World’s Fastest Drummer Attempts ‘Through The Fire And Flames’

Riccardo Merlini is an Italian drummer who is widely believed to be the world’s fastest drummer alive today. The man trains with 22-pound dumbbells on a specially designed drum kit so he can drum at the speed of sound with his regular drumsticks. It’s actually quite incredible.

Deciding to see what happens when an unstoppable force (the world’s fastest drummer) meets an immovable object (Through The Fire And Flames by DragonForce), the YouTube channel Drumeo brought in Riccardo Merlini to attempt the song. Interestingly, the drummer had never heard DragoneForce’s Through The Fire And Flames until this attempt so they had him listen to the song, which runs at a blistering 200 beats per minute, before then attempting it himself.

While Through The Fire And Flames is probably best known for its guitar solo which is considered by all to be among the most challenging guitar solos ever recorded, the drums are equally as fast and difficult. I hate to bring up Rock Band 4 but that’s where millions of people learned firsthand just how insanely challenging this song is. Myself included. Probably many of you too.

World’s Fastest Drummer Attempts ‘Through The Fire And Flames’

So without further ado, his ‘final take’ of the song starts at 6:50 in the video below so skip ahead if you want to jump to that part. Or watch from the beginning for the full context:

I have technically perfect vision. 20/20. And my eyes still struggle to keep up with the speed of his drumsticks during this attempt. This dude is out here training on the drums with 22lb dumbbells, like I mentioned above, and it shows:

I’m not a drummer myself, or at least I haven’t attempted the drums since middle school around the start of my punk phase, but it has never occurred to me until now to train the drums with dumbbells. Frankly, I want to figure out a way to incorporate dumbbell drumming into my gym routine.

As for the world’s fastest drummer beasting his way through DragonForce’s Through The Fire And Flames, was there ever any doubt that he’d be able to pull it off?!