Michael Thomas

Michael Thomas — Welsh drummer known as Moose — was Bullet for My Valentine's original drummer, part of the band's classic line-up. He was on the first four records — The Poison (2005), Scream Aim Fire (2008), Fever (2010) and Temper Temper (2013) — that is, across the whole phase in which the band left Bridgend, Wales, and reached the big European festivals. Bullet for My Valentine demands an unusual combination from the drummer: the repertoire has thrash's speed and open cymbals in some parts and metalcore's square, heavy metre in others, often within the same song. Moose played both with the same weight, and the clearest comparison is with the 1980s American thrash the band took as reference. He left the group in the mid-2010s. The band carried on with Jason Bowld on drums, but the Moose phase is the one that established Bullet for My Valentine as the most visible British name in its generation's metalcore.