Meshuggah’s Tomas Haake Says He Hasn’t Touched Drums In a Year Due to Debilitating Eczema On His Hands

Back in December, progressive groove metallers Meshuggah postponed their U.S. tour due to “a skin condition” among one of the members. Now, speaking to Rolling Stone, drummer Tomas Haake reveals the condition was his, and opens up about the health concerns surrounding it.

In the interview, Haake reveals that he has eczema inside of his hands. And while eczema, which causes skin to crack, flake, and peel profusely, isn’t normally THAT big a deal — lots of people have it — inside of a drummer’s hands, it’s apparently awful:

“I have this eczema inside my hands. I’ve got to tape up all my fingers and put on gloves just to mess around on the kit, even. That means I haven’t really touched the drums since we recorded the album, and that was, like, early April. So I’m almost a year out, without even hitting a drum.

“I’ve been to so many specialists and dermatologists about this at this point and they’re all like, ‘Huh?’ They say it looks like contact eczema, but we’ve ruled that out because I’ve done all the tests that you can do, as far as anything that I might come in contact with. It goes up and down, but it’s a bummer, for sure, whether you’re a drummer or not. I mean, we all need our hands to function for daily life.

“These hands are bumming me out, man. I try to stay positive about things like this and not allow myself to just get all depressed over it. It is what it is. We’ll see if some new doctor has something important to tell me that helps me clear this up. But, yeah, I mean, if not, I will still have to play.”

As someone with incredibly sensitive skin, I’m feeling for Tomas, hard. It’s easy to think lotion or cold compresses or whatever can fix that shit right up, but I’ve spent a large portion of my life in constant discomfort due to my skin. Tomas, I’m so sorry to hear about this ailment.

Everyone at MetalSucks sends their heart out to Haake, and hopes he finds a cure or treatment soon.