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Tim Yeung
Background information
Birth name	Tim Yeung
Also known as	The Missile
Born	(1978-11-27) November 27, 1978 (age 33) Rochester, New York
Genres	Technical death metal, metalcore, industrial metal
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Drums, guitar, bass, keyboards
Associated acts	Divine Heresy, All That Remains, Hate Eternal, Morbid Angel, Vital Remains, World Under Blood
Website	timyeung.com

Tim Yeung is a prominent extreme metal drummer. He was born on November 27, 1978 in Rochester, New York and currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Tim started playing drums when he was 11 years old.

Biography[link]

He attended Hochstein School of Music in Rochester, New York and graduated in 1995. He was first introduced to the death metal genre in the 1980s. His breakout performance was in 1999 on Hate Eternal's debut Conquering the Throne, after which he became a big name in the death metal scene. Although he left Hate Eternal after the release of Conquering the Throne, he started lending his talents as a live session drummer, such as with metalcore band All That Remains and death metal bands Vital Remains and Nile, and as a studio drummer, such as on ...And Time Begins by Santa Cruz, California-based technical death metal band Decrepit Birth. Currently, Tim is the drummer and co-founder for the death metal/metalcore band Divine Heresy, and can be heard on their debut album Bleed The Fifth and their second studio album, Bringer of Plagues. He is also the drummer of World Under Blood, CKY frontman Deron Miller's death metal side project. He replaced Pete Sandoval in Morbid Angel for their 2011 album Illud Divinum Insanus due to Sandoval's recent back surgery.^[1]

In 2006, Tim hit 872 bass drum hits in one minute at a World's Fastest Drummer competition, which earned him the Fastest Feet Title for that event, though not the world record, which clocked in at 1034 hits in one minute, held by Canadian drummer Mike Mallais.^[2] By Yeung's standards, 872 hits in a minute is comparatively low, translating to one minute of 16th notes at 218 BPM, which is considerably slower than the speeds he has displayed in his group work, which he has been said^{[by whom?]} to get to speeds of around just over 250 BPM. Yeung has stated in interviews that he could have played much faster if he had been using his own setup^{[citation needed]}.

Although he is best known as a drummer for brutal death metal bands such as Hate Eternal and Decrepit Birth, Tim has stated that he has diverse tastes. In the January 2008 issue of Drum! magazine, Tim states "...if it has a good drummer then it's good music." His straddling of the extreme and mainstream is perhaps best reflected in his work with Divine Heresy, whose music features elements of extreme death metal as well as genres such as metalcore (from Tommy Vext's vocals) and industrial metal (from Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares' guitar work).

Tim is a close friend and business colleague of film producer/musician Pascual Romero.^{[citation needed]} Tim uses Axis Percussion pedals, Vic Firth sticks, ddrums, and Sabian cymbals (as seen in Facebreaker music video).^[3]

References[link]

Vic Firth
Vic Firth (2006)
Background information
Born	(1930-06-02) June 2, 1930 (age 82) Winchester, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupations	Musician, business owner
Instruments	Percussion instruments, cornet, trombone, clarinet, piano
Years active	1940s - Present
Website	VicFirth.com

Vic Firth is an American musician and is the founder of Vic Firth Company (formerly Vic Firth, Inc.), a percussion stick and mallet manufacturing company that he started in 1963.^[1] The company bills itself as the world's largest manufacturer of drum sticks and mallets.^[2] Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the company's products are manufactured in Newport, Maine.

On December 20, 2010, it was announced that Vic Firth, Inc. had merged with Avedis Zildjian Company.^[3] According to the announcement, both companies will continue to run autonomously.^[3]

Vic Firth[link]

Vic Firth was born June 2, 1930, in Winchester, Massachusetts.^[4] He was raised in Maine by parents Everett E. and Rosemary Firth. Son of a successful trumpet player, he started learning the cornet from the age of four, turning over to percussion at an older age, as well as learning to play the trombone, clarinet, piano, and studying music arrangement. When he reached high school he was a full time percussionist, creating an 18-piece band at the age of 16. He played a variety of percussion instruments such as vibraphone, timpani and the drum set. Firth is now an accomplished percussionist with his own percussion corporation that produces sticks and mallets.

Vic Firth Company[link]

The company began when Firth, who had been performing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 12 years, was asked to perform pieces which he felt required a higher quality drumstick than those that were currently being manufactured. Firth decided to design a set of his own sticks.^[1]

Firth hand-whittled the first sticks himself from bulkier sticks and sent these prototypes to a wood turner in Montreal. The two prototypes that he sent would become the SD1 and SD2, the first two models of sticks ever manufactured by the Vic Firth, Inc.. As Firth himself states: "It came out of necessity not of imagination or my ability to start a company." Although the sticks were initially intended for Firth's personal use, they gained popularity among his students and were eventually carried by retailers.

