# Navene Koperweis vs Matt Garstka — Animals as Leaders' Drum Chair Compared > Side-by-side career and gear comparison between Navene Koperweis and Matt Garstka — the founding technical drummer and the successor who inherited Animals as Leaders' djent-defining drum chair in 2012. **Category:** Progressive Metal · **URL:** https://metalforge.io/vs/navene-koperweis-vs-matt-garstka Navene Koperweis vs Matt Garstka: the founding technical drummer versus the successor who inherited Animals as Leaders' djent-defining drum chair in 2012. Career, technique, gear, and legacy compared. --- ## Navene Koperweis Setup - **Drums:** DW Performance Series - **Snare:** DW Performance 14"x6.5" Steel - **Cymbals:** Meinl Byzance Extra Dry (five-piece spread) - **Sticks:** Vic Firth American Classic 5B ## Matt Garstka Setup - **Drums:** Tama Starclassic Walnut/Birch - **Snare:** Tama S.L.P. 14"x6" G-Maple - **Cymbals:** Meinl Byzance Series (15" Dual Hi-Hats, 18"/20" Extra Dry Medium Crashes, 22" Dual Ride) - **Pedals/Hardware:** Tama Speed Cobra 910 Double Pedal ## Career Overview Navene Koperweis (born 1985, San Jose, California) built his reputation in technical death metal with The Faceless and Animosity before joining instrumental djent pioneers Animals as Leaders in 2010 for the "Weightless" (2011) touring cycle — establishing the polyrhythmic, technical-death-metal-informed drumming that helped define the band's early sound. He departed in 2012, when Matt Garstka took over the drum chair, going on to found progressive metal outfit Entheos and build a parallel career as a producer and session drummer for Job for a Cowboy and Machine Head. Garstka brought a jazz-fusion education and virtuosic technical vocabulary to the chair Koperweis vacated, heard throughout "The Joy of Motion" (2014) and "The Madness of Many" (2016) — his own tenure now more than a decade long, several times the length of Koperweis's run in the band. ## Playing Style Koperweis employed machine-precise polyrhythms and blast-beat fluency shaped by his technical death metal roots, blending that foundation with an electronic production sensibility that gave Animals as Leaders' early material its distinctive djent-meets-technical-death-metal character. Garstka draws on linear independence, polymetric phrasing, and ghost-note-dense double bass shaped by jazz-fusion training, giving the band's constantly shifting time signatures a fluid, almost improvisational precision that built on rather than replicated Koperweis's foundational template. ## Key Differences Navene Koperweis endorses DW Drums and Meinl Byzance cymbals, running a DW Performance Series kit with a DW Performance 14"x6.5" steel snare and a five-piece Meinl Byzance Extra Dry cymbal spread. Matt Garstka plays a Tama Starclassic Walnut/Birch kit with a Tama S.L.P. 14"x6" G-Maple snare and Meinl Byzance Series cymbals, powered by a Tama Speed Cobra 910 Double Pedal. ## Influence & Legacy Koperweis's tenure on Animals as Leaders' "Weightless" touring cycle helped establish the band, and by extension djent, as an instrumental technical-metal force, and his subsequent work founding Entheos and producing for Job for a Cowboy and Machine Head has kept him at technical metal's cutting edge. Garstka has become one of the most-watched young drummers in progressive metal through his YouTube content and over a decade anchoring Animals as Leaders' globally influential instrumental catalog, proving the band's drum chair could sustain an entirely different technical vocabulary without losing its identity. ## Verdict Navene Koperweis and Matt Garstka share one of progressive metal's most direct lineage stories: Koperweis helped define Animals as Leaders' early djent-meets-technical-death-metal sound during the "Weightless" cycle before departing in 2012, and Garstka has held the chair ever since, built on jazz-fusion virtuosity rather than Koperweis's technical death metal roots. Koperweis is the technical death metal specialist who moved on to shape Entheos and technical metal production; Garstka is the successor who turned the chair into a decade-plus showcase for polymetric, jazz-informed complexity. Both answer the question of who defines Animals as Leaders' rhythmic identity — from two different eras of the same band. ## FAQ **Q: Did Matt Garstka replace Navene Koperweis in Animals as Leaders?** A: Yes. Navene Koperweis drummed for Animals as Leaders through the "Weightless" (2011) touring cycle before departing in 2012. Matt Garstka took over the drum chair that year and has recorded every Animals as Leaders album since, including "The Joy of Motion" (2014) and "The Madness of Many" (2016). **Q: What gear do Navene Koperweis and Matt Garstka use?** A: Navene Koperweis plays a DW Performance Series kit with a DW Performance steel snare and Meinl Byzance Extra Dry cymbals. Matt Garstka plays a Tama Starclassic Walnut/Birch kit with a Tama S.L.P. snare and Meinl Byzance Series cymbals, powered by a Tama Speed Cobra 910 Double Pedal. **Q: What did Navene Koperweis do after leaving Animals as Leaders?** A: After departing Animals as Leaders in 2012, Navene Koperweis founded progressive metal band Entheos and built a parallel career as a producer and session drummer for acts including Job for a Cowboy and Machine Head. **Q: Is Matt Garstka jazz trained?** A: Yes — Matt Garstka's playing blends jazz fusion, electronic music, and progressive metal, and his jazz-influenced training is central to the linear independence and ghost-note complexity he brings to Animals as Leaders' instrumental compositions, distinguishing his approach from founding-era drummer Navene Koperweis's technical death metal roots. --- *Full comparison: [metalforge.io/vs/navene-koperweis-vs-matt-garstka](https://metalforge.io/vs/navene-koperweis-vs-matt-garstka)* *[Navene Koperweis drummer profile](https://metalforge.io/drummer/navene-koperweis)* *[Matt Garstka drummer profile](https://metalforge.io/drummer/matt-garstka)* *[Navene Koperweis vs Ben Koller comparison](https://metalforge.io/vs/navene-koperweis-vs-ben-koller)* *[Mike Mangini vs Matt Garstka comparison](https://metalforge.io/vs/mike-mangini-vs-matt-garstka)* --- *Last updated: 2026-07-09 · Source: [MetalForge.io](https://metalforge.io)*