Gene Hoglan is the drummer behind Dark Angel, Death’s Symbolic, Strapping Young Lad, two stints in Testament and the cartoon band Dethklok. He was born in Dallas on August 31, 1967, and raised in Los Angeles. Drummers call him “The Atomic Clock” for his precision at speed. At 59 he still plays in three bands, and one of them came back through Texas in 2025.
The Short Version
- Born Eugene Victor Hoglan II, August 31, 1967, in Dallas, Texas. Raised in Los Angeles.
- Started in 1983 as Slayer’s lighting roadie, playing their kit at soundchecks.
- Dark Angel, 1984 to 1992, 2002 to 2005 and since 2013. Death, 1993 to 1995. Strapping Young Lad, 1995 to 2007.
- Testament, 1997 to 1998 and 2011 to 2022. Fear Factory on Mechanize (2010).
- Dethklok since 2007. Death To All, the Death tribute, since 2012.
- Plays left-handed on a right-handed kit.
Where Is Gene Hoglan From?
Dallas, at least to begin with. Wikipedia gives his full name as Eugene Victor Hoglan II and his birth date as August 31, 1967. He put it plainly to Modern Drummer in 2004: “I was born in Dallas and raised in Los Angeles.” Metalnation’s 2025 interview introduced him the same way, as “originally from Dallas, Texas.”
He was self-taught and got his first kit at 13, per Wikipedia. Neil Peart was his “first super duper favorite drummer,” after Peter Criss, he told Modern Drummer. For double bass he turned to players like Cozy Powell and Motörhead’s Phil Taylor.
His way in was the back door of a Los Angeles thrash band. In 1983 he worked for Slayer (listen) as a lighting roadie and played drums at their soundchecks. Wikipedia credits him with backing vocals on “Evil Has No Boundaries,” the opener of Show No Mercy.
Gene Hoglan in Dark Angel
“I joined in ’84,” he told Modern Drummer, while he was still in high school. Dark Angel came from Downey, California, and with Hoglan they made Darkness Descends (1986), Leave Scars (1989) and Time Does Not Heal (1991). Our Dark Angel and Darkness Descends piece tells that story, and the album sits on our list of 1986’s thrash records.
Dark Angel also crossed paths with Rotting Corpse. Our band history records a short Texas run with Dark Angel in 1987, bankrolled by Walt Trachsler’s father, and the timeline lists it too.
The band reunited in 2013. Guitarist Jim Durkin, a founding member, died on March 8, 2023, Blabbermouth reported. Hoglan’s wife, Laura Christine, took his place onstage and is now a permanent member. On September 5, 2025, Dark Angel released Extinction Level Event on Reversed Records, its first album in 34 years. Hoglan executive-produced it and is credited with rhythm guitar as well as drums, per Wikipedia. The title track is built on music Durkin wrote, with lyrics by Hoglan.
“I’m really excited about DARK ANGEL right now,” he told Blabbermouth in July 2025. That September the band played its first North American tour in decades. It hit Houston’s White Oak Music Hall on September 11, San Antonio’s Vibes Event Center on the 12th and the Granada Theater in Dallas on the 13th. The Granada is on our list of Dallas metal venues.
Dark Angel
Downey, California, thrash band, with Hoglan on drums from 1984 to 1992, from 2002 to 2005, and again since the 2013 reunion. Start with Darkness Descends (1986). Extinction Level Event (2025) is sold through Reversed Records, not streaming services.
Gene Hoglan’s Death Albums
Gene Hoglan played on two Death albums: Individual Thought Patterns (Relativity, June 1993) and Symbolic (Roadrunner, March 1995). After Dark Angel broke up in 1992, Modern Drummer says, Chuck Schuldiner called him about the opening in Death. Our thrash metal vs. death metal guide explains where Death sits between the two genres.
Start with Symbolic. It is the more melodic of the two, and the songs give the drums room to steer rather than just keep up. Individual Thought Patterns is the denser, more technical record, and Dead Rhetoric’s David E. Gehlke wrote that his work on it and on City was essentially all he needed to land later gigs.
Death ended in 2001, after Schuldiner’s death. In 2012 Hoglan joined Death To All, a tribute made up of former Death members. The current lineup is Hoglan, bassist Steve DiGiorgio, guitarist Bobby Koelble and Max Phelps on vocals and guitar.
Their fall 2025 “Symbolic Healing” tour of North America played Spiritual Healing and Symbolic, with Gorguts and Phobophilic as guests. “People say this is a magical evening,” Hoglan told Blabbermouth afterward. “Let the metal flow,” he added, a line Schuldiner often used.