Today, the Vic Firth Company product line has grown from the SD1 and SD2 to approximately 300 products in its catalog, and the company manufactures 12 million sticks a year.^[1]

The company's current range of products also includes a line of pepper mills, salt grinders, and rolling pins sold under the Vic Firth Gourmet brand.^[5]

See also[link]

• List of drum makers

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vic Firth

• Vic Firth Company
• Vic Firth Gourmet

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2007)

Hank Williams III
Hank III performing in 2006 at the South by Southwest Festival.
Background information
Birth name	Shelton Hank Williams
Born	(1972-12-12) December 12, 1972 (age 39) Nashville, Tennessee
Genres	Country, Punkabilly, Punk Rock, Heavy Metal
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, drummer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass, drums keyboards, yodeling
Years active	1991–present
Labels	Hank3, Curb
Associated acts	Assjack, Arson Anthem, Attention Deficit Domination, Superjoint Ritual, Whipping Post, Bedwetter, Salida, BuzzKill, Unknown Hinson
Website	hank3.com
Notable instruments
Last Badass Gibson ES-175 Guild Acoustics and Nightbird Solidbody Fryette Pitbull Crate BV300H Randall RG100

Shelton Hank Williams, also known as Hank Williams III and Hank 3^[1] (born December 12, 1972), is a singer, drummer, bassist, and guitarist. In addition to his honky tonk recordings, Williams' style alternates between country, punk and metal. He is the principal member of the punk metal band Assjack, the drummer for the Southern hardcore punk band Arson Anthem, and was the bassist for Pantera singer Phil Anselmo's band Superjoint Ritual. He has released seven studio albums, including five for Curb Records. Williams is the grandson of country music legend Hank Williams and the son of Hank Williams Jr.. Williams has dabbled in feature length films, most notably a small role in the famous Mark Wahlberg film "Shooter".

Music career[link]

Early career[link]

Hank spent much of his early career playing drums in punk rock bands during the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. Williams signed a contract with Nashville, Tennessee, music industry giant Curb Records. Three Hanks: Men With Broken Hearts was issued shortly thereafter, which spliced together recordings to make it seem that three generations of Williams men were singing alongside one another. In the late 1980s, upon first meeting Hank Williams III, Minnie Pearl, a friend of the late Hank Williams Sr., reportedly said "Lord, honey, you're a ghost," as she was astonished by his striking resemblance to his grandfather.^[2]

[edit] Risin' Outlaw and contract issues (1999-2004)

Hank Williams III first solo album, Risin' Outlaw, was released in September 1999 to respectable sales and strong reviews. While his name (and his uncanny vocal and physical resemblances to his grandfather) could have guaranteed Williams a thriving country audience, he had little patience for the often predictable Nashville sound, nor for even the minimal constraints on behavior his promoters required. His opinions on this subject are well summed up in his songs "Trashville" and "Dick in Dixie."

Williams' live shows typically follow a Jekyll and Hyde format: a country music set featuring fiddle player Adam McOwen and slide guitar player Andy Gibson, followed by a hellbilly set, and then an Assjack set. He plays both the country and the psychobilly with his "Damn Band." Assjack produces a very different sound than either, mixing heavy doses of metalcore, psychobilly, and hardcore punk.

The lineup for Assjack includes the addition of supplemental vocalist Gary Lindsey, bassist Zach Shedd switching from upright to electric bass, and the departure of his fiddle and slide guitar players. McOwen's predecessor was fellow-fiddle-player Michael "Fiddleboy" McCanless, who would play all three sets, adding traditional violin for the country set of the concert before plugging his instrument into an amplifier and distortion unit for later sets. Fiddleboy died in 2003. Another former band member was guitarist Duane Denison, previously with The Jesus Lizard, who left The Damn Band and Assjack in January 2001 and later that year formed Tomahawk.

Williams has had significant contractual conflicts with Curb Records. He expressed dissatisfaction with his debut, and reportedly the label was unwilling to release his appropriately named This Ain't Country LP, nor to allow him to issue it on another record label. In response, Williams began making t-shirts stating "Fuck Curb." Also during this era, Williams played bass guitar in heavy metal band Superjoint Ritual, a now-defunct band led by former Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo.

[edit] Thrown out of the Bar and Straight to Hell (2004-06)

In late 2004 Thrown Out of the Bar was slated for release, but Curb opted not to issue it. Williams and label executive Mike Curb would be in and out of court for the next year before a judge ruled in favor of Williams in the spring of 2005, demanding that Curb release the album. Shortly thereafter Williams and Curb came to terms, and Williams dropped his "Fuck Curb" campaign. Bar was reworked into Straight to Hell, released on Curb’s rock imprint, Bruc. Battles with Wal-Mart delayed the appearance of this album, which was released on February 28, 2006 as a two-disc set in two formats: a censored version (for Wal-Mart), and an uncensored version that was the first major-label country album ever to bear a parental advisory warning. One of the songs, "Pills I Took", was written by a little-known Wisconsin group called Those Poor Bastards, who originally released the song on their 2004 CD Country Bullshit.^[3]

Independent releases (2007-present)[link]

Williams recently played drums for Arson Anthem, formed with Phil Anselmo and Mike Williams of the sludge band Eyehategod.^[4]

Williams released his long awaited punk-metal album AssJack on August 4, 2009.

