DRUM! Magazine – Issue 14-8, Pg. 26

It’s almost guaranteed that a drummer in a band named something like “Aborted” will throw in some wicked licks. Gilles Dellecroix loads Aborted’s newest album, The Archaic Abattoir, to the brim with lightning-fast, diamond-cut fills that could in fact be illegal in over 15 states. One such lick is the machine-gun intro to “Hecatomb,” where in four seconds, he throws in a hand/foot combo and a truckload of snare hits at a frenzied pace. Dellecroix pulls no punches, and all of them hit their mark.

“The opening riff is very direct and aggressive and I wanted to do something that would really fit,” says Dellecroix. “The drums had to be very direct without too much complexity and with a very brutal feeling. I tried only to follow the riff by starting with a double bass and cymbals/snare combination. Then, I added that long snare attack, which creates a sort of increasing intensity before the blast.”

Influenced by Tony Laureano’s long rolls with Nile, Dellecroix’s snare intro doesn’t “sort of” create intensity before the blast. It flat out beats you half to death before the rest of the song annihilates whatever remains. To get it right, Dellecroix ran through it a few times before the tape started rolling. “In the studio, I think I did at least four or five takes to warm up and to get it very clean and tight with the click.”

In live settings, Dellecroix stays true to the fill. “I really like it like that. Maybe later I’ll try to play some different cymbals, like a ride or splash, along with the double bass to make it a bit more special, but I’ll always keep the long snare fill. It’s the only one I do like that in the whole album. We made the song, and especially that intro, to be as efficient as possible on stage. I think it would lose some power if I were to play it differently.”

If “efficient” is the right word to describe that fill, Dellecroix’s drums will burst into flames if he ever decides to let loose and go a bit overboard.