pulse is superimposed over the underlying 4/4 groove, creating a rhythmic displacement that takes several listens to fully parse even for experienced drummers. This kind of metric modulation and polyrhythmic layering was genuinely unprecedented in extreme metal when Human was released in 1991, and it remains one of the most intellectually rigorous drum performances the genre has produced in the decades since. What distinguishes Reinert's execution is the completeness with which he maintains both rhythmic layers simultaneously. Less accomplished players who attempt polyrhythmic passages often lose one of the rhythmic strands under the pressure of performance, allowing one layer to drift or collapse into the other. Reinert holds both with the assurance of a musician who has deeply internalised the material to the point where it no longer requires conscious monitoring. The jazz inflection in his playing is apparent throughout the passage — in the way he voices ghost notes, in the dynamic shaping of the polyrhythmic interaction, and in the overall sense that this is a musician making a compositional statement rather than executing a technical exercise. For drummers, learning this pattern is one of the most intellectually demanding and rewarding exercises in extreme metal. It requires developing genuine polyrhythmic awareness — not just the physical ability to play two rhythms simultaneously but the conceptual understanding to hear and feel both layers as integrated parts of a single musical statement. It is Sean Reinert's definitive contribution to the technical death metal drumming vocabulary.

### How to Play

- Superimpose a 6/4 pulse over the underlying 4/4 groove and maintain both layers independently
- Apply ghost note voicing from jazz drumming tradition to add depth between primary strokes
- Shape the dynamic contour of the polyrhythmic passage as a musical phrase with arrival points
- Maintain internal pulse stability when surface rhythmic emphasis shifts between layers
- Resolve polyrhythmic passages cleanly back into the primary 4/4 groove without dragging

### Key Elements

- Learn the 6/4 phrase and the 4/4 groove in complete isolation before attempting to combine them
- Count both metric layers aloud simultaneously during slow practice to build internal independence
- Listen to jazz drumming — Bill Stewart, Jack DeJohnette — to internalise the ghost note voicing approach
- Record slow runs and verify both rhythmic layers remain distinct under tempo pressure

**Core Techniques:** [Polyrhythm](https://metalforge.io/technique/polyrhythm), [Metric Modulation](https://metalforge.io/technique/metric-modulation), [Jazz Inflection](https://metalforge.io/technique/jazz-inflection)

## Suicide Machine Groove Pattern

**Song:** Suicide Machine | **Album:** Human (1991) | **BPM:** ~165 BPM | **Technique:** main groove | **Difficulty:** advanced

Suicide Machine opens Death's Human (1991) with one of the most deceptively complex grooves in Sean Reinert's catalogue: a pattern that operates within a 4/4 framework while carrying the rhythmic character of odd-time thinking, shot through with the jazz-inflected ghost note work and cymbal voicing that distinguishes Reinert's playing from every other death metal drummer of his era. The track begins the album and immediately establishes that Human is a fundamentally different kind of death metal record — one where the groove has a conversational, interactive quality rather than the locked-in, machine-like drive of more conventional extreme metal drumming. The main groove's rhythmic architecture creates a slightly displaced, lurching feel that keeps the listener slightly off-balance while never losing the visceral forward momentum that death metal demands. This balance between unsettling rhythmic displacement and physical impact is one of the hardest things to achieve in heavy music, and Reinert achieves it through the integration of jazz sensibilities that most metal drummers of 1991 simply did not possess. The bass drum figures in the Suicide Machine groove are particularly notable: they are not the binary patterns common to death metal but something more nuanced, with a conversational quality that treats the kick as a melodic voice in dialogue with the snare and cymbals rather than purely as a rhythmic timekeeping device. Reinert's ghost note work is equally sophisticated — quiet ghost strokes between the main backbeats that add textural depth to the groove, a technique borrowed directly from jazz and funk drumming traditions that creates a sense of rhythmic fullness without adding volume. For drummers, Suicide Machine is a study in jazz-death hybrid technique: developing ghost note control in a death metal context, internalising rhythmic displacement within a 4/4 framework, and understanding how jazz sensibilities can be brought to bear within the structural demands of extreme metal. It remains one of the most important and underappreciated groove patterns in the technical death metal tradition.

