Mike Smith (musician)

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For other persons named Michael Smith, see Michael Smith (disambiguation).

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Mike Smith is a death metal drummer for New York Death Metal band Suffocation. He performed on their 1990 demo Reincremated, the 1991 EP, Human Waste, their 1991 debut album Effigy of the Forgotten, and their 1993 album Breeding the Spawn. He then departed from the band and was subsequently replaced by drummer Doug Bohn. He returned when Suffocation reformed in 2002 after a four-year hiatus and performed on their 2004 release, Souls to Deny and 2006 self-titled album.

Mike also lent his drumming skill to the song "Dawn of a Golden Age" on Roadrunner United: The All Star Sessions, underground rapper Necro for his album Death Rap and experimental metal act Psychometry. Smith, along with band-mate Terrance Hobbs are one of the few African american Death metal musicians.

[edit] Technique and Style

Much as Suffocation is often called the founders of brutal death metal, Mike is credited for laying the groundwork for the drumming style that is a cornerstone of the genre.^{[citation needed]} His style is extremely hard-hitting and punishing and relies more on power and rigidity than on dynamics and syncopation - although these are present in his style as well.^{[citation needed]} Mike also sometimes employs an idiosyncratic technique of striking drums and cymbals with his left hand using an outward flick of his wrist, rather than an inward/downward motion as is common.^{[citation needed]}

As perhaps the most important of his innovations, Mike invented and pioneered the technique of a blast beat sometimes known in the NYDM drumming community as the "Smith Blast" or to others as the "Suffo-Blast", which is played with bass drums, snare, and cymbals all in synchronization, as opposed to the original form, which most attribute to Napalm Death's Mick Harris, where the snare drum alternates with the bass drum and cymbal. On Suffocation's early material including the 1991 EP Human Waste and subsequent debut album Effigy of the Forgotten, Mike used this form of the blast beat exclusively, and while later Suffocation albums have made use of both forms of the blast beat, it continues to be a signature of their sound.