A metal breakdown is a heavier section of a song, usually a rhythmic riff of open-string chugs or palm mutes, that breaks the flow of what came before. Live, it is the part where the crowd starts moving: heads banging, the pit opening. Many bands slow the feel right down for it, and some drop the tempo too.

This post covers where breakdowns go, how common they are, what the drums play under one, and how to program one in MIDI, with a played breakdown shown note by note.

In this post:

• What breakdowns sound like
• Where breakdowns go
• What the drums play
• A played breakdown, note by note
• Programming a breakdown, step by step
• Questions

What breakdowns sound like

The fastest way to understand a breakdown is to hear a few. This compilation is a good start:

For more, bands like August Burns Red, The Devil Wears Prada and Memphis May Fire are known for them.

Where breakdowns go

I mapped 100 songs by 20 metal bands, bar by bar (the full write-up). 69 of the 100 have at least one breakdown, and they are not only a metalcore thing:

• The first breakdown starts, in the middle of the sample, 59% of the way through the song, and in 60 of the 69 songs it comes after the second chorus.
• Most breakdown parts are 8 bars (46 of 117) or 16 bars (32).
• About one in five comes as two parts back to back: a first breakdown, then a second one straight after it.

What the drums play

The guitar riff makes a breakdown, but the drums make it feel heavy. The usual tools:

• Half-time feel. The tempo stays, but the snare moves from beats 2 and 4 to beat 3, so everything feels twice as slow.
• The kick follows the guitar. Every chug gets a kick; the rests stay empty. This is what makes a breakdown hit.
• China or crash on the pulse. A china on beats 1 and 3 is the classic sound; a crash or open hi-hat is softer.
• Space. Fewer notes, not more. The gaps between hits are part of the groove.

A played breakdown, note by note

This is breakdown 1.1 from Metalcore Essentials, four bars, as it came off the kit:

Look at how little is there. The china keeps a slow pulse on beats 1 and 3. The kick comes in short bursts, 18 hits in four bars, following the riff rather than a pattern, and some of those bursts are triplets. The snare plays only twice, both times on the first beat of a bar together with the china, and a crash marks the start and the accents at the end. Every hit is loud (velocity 101 to 127), but no two kicks in a row have the same velocity.

Every groove in the packs was played by a drummer on an electronic kit and kept as MIDI, not typed in note by note.

Programming a breakdown, step by step

1. Start from the riff. Program or record the guitar first, or at least tap its rhythm into a MIDI track.
2. Put a kick on every chug. Copy the guitar’s rhythm onto the kick note (36), and leave the rests empty.
3. Add the pulse: a china (52) or crash (49) on beats 1 and 3.
4. Add the snare sparingly: on beat 3 for a half-time feel, or only at the ends of phrases.
5. Mark the change: a crash on the first beat, and a fill or a stop in the bar before the breakdown.
6. Vary the velocities. Breakdowns are loud, but a flat 127 on every kick sounds like a machine gun. Keep them in a range, for example 100 to 127.
7. Build a second half: after 8 bars, change something. Drop the china, double the kick pattern, or go to a slower second breakdown.

Test it with the guitar muted. If the drum part alone still tells you where every chug is, the kick is doing its job.

Questions

Does death metal have breakdowns?

Yes, though they are what metalcore and deathcore are known for. In the 100-song sheet, 13 of the 20 songs by Cannibal Corpse, Decapitated, Arch Enemy and Amon Amarth have a part marked as a breakdown.

Are breakdowns always at a slower tempo?

No. Some bands drop the tempo, but many keep it and switch to a half-time feel. The 55 grooves in Banging Metal Breakdowns run from 70 to 193 BPM, and the middle is 131 BPM.

Which bands have the most breakdowns?

In the sheet, the most parts marked breakdown came from Slipknot (11 in five songs), Mastodon (10) and Slayer (9). Erra had 8, and Bring Me the Horizon and Volumes 7 each.

How long is a breakdown?

Usually 8 or 16 bars. Of the 117 breakdown parts in the sheet, 46 are 8 bars long and 32 are 16.

Banging Metal Breakdowns has 55 breakdowns from 70 to 193 BPM, with the tempo in every file name, and 10 rolls to lead into them. For whole songs, the Metalcore Bundle and the Deathcore Bundle have six packs each.