George Kollias (drummer)
Encyclopedia
George Kollias is a Greek heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 drummer best known for his work with American death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

 band Nile
Nile (band)
Nile is an American death metal band from Greenville, South Carolina, formed in 1993. Their music and lyrics are inspired by Ancient Egyptian/Near Eastern mysticism, history, religion, and art, as well as stories by H. P. Lovecraft.- History :...

. He is the first of their four drummers to perform every song on more than one full length album (handling drum duties so far on Annihilation of the Wicked
Annihilation of the Wicked
Annihilation of the Wicked is the fourth studio album by American death metal band Nile. The album was released on May 23, 2005 by Relapse Records. This is the first Nile album to feature George Kollias on drums, replacing Tony Laureano...

, Ithyphallic
Ithyphallic (album)
- Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor Against Attacks from He Who Is in the Water :"Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor Against Attacks from He Who Is in the Water" is Nile's first single, originally released only as a music download through Nuclear Blast's...

and Those Whom the Gods Detest
Those Whom the Gods Detest
-Charts:-Nile:* Karl Sanders − guitars, vocals* Dallas Toler-Wade − guitars, bass, vocals* George Kollias − drums, percussion-Additional personnel:*Mike Breazale, Chief Spires, David Merideth, Jon Vesano, Pete Hammoura: additional vocals-Production:...

). In addition to being the drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

 of Nile
Nile (band)
Nile is an American death metal band from Greenville, South Carolina, formed in 1993. Their music and lyrics are inspired by Ancient Egyptian/Near Eastern mysticism, history, religion, and art, as well as stories by H. P. Lovecraft.- History :...

 he also teaches drums at the Modern Music School in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

.

Biography

He started playing drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

, as self-thaught, at the age of 12, covering songs of his favourite bands like Sepultura
Sepultura
Sepultura is a Brazilian heavy metal band from Belo Horizonte, formed in 1984. The band was a major force in the death metal, thrash metal and ultimately groove metal realms during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their later experiments melding nu metal, hardcore punk and industrial.Sepultura...

 and Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...

. Around 1999, he started drum lessons with Greek drummer Yannis Stavropoulos, who was a big influence on him.

His early inspirations include Richard Christy
Richard Christy
Thomas Richard Christy is an American musician and radio personality who currently works on The Howard Stern Show. Christy began to work on the show after winning the "Get John's Job" contest on July 1, 2004. He is known for his prank calls, song parodies, personality, and stunts performed on the...

, Paul Bostaph
Paul Bostaph
Paul Bostaph is a heavy metal drummer. His drumming career began in 1984, when he was 20 years old, and he had since worked with bands like Slayer, Forbidden, Exodus and Systematic. He is from Newark, California and currently drums for Testament...

, Dave Lombardo
Dave Lombardo
Dave Lombardo is a Cuban American heavy metal drummer best known for his work with American thrash metal band Slayer. He has performed with Slayer on seven albums, including their groundbreaking 1986 release Reign In Blood and their 2006 release Christ Illusion, for which he received critical praise...

, Igor Cavalera
Igor Cavalera
Igor Graziano Cavalera is a Brazilian musician. He is best known as the former drummer for Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura.-Biography:...

 and Gene Hoglan
Gene Hoglan
Eugene "Gene" Victor Hoglan II is an American drummer. He is acclaimed for his creativity in drum arrangements, including usage of odd devices for percussion effects and his trademark lengthy double-kick drum rhythms...

, later his taste expanded to very different drummers like Vinnie Colaiuta
Vinnie Colaiuta
Vincent Colaiuta is an American drummer based in Los Angeles. Originally from Republic, Pennsylvania, he began playing drums as a child and received his first full drum kit from his parents at the age of 14...

, Dave Weckl
Dave Weckl
Dave Weckl is a highly acclaimed jazz fusion drummer. Weckl attended Francis Howell High School in St. Charles, MO and graduated in 1978. He majored in jazz studies at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut...

, Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...

, Thomas Lang
Thomas Lang
Thomas Lang is an Austrian drummer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and record producer. He is the founding member of the Los Angeles-based progressive/avant garde metal trio, stOrk.Lang took up drumming at the age of 5...

, Mike Mangini
Mike Mangini
Mike Mangini is an American drummer, and the current drummer for the progressive metal band Dream Theater. He has played for Annihilator, Extreme, James LaBrie, and Steve Vai, among others. He lectured at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and is also known for his work as a session musician...

.