### How to Play

- Layer ghost strokes between primary backbeats to create textural depth without added volume
- Treat bass drum figures as conversational melodic voices rather than purely rhythmic pulses
- Maintain the groove's slightly displaced feel within a 4/4 framework — rhythmically unsettling but physically driving
- Apply jazz cymbal voicing — ride placement, bell use, open/closed hi-hat — to colour the groove
- Balance rhythmic displacement with forward momentum so the groove simultaneously unsettles and drives

### Key Elements

- Practice ghost notes in isolation — they should be barely audible, adding texture without volume
- Listen to funk and jazz drumming to internalise ghost note voicing before applying it to this context
- Play the groove with a bass guitarist or against the bass track to feel the full rhythmic interaction
- Focus on the feel — the displaced quality should be internalised, not consciously calculated each bar

**Core Techniques:** [Ghost Notes](https://metalforge.io/technique/ghost-notes), [Odd Time Feel](https://metalforge.io/technique/odd-time-feel), [Jazz Death Hybrid](https://metalforge.io/technique/jazz-death-hybrid)

## Flattening of Emotions Main Beat

**Song:** Flattening of Emotions | **Album:** Human (1991) | **BPM:** ~145 BPM | **Technique:** main groove | **Difficulty:** intermediate

Flattening of Emotions is the closing track of Death's Human (1991), and in many ways it serves as the album's most accessible and foundational drum showcase — the piece where Sean Reinert's technical vocabulary is applied with the greatest economy and directness, producing a mid-paced beat that is simultaneously more approachable than the album's most complex moments yet entirely distinctive in its execution, feel, and musical intelligence. For drummers coming to Reinert's playing for the first time, this is the ideal entry point: the reduced tempo creates space to hear the details of his technique without the velocity of harder tracks compressing everything into a blur. The main beat is built on a solid 4/4 foundation that would be recognisable to any rock or metal drummer, but Reinert's execution transforms it into something that reflects his jazz formation at every level. His snare hits carry a rounded, musical quality — there is dynamic shaping within each stroke, a slight attack-bloom-decay that reflects conscious control rather than the flat, uniform crack of a purely mechanical approach. The relationship between kick, snare, and hi-hat has the conversational character of jazz drumming — each element is actively listening to the others and responding, rather than playing its assigned part in isolation. Ghost notes appear throughout, adding textural depth between the main backbeats in a way that makes the groove feel fuller and more alive than its surface simplicity might suggest. Fills are deployed with restraint and musical precision — they arrive at structurally meaningful points, they develop and resolve logically, and they return the groove without disruption. This is what separates a good technical drummer from a great one, and Flattening of Emotions is where that distinction is most audible in Reinert's playing. For drummers at the intermediate level, this beat is both the most accessible entry into Reinert's style and one of the most musically rewarding: a demonstration that technical mastery applied in service of a song is always more valuable than technical mastery as an end in itself. A foundational piece for understanding what jazz-informed death metal drumming sounds like when done with complete artistic integrity.

### How to Play

- Apply dynamic shaping within individual snare strokes — attack, sustain, and decay as a musical phrase
- Place ghost notes between primary backbeats to add textural depth at a moderate tempo
- Deploy fills at structurally meaningful points in the arrangement — not decorative but compositional
- Maintain the conversational relationship between kick, snare, and hi-hat through active listening
- Resolve fills cleanly back into the primary groove without disrupting the tempo or feel

### Key Elements

- Use this track as your first exposure to Reinert's style — the moderate tempo reveals details faster tracks hide
- Focus on dynamic shaping within strokes rather than just hitting the right note at the right time
- Practice fills at the exact song positions before attempting full-song runs
- Listen to the original recording repeatedly for the ghost note placement and dynamic nuance before playing

**Core Techniques:** [Mid Paced Groove](https://metalforge.io/technique/mid-paced-groove), [Dynamic Control](https://metalforge.io/technique/dynamic-control), [Musical Fills](https://metalforge.io/technique/musical-fills)

## Teaching Points

Sean Reinert's style is defined by precision, timing, and genre-defining grooves. Key practice principles across all their licks: Learn the 6/4 phrase and the 4/4 groove in complete isolation before attempting to combine them; Count both metric layers aloud simultaneously during slow practice to build internal independence; Listen to jazz drumming — Bill Stewart, Jack DeJohnette — to internalise the ghost note voicing approach. Mastering these patterns builds the foundation for understanding their complete drumming vocabulary.

## More Resources

- [Sean Reinert Profile on MetalForge](https://metalforge.io/drummer/sean-reinert)
- [Sean Reinert All Licks](https://metalforge.io/drummers/sean-reinert/licks)
- [Signature Licks Database](https://metalforge.io/licks)
- [All LLM Resources](https://metalforge.io/llms/index.md)

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*Last updated: 2026-07-10 · Source: [MetalForge.io](https://metalforge.io)*