Video: 12-Year-Old Destroys Archspire on the Drums

There’s technical death metal and then there’s Archspire, a band who’ve staked their ever-burgeoning legacy on the ability to play faster, harder, louder and more extreme than everyone else doing it (while still somehow crafting listenable songs).

Then there’s 12-year-old Матвей Гончаров (Matvey Goncharov), a drummer based in Irkutsk, Russia who, in the 20 hours since posting a cover of Archspire’s “Bleed the Future,” has caused thousands of aspiring metal skinsmen twice or three times his age to put down their sticks forever.

Just look at this friggin’ guy! Killing it. Insanity. I feel like I see more posts on my personal social feeds for bands seeking drummers than any other instrument, so give this kid a look, will ya? Matvey’s otherworldly abilities might explain why his band, I Smile at the Dead, looks like its other members are considerably older than him.

Elsewhere on Matvey’s page he covers songs by Suicide Silence, Avenged Sevenfold, Thy Art is Murder, Dragonforce, Amon Amarth, Slaughter to Prevail and, of course, Slipknot, among countless others.

Watch the Archspire cover below. “Bleed the Future” is a perfectly suitable song choice given what Matvey’s own brutal future holds.