Riccardo Grechi

Bio - ENG Riccardo Grechi was born in Bologna the 29 September 1986. The passion for music grew inside him since his childhood. At the age of 16 he starts playing drums and to practice all the genres that he grew up with: rock, pop, ska, punk, hard-rock, hardcore and various styles of extreme metal, a genre that he kept playing through his career. Thanks to this particular artistic formation, he manages to build an original and varied drumming style. After various experiences with different bands and in different live events, Riccardo gives life to a metalcore project named “Cruel Face of Life” and in the year 2004 he records his first full-length: “Le False Utopie”, that grants him the opportunity to get to be known by the international scene. In 2006 he’s recruited by Lacerater, a brutal-death band with various years of experience. With them he records “Nessun Urlo nell’Ombra” an EP that gains great popularity and that allows him to play live in various venues in Italy and in Europe. Encouraged by the positive feedback from the metal webzines and magazines and by his considerable live experience, Riccardo decides to practice drums on an higher level. In 2008 he enters the MMI (Modern Music Institute) academy in Bologna, where under the teachings of Jerry Galavotti he learns various styles still unknown to him like blues, funk, fusion, latin and afro music. He also participates to clinics and lessons with some of the greatest contemporary drummers like Simon Philips, Steve Smith, Jojo Mayer, Thomas Lang, George Kollias, Christian Meyer and many others. After this period of studies he plays with the progressive band Furyu and the old school death metal band Deathwork, recording a full length CD and an EP respectively. Both projects give him another chance to gain popularity with interviews, radio interviews, compilations and positive reviews. Thanks to these experiences his name and ideas spread through the globe and he is often recognized as one of the musicians that created the “New Wave of Italian Metal”. During the 2011 he works as a session player with various bands and musicians and he starts writing several practicing pieces for the webzine DDGDrums. He also starts working with success as a private drum teacher and he is invited to Rome for the D.P.C. National Drumming Contest, where he has the opportunity to play with the best drumming talents in Italy. Throughout the year, Riccardo focuses on live shows and on writing songs for various projects until in 2013, after being noticed by Gold Music national distributors, he signs an endorsement contract for Ddrum. Few weeks later, he records every song written in the past months. He records a full length with the old school black metal band Krigere Wolf from Sicily and an EP with Across The Swarm (ex-Lacerater) at Sliver Studio in Parma. In 2014 Riccardo fills the line-up of Reasons Behind, a symphonic power metal act from Bologna. With them he records a full length in Rome, with Stefano Morabito. Meanwhile he continues writing articles on his own drumming method which are widely appreciated and published by webzines and by hard copy magazines, like Drum Club. Throughout the year, he is involved in gigs and songwriting with Reasons Behind and Across The Swarm and in fall 2014 Pulvis Et Umbra (thrash/death metal) hire him as a session musician to play live across the globe and in 2015 Riccardo and Pulvis Et Umbra play in various venues in Russia, Europe (Switzerland, Germany, Croatia, Spain). With Across The Swarm, Riccardo tours around Northern Europe (Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium and many others) and in Italy. After the European Tour, they record a new song named "Waiting For Hyenas" which will feature a videoclip in 2016. After performing in South Africa together with Behemoth, famous black/death metal band, Riccardo, always together with Pulvis et Umbra, leave for a Japanese tour in April; in this way he is able to make all the effects his live experiences worldwide. In May it's the time of important performances with the Across The Swarm in the north-east Europe (Estonia and Lithuania) opening act for Fleshgod Apocalypse, currently the most important band of the worldwide metal scene. Meanwhile Riccardo decides to draw directly from the source by studying and improving itself with the best drummers of the world stage like James Payne, Raphael Saini and Igor Cavalera as well as having joined the Music Academy of Bologna. Following an interview Riccardo become a drum teacher for the association “Musicascuola” and he started to teach all over the country to young classes of students. Meanwhile he join the Dominance project (death metal from Italy) and recorded, as a session man, an Ep for another death metal band but that come from Greece. Riccardo is also contacted by an English thrash metal band called Helgrind and by the Helion project (death metal) from Italy for join as a session drummer some tours in the 2017. Riccardo is actually writing a book regarding his own drumming method while preparing new recordings, collaborations and international shows in countries like Russia, America, Italy and much more.