Grimskull influences: Samson - Hammerhead

Both Geir and I started out as keyboard players, and after a while we both became drummers. It didn't occour to us at the time that we should be playing seperate instruments. We were extremely fascinated by drummers who had a fast and furious style, and it was a big bonus if they managed to combine it with great music too.

When we had been Maiden fans for a couple of years, we had basically bought and heard everything they had released. So we started getting curious about what the members had done outside of Maiden. Then we discovered Samson, which was Bruce Dickinson's first professional band (before Maiden).

The music sounded rough and dated, but we absolutely loved it. Bruce was singing like a god, the songs were great, but I think the best part of it all was the drummer. A mysterious masked character called Thunderstick. We had never heard such crazy drumming used in any other band. He basically stole the show.

Bruce Dickinson was also GREAT with Samson. He changed his style a lot over the first 10 years of his carreer. But the high pitched, aggressive style he used with Samson (and on The Number Of The Beast album with Maiden), was a huge inspiration for me personally. It sounded so wicked and cool.

Hammerhead was just one of many songs with Samson that we really loved. Sadly both the guitar-player and the bass-player has passed away, but their music lives on.

Cheers, TJ