He previously drummed for Sickening Horror, a death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

 band. He also used to be in the Greek melodic death metal
Melodic death metal
Melodic death metal is a heavy metal music style that combines elements from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with elements of death metal. The style was developed during the early and mid-1990s, primarily in England and Scandinavia...

 band Nightfall
Nightfall (band)
Nightfall is a Greek heavy metal band from Athens. Formed by vocalist/bassist Efthimis Karadimas in 1991, the group is currently signed to Metal Blade Records.- History :...

, but left the band in 2005 to join Nile.

Kollias made an instructional drumming DVD called "Intense Metal Drumming" that was released in July 2008.

Technique

Kollias is notable for using only one kick pedal during blast beats, rather than the double-kicks employed by most drummers. In the song 'Sacrifice Unto Sebek' on the album Annihilation of the Wicked
Annihilation of the Wicked
Annihilation of the Wicked is the fourth studio album by American death metal band Nile. The album was released on May 23, 2005 by Relapse Records. This is the first Nile album to feature George Kollias on drums, replacing Tony Laureano...

 his blast beat speed clocks in at 265 bpm ; on Nile's album Ithyphallic, the song 'Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve its Possessor Against Attacks From He Who is In the Water' was clocked at 271 bpm according to album producer Neil Kernon
Neil Kernon
Neil Kernon is a musician/record producer/mixer/recording engineer - from London, England.He has worked with a number of artists over the last 30 years, but may be best known for his work with Hall & Oates on three of their most important albums - 1980's Voices, 1981's Private Eyes, and 1982's H2O...

. Also, on George's instructional DVD, there is a segment where he plays sixteenth note
Sixteenth note
thumb|right|Figure 1. A sixteenth note with stem facing up, a sixteenth note with stem facing down, and a sixteenth rest.thumb|right|Figure 2. Four sixteenth notes beamed together....

s at 280 beats per minute. The blast beat on the first riff of Nile's 'Kafir!' from latest album, Those Whom the Gods Detest
Those Whom the Gods Detest
-Charts:-Nile:* Karl Sanders − guitars, vocals* Dallas Toler-Wade − guitars, bass, vocals* George Kollias − drums, percussion-Additional personnel:*Mike Breazale, Chief Spires, David Merideth, Jon Vesano, Pete Hammoura: additional vocals-Production:...

clocks at 280 bpm. He uses a foot technique in between heel up and heel down. His heels remain on the bases of the pedals, but no weight is rested on them. All the weight of his legs fall on the balls of his feet. When playing at slower bpms, George's legs do the vast majority of the movement of a kick, moving up and down as much as the pedal does itself. However, as his speed increases, the heels of his feet move less and less, until the bpm is high enough that all the movement of the pedals stems from his ankles. Once he gets up to speeds that are this fast, he employs a swivel technique. In this technique, he uses his feet to keep count of the beats he has hit, moving his ankles to the right side of the pedal for two hits (two beats per foot), and then swinging them over to the other side of the pedal for another two hits. In this way, as he explains, the extra energy that one's legs waste when they work so hard is utilized.

George's hand technique allows him great precision as well, though it is not nearly as individualistic as his foot technique. George grips the stick fully with his index through ring finger, letting them stretch forward and wrap around the stick. He does not use his thumb and index finger to create a swivel. Instead, all of his speed stems from his wrists, much like his ankle usage in the kick.

Discography

With Nile
Nile (band)
Nile is an American death metal band from Greenville, South Carolina, formed in 1993. Their music and lyrics are inspired by Ancient Egyptian/Near Eastern mysticism, history, religion, and art, as well as stories by H. P. Lovecraft.- History :...


  • Annihilation of the Wicked
    Annihilation of the Wicked
    Annihilation of the Wicked is the fourth studio album by American death metal band Nile. The album was released on May 23, 2005 by Relapse Records. This is the first Nile album to feature George Kollias on drums, replacing Tony Laureano...

    (2005)
  • Ithyphallic
    Ithyphallic (album)
    - Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor Against Attacks from He Who Is in the Water :"Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor Against Attacks from He Who Is in the Water" is Nile's first single, originally released only as a music download through Nuclear Blast's...

    (2007)
  • Those Whom the Gods Detest
    Those Whom the Gods Detest
    -Charts:-Nile:* Karl Sanders − guitars, vocals* Dallas Toler-Wade − guitars, bass, vocals* George Kollias − drums, percussion-Additional personnel:*Mike Breazale, Chief Spires, David Merideth, Jon Vesano, Pete Hammoura: additional vocals-Production:...

