Time & Perspective Quote by Dave Lombardo

Dave Lombardo’s promise lands like a sly dare: the guy whose name is basically synonymous with thrash’s hardest edges teasing a “pop album” feature. The line works because it refuses to treat genre as a loyalty oath. He’s not apologizing, not dressing it up as a “guilty pleasure,” and not signaling some midlife pivot. He frames it as “the experimental side of me,” which is both a permission slip and a boundary: yes, he’ll step into pop, but on his terms, as a laboratory, not a surrender.

The subtext is about control and credibility. Metal culture has long policed authenticity, especially around anything that smells like mainstream polish. Lombardo anticipates that reflexive side-eye and neutralizes it with a single word: experimental. He’s reminding listeners that his value isn’t tied to a single aesthetic; it’s tied to curiosity and craft. For drummers, especially, “pop” can mean a different kind of difficulty: restraint, pocket, microscopic timing, serving the song instead of dominating it. That’s not softer; it’s a different discipline.

Context matters: Lombardo’s career has always been bigger than one band or one sound, stretching across punk, hardcore, extreme metal, and collaborative projects that treat rhythm like architecture. So the pop tease reads less like shock marketing and more like an artist insisting that evolution isn’t a betrayal. It’s the point.