Nick Menza

Nick Menza was Megadeth's drummer between 1989 and 1998, a period covering the band's four most successful records. Born in Munich, Germany, in 1964, he was the son of jazz saxophonist Don Menza, and that origin explains much of what he did behind the kit. His playing has jazz articulation executed at thrash speed. Where most drummers in the genre hammer fixed subdivisions, Menza plays with dynamics — varying weight between strokes, displacing accents, leaving space — and that is what makes Rust in Peace (1990) and Countdown to Extinction (1992) breathe in a way earlier Megadeth records did not. The precision demanded by Dave Mustaine's material, full of metric shifts, he delivered without ever sounding mechanical. He also recorded Youthanasia (1994) and Cryptic Writings (1997). He left in 1998, mid-tour, after knee surgery — the band hired a replacement and the departure became permanent, an episode he never regarded as settled. He tried more than once over the following years to return, without success. He died on 21 May 2016, aged 51, collapsing on stage during a show with his band OHM at a club in Los Angeles.