Tomas Haake

Tomas Haake
Tomas Haake in Stockholm in May 2005.
Background information
Birth name	Tomas Haake
Born	(1971-07-13) 13 July 1971 Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
Genres	Extreme metal, progressive metal, experimental metal
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Drums, vocals
Years active	1987–present
Labels	Nuclear Blast
Associated acts	Meshuggah

Tomas Haake (born 13 July 1971) is a Swedish drummer and main songwriter of the experimental metal band Meshuggah. He is known for his polyrhythms and technical ability. In 2012, Haake was named the 5th best Modern Metal drummer by MetalSucks.net. In the July 2008 edition of Modern Drummer magazine, Haake was named the number one drummer in the "Metal" category, as decided upon in the magazine's Readers' Poll.

Musical career

His drumming style is characterized by heavy use of polymeter while often maintaining a steady 4/4 beat. This signature style has become one of the most recognized features in the music of Meshuggah. He is also known for stacking his cymbals in a variety of configurations to give himself a desired sound.

Haake also writes the majority of Meshuggah lyrics and also contributes spoken vocals on several songs ("Choirs of Devastation" on the album Contradictions Collapse, "Inside What's Within Behind", "Suffer in Truth", and "Sublevels" on the album Destroy Erase Improve, "Sane", "The Exquisite Machinery of Torture" on the album Chaosphere, "Spasm" on the album Nothing, as well as on several tracks on the album Catch Thirtythree and on the song "Dancers to a Discordant System" from ObZen).

Haake also provides spoken vocals on Meshuggah guitarist Fredrik Thordendal's solo album Sol Niger Within and vocals on the song "Futile Bread Machine (Campfire Version)" from The True Human Design.

Drumkit from Hell

Main article: Drumkit from Hell

The drumset Tomas Haake uses has been meticulously sampled in full for the software instrument Drumkit from Hell made by Toontrack, with Haake performing all the drumming himself. It since has been used by many bands, including fellow metal act Clawfinger, Devin Townsend's Ziltoid the Omniscient, Dethklok on Adult Swim's TV show Metalocalypse (in several songs from the second season), and Ben Weinman of The Dillinger Escape Plan. The latter used it to program drum parts for the album Ire Works before The Dillinger Escape Plan found drummer Gil Sharone. Meshuggah later went on to use this software instrument to program all the drum tracks for their album Catch Thirtythree, and the re-release of their album Nothing, using no live recorded drums by Haake. obZen also used the software as an auxiliary sound source as Haake played.

Influences

Haake has cited musicians from heavy metal, jazz fusion and progressive rock as influences. He cites English bands such as Saxon, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, American bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Testament and Metal Church and Canadian band Rush. His favourite drummers include Sean Reinert (Cynic), Neil Peart (Rush), Ian Mosley (Marillion), Terry Bozzio (Missing Persons and Frank Zappa), Vinnie Colaiuta, Gary Husband and Dave Weckl.

Equipment

• Drums - Sonor SQ2 Series

• • 14x14" Tom
  • 12x11" Tom

• • 15x15" Floor Tom
  • 18x18" Floor Tom

• • 22x18" Bass Drum (x2)
  • 14x6" Sonor Artists Bronze Series Snare with Tama Power Hoops

• Cymbals – Sabian

• • 14" HHX Rock Hi-Hats
  • 19" AAXtreme Chinese
  • 19" HHX Stage Crash

• • 21" HHX Stage Crash
  • 20" HHX Stage Crash
  • 19" Paragon Chinese/15" HH thin Crash (stacked)

• • 15" HHX Stage Hats
  • 22" Legacy Ride (as crash)
  • 21" AAXtreme Chinese

• Drum Heads - Remo

• • Toms: (12", 14", 15", 18") Clear Emperors, Clear Ambassadors - bottom

• • Bass Drums: (22") PowerStroke 4 - batter, PowerStroke 3 Ebony - front

• • Snare: (14") custom aramid fibre head - top, Snare Side Hazy - bottom

• Hardware - Sonor, Trick, Porter & Davies

• • Trick Pro 1-V (x2)
  • Porter & Davies BC2 w/backrest

• Sticks - Wincent

Personal life

Haake married Ida Evileye (real name Ida Stenbacka), the bassist of the Swedish all-girl rock band Crucified Barbara on 16 January 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. They were wed by an Elvis impersonator. They divorced in 2014.

Discography

Meshuggah

For a more comprehensive list, see Meshuggah discography.

• Contradictions Collapse (1991)
• None (EP, 1994)
• Selfcaged (EP, 1995)
• Destroy Erase Improve (1995)
• Chaosphere (1998)
• Nothing (2002)
• I (EP, 2004)
• Catch Thirty-Three (2005)
• Nothing - Re-issue (2006)
• obZen (2008)
• Koloss (2012)

References

• Meshuggah at Allmusic
• Tomas Haake Goes It Alone at DRUM! Magazine
• Tomas Haake Married

External links

• Meshuggah official website
• Meshuggah at MySpace
• Meshuggah at Nuclear Blast Europe
• Meshuggah at Nuclear Blast USA