Death and Death To All
Death was Chuck Schuldiner’s Florida band. Hoglan is on Individual Thought Patterns (1993) and Symbolic (1995), and Death To All plays those songs live today. Start with Symbolic.
Strapping Young Lad and Devin Townsend
Strapping Young Lad started in Vancouver in 1994 as Devin Townsend’s one-man studio project. Townsend built a real band for the second album, and Hoglan was its drummer from 1995 until the band wound down in 2007. Jed Simon on guitar and Byron Stroud on bass completed the core lineup, per Wikipedia.
The records are City (1997), the live No Sleep ’till Bedtime (1998), Strapping Young Lad (2003), Alien (2005) and The New Black (2006). Hoglan co-wrote Alien with Townsend. He also drummed on Townsend’s solo albums Infinity (1998), Physicist (2000) and Terria (2001).
Start with City, released February 11, 1997. Townsend called it the “real Strapping record,” and Hoglan told Dead Rhetoric, “That album taught me how to play to a click-track.” It is the clearest place to hear why the Atomic Clock nickname stuck.
The name itself came later. Hoglan told Metal Hammer that he was working out The New Black at the motorcycle shop where the band practiced, owned by Heathen of Zimmer’s Hole. Heathen told him, “Dude, you’re like the Atomic Clock on the drums!” Hoglan put it in a record’s credits, and it stuck.
Strapping Young Lad
Devin Townsend’s Vancouver band, with Hoglan on drums from 1995 to 2007. Start with City (1997).
Testament, Fear Factory and the Fill-Ins
Testament got him twice. The first time produced Demonic (1997). He came back in 2011 and recorded Dark Roots of Earth (2012), Brotherhood of the Snake (2016) and Titans of Creation (2020). Wikipedia calls him the band’s longest-serving drummer. He announced his departure on January 21, 2022.
He told Dead Rhetoric in 2013 that the two bands asked for different things.
“Death called for a certain style of drumming and Testament calls for a separate style of drumming. It’s not about being flashy and busy, it’s about serving the song well.”
Between Testament stints he played in Fear Factory from 2009 to 2012 and is on Mechanize (2010). He filled in for Martin Lopez in Opeth in 2004 and on most of the 2005 Sounds of the Underground tour. He sat in for Charlie Benante in Anthrax (listen) in 2012 and again in 2018. He is also credited as a drummer on Bear McCreary’s score for Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).
Testament
Bay Area thrash band, with Hoglan on drums in 1997 to 1998 and 2011 to 2022. Start with Dark Roots of Earth (2012) for his second run.
Dethklok: The Cartoon Band That Charted
Dethklok is the band from Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse, created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha. Small writes and performs the music, and a real band plays it live. Hoglan has been its drummer on record and onstage since 2007, with Bryan Beller on bass.
It sold. The Dethalbum (2007) reached No. 21 on the Billboard 200, Dethalbum II (2009) No. 15 and Dethalbum III (2012) No. 10, per Wikipedia. The Doomstar Requiem followed in 2013 and Dethalbum IV in 2023. Start with Dethalbum III, the highest-charting of the run.
Dethklok
Brendon Small’s Metalocalypse band, with Hoglan on drums since 2007. Start with Dethalbum III (2012).
Gene Hoglan’s Drum Setup
The most unusual thing about Gene Hoglan’s setup is how he sits at it. “I’ve always been ambidextrous too,” he told Modern Drummer in 2004. He plays left-handed on a right-handed kit, a habit from childhood, and has used two ride cymbals, “one on either side of the kit.”
The drums are Pearl. In May 2017 Modern Drummer reported that he was auctioning his Pearl Masters Custom kit on eBay. He used it to record Strapping Young Lad’s The New Black and played it on tours with Opeth and Strapping Young Lad and on his DVD, The Atomic Clock. Part of the money went to the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, in memory of Chuck Schuldiner and guitarist Michelle Meldrum.
The 2013 Testament photo above shows a Pearl bass drum head and Sabian cymbals. Wikipedia’s gear list adds Pearl Reference drums with two 24x16 bass drums, Evans heads and Pro-Mark 2B nylon-tip sticks. It says he switched to Pearl Eliminator Redline pedals around 2015 or 2016. And he isn’t stopping: “I see no problem with pummeling people until my eighties,” he told Blabbermouth in August 2025.
