Tomas Haake

Tomas Nils Haake (born 13 July 1971) is a Swedish musician known for being the drummer and primary lyricist of the extreme metal band Meshuggah.

Known for his polymeters and technical ability, Haake was named the fifth best "Modern Metal" drummer by MetalSucks.net in 2012. 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. He was also included in 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time list by the Rolling Stone magazine (occupying the 93rd position).

Career Haake 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, "Closed Eye Visuals", "Spasm", and "Nebulous" on the album Nothing, as well as on several tracks on the album Catch Thirtythree, "Dancers to a Discordant System" from obZen, and "The Faultless" from Immutable).

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.

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

Equipment

Drums – Sonor SQ2 Series 14x14" Tom 16x15" Floor Tom 18x18" Floor Tom 22x18" Bass Drum (2x) 14x6" Sonor Artists Bronze Series Snare with Tama Power Hoops

Cymbals – Sabian 14" HHX Compression 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") Coated Emperors, Ebony Ambassadors – bottom Bass drums: (22") Powerstroke 3 Coated – batter, PowerStroke 3 Ebony – front Snare: (14") Emperor X – top, Snare Side Hazy – bottom

Hardware – Sonor, Pearl, Porter & Davies Tama Speed Cobra single Pedal (2x) Porter & Davies BC2 w/backrest

Sticks – Wincent Tomas Haake Signature Drumsticks

Discography Meshuggah

Contradictions Collapse (1991) None (EP, 1994) Selfcaged (EP, 1995) Destroy Erase Improve (1995) Chaosphere (1998) Nothing (2002) I (EP, 2004) Catch Thirtythree (2005) Nothing – Re-issue (2006) obZen (2008) Koloss (2012) Pitch Black (EP, 2013) The Violent Sleep of Reason (2016) Immutable (2022)