Influential metal drummer Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Misfits) is unveiling their debut solo album this spring.

Announced today, Rites of Percussion will be released on May 5 via Ipecac Recordings. A new single from the album titled “Journey of the Host” can be heard below.

Lombardo said this about the album’s origins:

“[Mike] Patton originally gave me the idea as far back as 1998,” explains Lombardo. “He introduced me to Tito Puente’s Top Percussion album. I was already familiar with Tito and was a bit shocked that Patton was so musically diverse, and that he surrounded himself with musicians of the same mindset. That inspired me. I have had ideas that I’ve recorded on cassette over the years, but Patton kept insisting that I had to do a ‘drum album.’ So, the idea behind the album is years in the making. I just had to find the right time—for me—to do it.”

When the pandemic hit, I thought, ‘Well, I can’t tour now.’ I immediately started working on the record. It was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. I had my studio, all my drums. Nothing was in storage for once! My home became a place where I could be free and creative. On the one hand, the touring part of my livelihood had been taken away, but on the other, I finally had the time to educate myself on different software and recording techniques. It was a very educational and gratifying experience.”

The 13-track album, which was mixed by Lombardo’s son David, features “a large concert bass drum, a timpani, a grand piano, and a flock of shakers, maracas, Chinese and symphonic gongs, Native American drums, congas, timbales, bongos, batás, wood blocks, djembes, ibos, darbukas, octobans, cajóns, and cymbals.”

Pre-orders for Rites of Percussion can be made here.

Rites of Percussion tracklisting:

1. Initiatory Madness

2. Separation from the Sacred

3. Inner Sanctum

4. Journey of the Host

5. Maunder in Liminality

6. Despojo

7. Interfearium

8. Blood Let

9. Warpath

10. Guerrero

11. Vicissitude

12. Omiero

13. Animismo