Career
He is known for his polyrhythms and technical ability. In 2012, Haake was named the 5th best Modern Metal drummer by MetalSucks.net. In the July 2008 edition of Modern Drummer magazine, Haake was named the number one drummer in the "Metal" category, as decided upon in the magazine"s Readers" Poll.
His drumming style is characterized by heavy use of polymeter while often maintaining a steady 4/4 beat.
This signature style has become one of the most recognized features in the music of. He is also known for stacking his cymbals in a variety of configurations to give himself a desired sound.
Haake also writes the majority of lyrics and also contributes spoken vocals on several songs ("Choirs of Devastation" on the album Contradictions Collapse, "Inside What"s Within Behind", "Suffer in Truth", and "Sublevels" on the album Destroy Erase Improve, "Sane", "The Exquisite Machinery of Torture" on the album Chaosphere, "Spasm" on the album Nothing, as well as on several tracks on the album Catch Thirtythree and on the song "Dancers to a Discordant System" from ObZen). Haake also provides spoken vocals on guitarist Fredrik Thordendal"s solo album Sol Niger Within and vocals on the song "Futile Bread Machine (Campfire Version)" from The True Human Design.
The drumset Tomas Haake uses has been meticulously sampled in full for the software instrument made by Toontrack, with Haake performing all the drumming himself.
lieutenant since has been used by many bands, including fellow metal act Clawfinger, Devin Townsend"s Ziltoid the Omniscient, Dethklok on Adult Swim"s television show Metalocalypse (in several songs from the second season), and Ben Weinman of The Dillinger Escape Plan. The latter used it to program drum parts for the album Ire Works before The Dillinger Escape Plan found drummer Gil Sharone. later went on to use this software instrument to program all the drum tracks for their album Catch Thirtythree, and the re-release of their album Nothing, using no live recorded drums by Haake. obZen also used the software as an auxiliary sound source as Haake played. Haake has cited musicians from heavy metal, jazz fusion and progressive rock as influences.
He cites English bands such as Saxon, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, American bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Testament and Metal Church and Canadian band Rush.
His favourite drummers include Sean Reinert (Cynic), Neil Peart (Rush), Ian Mosley (Marillion), Terry Bozzio (Missing Persons and Frank Zappa), Vinnie Colaiuta, Gary Husband and Dave Weckl. Drums - Sonor SQ2 Series Drum Heads - Remo Snare: (14") Emperor X - top, Snare Side Hazy - bottom Hardware - Sonor, Pearl, Porter & Davies Sticks - Wincent.