James Cassells

James Cassells — British drummer — has been part of Asking Alexandria since its early years and is, alongside Ben Bruce, one of the band's elements of greatest continuity. His stay crossed the two changes of vocalist that almost ended the group — Danny Worsnop's departure in 2015, Denis Stoff's brief spell and Worsnop's return in 2016 — and the change of musical direction that followed. His function in the repertoire follows that change. On the early records, Asking Alexandria worked with heavy breakdowns and fast tempos, and the drums functioned as an engine of aggression. From The Black (2016) onwards, the sound became progressively more melodic and less extreme, and the work came to demand dynamics and restraint: holding up songs of more open structure, with space between the strokes, rather than filling. These are two opposite approaches within the same band, and Cassells performed both — a path similar to that of other British drummers of his generation, whose bands made the same crossing from metalcore to melodic heavy rock over the 2010s.