Callum Warren: Tracks That Shaped My Sound

With the arrival of DeathCollector’s new track “Backroom Abbatoir” which is my first release with the boys, it’s straight up death metal with a couple of twists and turns. Our guitarist Lee Cummings wrote the song with a wall of death in mind (which seemed to go down a treat at Incineration Festival London 2025 just recently. 

Track one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz7nwAkYXvk

As far as the drums go the bare bones were there the first time we jammed it as mine and Lee’s chemistry goes a long way from working in our other band Severe Lacerations.

The intro took massive inspiration from DeathCollector’s old drummer (ex-Bolt Thrower) Andy Whale from a song “Rearview Guilt” 

When I heard the guitar pattern for the intro I instantly thought of that track and thought it’d be cool to give the dude a nod from an old song with the boys. It was mostly a case of throwing in loads of different cymbal work to make it washy (shout out Meinl Cymbals) with a nice chill halftime groove following the guitar underneath to give it a “doomy & creepy” feel before the main build up to chaos happens.

Track two

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1M2Wnc5LYc

Leading into where Backroom Abbatoir’s chaos kicks off I dived deep into my metalcore/hardcore roots (to my death metal elitist band members hatred) once Lee said “this is the build up and wall of death part” I instantly turn to Alpha Wolf “Restricted 18+” Them boys over the pond in Australia know exactly how to do anything metal related, Mitch their drummer is a massive inspiration for my drumming, some of the ambidextrous open handed weird cymbal use is mind blowing to me and his fills are so creative.

I explored the idea of giving the guitar’s room to breathe after the intro two minutes before I bash the floor tom like we’re about to go to war and bring in a quick fill that makes the listener wonder “what is about to happen here” as the song completely takes a turn here and just erupts into pure relentless chaos without a break from here on out.

Track three:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eUnngKapGk

Now, the boys in DeathCollector wanted blast beats, and they got them. I’m more of a “power and energy” hard hitting drummer opposed to speed so not necessarily a stand out song however, I’ve gone straight to the master of all of it. Slipknot’s new drummer Eloy Casagrande in “People = Shit”. He incorporates what’s called a “hammer blast” which is Snare, Kick and cymbals on every hit and it just sounds absolutely massive.

While there’s the whole “Slipknot drummer dispute” that will never end of course we all love and respect Joey Jordison (RIP) if it weren’t for him and his drumming I think metal drumming would be behind where it is today (catch Severe Lacerations supporting Sinsaenum - Joey’s old band in October, the date is yet to be confirmed) Jay Weinberg did a solid job when he was in the band, but Eloy has brought a whole other level to Slipknot, the power behind that dude and how he can play like that for two hours every night is inhuman.

Track four

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yr5rn3Sv_4

Again when the boys said they wanted blast beats, to their hate of my “core” music taste. Here’s Suicide Silence Unanswered.

I actually covered this song for my GCSE music exam and got an A* all the way back in 2012 with three attempts and I remember my music teacher nearly falling off her chair I don’t think she’d quite heard this form of drumming yet.

These boys just do deathcore the right way, Alex Lopez their original drummer and Ernie Iniguez are absolute powerhouses behind the kit. 

And that’s my four songs that contribute to the making of the new DeathCollector EP - we’ve got a few finishing touches to add and we should be looking for a late summer/autumn release and then it’s time to roll on next years festivals!