Where to Hear It Live
As of October 2026, Hoglan has no Texas dates announced with any of his bands. His next announced dates with Death To All and Dark Angel are a double shift in Australia: Death To All headlines, with Dark Angel as support, and he drums for both. “I am a serial napper,” he told Blabbermouth about getting through it. The dates, per Everblack Media and HEAVY Magazine:
- Tuesday, January 26, 2027: Brisbane, The Triffid
- Thursday, January 28, 2027: Sydney, Manning Bar
- Friday, January 29, 2027: Melbourne, The Croxton
- Saturday, January 30, 2027: Adelaide, Froth & Fury Festival
Dethklok has European festival dates in 2027, per Songkick. They include Wacken Open Air in Germany, July 28 to 31, 2027, and Bloodstock at Catton Park in Derbyshire, England, August 5 to 8, 2027, where Dethklok headlines the Sophie Lancaster Stage.
For Texas, watch the Reversed Records artist pages for Dark Angel and Death To All, and Bandsintown for all three bands. The Granada and the other rooms on our Dallas metal venues list are where a DFW date would land.
Closer to home, Rotting Corpse plays the Haltom Theater in Haltom City on November 14 with Iron Jaw, and Spam’s Bar and Lounge in San Angelo on December 5. Every date is on the shows page.
Start with “Evolvement” (1987)
It comes from the 1987 Pantego session, the same year as the band’s Texas run with Dark Angel, and the song page and discography have the details.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Gene Hoglan
- Modern Drummer: Gene Hoglan (May 12, 2004)
- Modern Drummer: Gene Hoglan auctions studio/touring drumkit for charity (May 24, 2017)
- Dead Rhetoric: Gene Hoglan, Drums Not Brain Surgery (David E. Gehlke, March 31, 2013)
- Metalnation: Gene Hoglan interview, the Atomic Clock is a lifer (Neeka Rogers, October 19, 2025)
- Blabbermouth: Dark Angel announces first North American tour in decades (July 15, 2025)
- Blabbermouth: Dark Angel performs in San Antonio (September 13, 2025)
- Blabbermouth: Gene Hoglan on pummeling people until his eighties (August 4, 2025)
- Blabbermouth: Gene Hoglan on Death To All’s live performances (December 19, 2025)
- Blabbermouth: Gene Hoglan on double duty in Australia (October 22, 2026)
- Wikipedia: Extinction Level Event (Dark Angel album)
- Wikipedia: Symbolic (Death album)
- Wikipedia: Individual Thought Patterns
- Wikipedia: Strapping Young Lad
- Wikipedia: City (Strapping Young Lad album)
- Wikipedia: Dethklok
- Metal Hammer (Louder): A bunch of top metal drummers interview metal drum legend Gene Hoglan (Adam Brennan, 2020)
- Songkick: Dethklok concert calendar
- Festapp: Wacken Open Air 2027 lineup and dates
- Distorted Sound: Bloodstock Festival announce 27 bands for 2027
- Reversed Records: Death To All
- Everblack Media: Death To All, Death and Darkness Down Under tour, January 26 to 30, 2027
- HEAVY Magazine: Death To All announce January Australian tour (August 25, 2026)
- The Triffid: Death To All with special guests Dark Angel
Frequently Asked Questions
What bands has Gene Hoglan played in?
Dark Angel, Death, Strapping Young Lad, Testament (1997 to 1998 and 2011 to 2022), Fear Factory, Dethklok and Death To All, plus live fill-ins for Opeth and Anthrax. He drums today for Dark Angel, Dethklok and Death To All.
Which Death albums is Gene Hoglan on?
Two: Individual Thought Patterns (Relativity, 1993) and Symbolic (Roadrunner, 1995).
Where is Gene Hoglan from?
He was born in Dallas, Texas, on August 31, 1967. In a 2004 Modern Drummer interview he said, “I was born in Dallas and raised in Los Angeles.”
Why is Gene Hoglan called the Atomic Clock?
The nickname refers to his timekeeping at extreme tempos. Hoglan told Metal Hammer it came from Heathen of Zimmer’s Hole, who heard him working out Strapping Young Lad’s The New Black and said, “Dude, you’re like the Atomic Clock on the drums!” Hoglan put it in a record’s credits and it stuck. His instructional DVD is titled The Atomic Clock.
What drums does Gene Hoglan play?
Pearl drums and Sabian cymbals. He plays left-handed on a right-handed kit, and Modern Drummer reported in 2017 that he auctioned his Pearl Masters Custom kit, used on Strapping Young Lad’s The New Black, for charity.