His next album, Rebel Within, was released in May 2010.^[5] It charted at number 20 in Billboard magazine.

Williams' former label Curb Records released This Ain't Country under the title Hillbilly Joker on May 17, 2011 without the consent or input from Williams after his contract with the label had been terminated. Williams told his fans, "Don’t buy it, but get it some other way and burn the hell out of it and give it to everyone."^[6]

On May 18, 2011 it was posted on Williams's web site that he is busy making new material / album which could be released very soon.^[7]

On June 23, 2011, it was revealed through Williams' personal Facebook that he would be releasing four new CDs on September 6, 2011. It said to expect country, doom-rock, speed metal with cattle callin' on the releases. Entitled Ghost to a Ghost/Gutter Town (a 2 disc country record), 3 Bar Ranch Cattle Callin' (a metal record in the newly anointed cattle core genre) and Attention Deficit Domination (a doom-rock record), these new albums will be released on Williams's own record label Hank3 Records through Megaforce Records, and feature guest appearances by Tom Waits, Les Claypool (Primus), Alan King (Hellstomper), Ray Lawrence Jr., Troy Medlin (Sourvein), Dave Sherman (Earthride) and Williams' dog, Trooper.^[8]

On July 13, 2011, the track listing for the four upcoming albums were posted online.

On April 17, 2012, Curb released a Hank III album titled Long Gone Daddy, marking the second album the company has released under his name since his departure.

Discography[link]

• Three Hanks: Men with Broken Hearts (1996)
• Risin' Outlaw (1999)
• Lovesick, Broke and Driftin' (2002)
• Straight to Hell (2006)
• Damn Right, Rebel Proud (2008)
• Rebel Within (2010)
• Hillbilly Joker (2011)
• Ghost to a Ghost/Gutter Town (2011)
• 3 Bar Ranch Cattle Callin' (2011)
• Attention Deficit Domination (2011)
• Long Gone Daddy (2012)

Other appearances[link]

• Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska (contributing track: "Atlantic City") (2000)
• The Crybaby (The Melvins, vocals and guitar on "Ramblin' Man", vocals on "Okie from Muskogee") (2000)
• Driven Soundtrack (contributing track: "Hang On") (2001)
• Timeless: A Tribute To Hank Williams (contributing track: "I'm a Long Gone Daddy") (2001)
• Sharp Dressed Man: A Tribute To ZZ Top (contributing track: "Fearless Boogie") (2002)
• Dressed in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash (contributing track: "Wreck of the Old 97") (2002)
• Live in London... England (Dale Watson, backing vocals on "Country My Ass") (2002)
• Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit The West Memphis Three (contributing track: "No Values") (2002)
• Use Once and Destroy (Superjoint Ritual, touring only bassist) (2002)
• Grand Ole Opry at The Ryman Auditorium: Tribute to Hank Williams Sr. (2003)
• A Lethal Dose of American Hatred (Superjoint Ritual featuring Hank III on bass) (2003)
• Stars & Guitars (Willie Nelson and Friends, backing vocals w/Keith Richards and Ryan Adams on "Dead Flowers") (2003)
• Touch My Heart: A Tribute To Johnny PayCheck (contributing track: "I'm The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised") (2004)
• 50 Years Too Late (Joey Allcorn, vocals on "This Ain't Montgomery")
• Rebel Meets Rebel (Rebel Meets Rebel, vocals on "Get Outta My Life") (2006)
• Everybody Loves ANTiSEEN: A Loving Tribute to the Boys from Brutalsville (contributing track: "Ruby, Get Back to the Hills") (2006)
• For the Sick: A Tribute To Eyehategod (contributing tracks: "Take as Needed for Pain" and "Torn Between Suicide and Breakfast"; credited as The Unholy 3) (2007)
• Arson Anthem (Arson Anthem featuring Hank III on drums) (2008)
• Satan Is Watching (Those Poor Bastards, vocals on "Swallowed by Sin") (2008)
• Black Dog Yodel 7" (Those Poor Bastards and Skelton, vocals on "Black Dog Yodel") (2009)
• Insecurity Notoriety (Arson Anthem featuring Hank III on drums) (2010)
• The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2010)
• Rare Breed: The Songs of Peter La Farge (contributing track: "Marijuana Blues") (2010)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Hank III interview on AmericanaRoots.com