    (2009)


With Cerebrum
  • Spectral Extravagance (2009)


With Sickening Horror
  • When Landscapes Bled Backwards (2007)


With Nightfall
  • I Am Jesus
    I Am Jesus
    I Am Jesus is the sixth studio album by the Greek metal band Nightfall, released in 2003 on Black Lotus. The songs were mostly written & arranged by bassist/vocalist Efthimis Karadimas, with the exception of four songs, which were co-written with guitarist Mike Galiatsos, who ironically exited the...

    (2003)
  • Lyssa: Rural Gods and Astonishing Punishments
    Lyssa: Rural Gods and Astonishing Punishments
    Lyssa: Rural Gods and Astonishing Punishments is the seventh album by the Greek metal band Nightfall.-Track listing:# "Dark Red Sky" - 3:28# "Swollen" - 3:12# "Christless" - 3:46# "Master of My Dreams" - 3:39# "The Perfect Lie" - 3:59...

    (2004)


With Extremity Obsession
  • Extremity Obsession (Demo, 1996)
  • Everlasting (Demo, 1997)


With Deus Infestus
  • Swansongs For This Stillborn Race (2010)


Personal releases
  • Intense Metal Drumming DVD (DVD, 2008)

Gear

  • Pearl
    Pearl
    A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...

     Masterworks Series Piano Black
    • 22 x 18 Kick
    • 08 x 07 Tom
    • 10 x 08 Tom
    • 12 x 09 Tom
    • 13 x 10 Tom
    • 14 x 12 Tom (left side)
    • 14 x 14 Floor Tom
    • 16 x 16 Floor Tom
    • 14 x 6,5 Snare
    • 12 x 5 Snare

  • Vic Firth
    Vic Firth
    Vic Firth is an American musician and is the founder of Vic Firth Company , a percussion stick and mallet manufacturing company that he started in 1963. The company bills itself as the world's largest manufacturer of drum sticks and mallets...

     Drumsticks
    • American Classic 5AN

  • Pearl
    Pearl
    A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...

     Hardware
    • DR-503C, DR-501C and RJ-50 complete Rack System.
    • DP-2002 Powershift Eliminator Double Pedal
    • H-2000 Eliminator Hi Hat Stand.
    • RH-2000 Eliminator Remote Hi Hat Stand
    • CLH-1000 Hi Hat Arms
    • S-2000 Snare Stand
    • B-1000 Boom Stands
    • CH-1000 Boom Arms
    • PCX-100 and PCX-200 Pipe Clamps
    • D-1000 Roadster Throne
    • TH-2000I and TH-2000S Tom Holders
    • OptiMount Suspension System for all toms
    • AX-20, AX-25 and AX-28 Adapters
    • UX-80 Universal Clamp

  • Extreme Isolation Headphones

  • Sabian Cymbals
    • AAX Stage Hats 14"
    • AAX Metal Ride 20"
    • HHX Evolution Mini-Chinese 14"
    • Max Splash 07"
    • AAX Splash 10"
    • AA Mini Hats 10"
    • AA Mini Hats 12"
    • AAX Dark Crash 17"
    • AAX X-Plosion Crash 18"
    • AAX Stage Hats 13"
    • AAX Metal Ride 22"
    • AAX X-Treme Chinese 19"
    • HH China Kang Chinese 08"
    • AAX Dark Crash 17"
    • AAX X-Treme Chinese 17"

  • Axis Percussion
    • 2 Axis A Longboards
    • Axis A Longboard on Foot Snare
    • Axis A Longboard on Ribbon Crasher

  • Evans
    Evans
    Evans may refer to:people*Evans *for a particular person with the surname, see the List of people with surname Evans.place*Evans, California in the United States*Evans, Colorado in the United States*Evans, Georgia in the United States...

    Drumheads
    • BD22GB2 - 22" EQ2 Batter Clear
    • BD22RB - 22" EQ3 Resonant Black
    • EQPAF1 - AF Patch - Kevlar Single Pedal
    • B14G1RD - 14" Power Center Reverse Dot
    • S14H30 - 14" Hazy 300
    • B1420 - 14" Blasters series Snare - 20 Strand
    • TT12G2 - 12" G2 Clear
    • TT12G1 - 12" G1 Clear
    • DADK - Magnetic Head Key
    • RF12D - 12" 2-Sided Speed/Workout Pad

  • Axis Bass Drum Triggers


External links

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