Time & Perspective Quote by Dave Lombardo

There’s a drummer’s-eye humility baked into this line, but it lands with the sly tension of a reunion press cycle. Dave Lombardo is talking about a band legacy big enough to survive his absence, and he’s careful not to treat that as either betrayal or defeat. “I like a lot of the stuff” is deliberately casual, almost conversational, like he’s refusing the melodrama fans and headlines crave. The phrasing signals: I’m not here to litigate the past. I’m here to listen.

The subtext is more interesting than the compliment. “Without me” and “the time I wasn’t around” are redundant on purpose, a double underline that acknowledges the bruise while pretending not to touch it. He’s naming the uncomfortable reality: the machine kept running. For musicians in long-running metal institutions (Lombardo’s name is inseparable from the sound and mythology of Slayer), absence becomes a referendum on value. His line sidesteps that trap by granting legitimacy to the work while keeping his own identity intact. It’s a diplomatic move that also reads as quiet confidence: if the band did good work without me, my return (or my legacy) doesn’t need to be defended with bitterness.

Contextually, it’s the language of someone who’s been through lineup changes, fan tribalism, and the weird accounting of credit in rock history. He’s signaling maturity, but also control: he gets to be the judge, not the wounded party.