10 Best Hard Rock Drummers Of The '90s

While it's been contested over the years, it's hard to find a drummer that matches the tenacity of Rush's Neil Peart.

Given the amount of superhuman rhythms he has put together in the prog trio, not even the most technically gifted drummers have been able to make odd time signatures fit in a nice box quite like Neil did. However, if there was one drummer who could be considered a worthy successor to the Prog Rock Professor, it'd have to be Danny Carey.

Originally joining the metal juggernaut Tool out of pity, Carey eventually used his position in the group to drive the artistic growth of their material. While Adam Jones and Justin Chancellor may have been responsible for the musical side of the spectrum, the maniacal way with which Carey would weave these riffs together made just enough sense to keep your foot grooving.

You may not have known all that was going on in tracks like Lateralus or Schism, and yet it never felt like any of the song's integrity was being compromised by this elegant display of muscle from the back of the stage. Whether it was playing in three different time signatures or casually adding in an extra beat every other measure, Carey makes it all look so easy that every other drummer looks like a beginner by comparison.

As opposed to the more straightforward drummers who like to keep the song grooving, Carey is where you go to when you want to exercise and solve equations at the same time.