66Samus | Metal drumming entertainment at its best
Samus Paulicelli, AKA 66Samus, turned blast beats and daft jokes into a million-subscriber channel. His story, his triggered kit and the latest 66Samus news.
If you are on YouTube and you are a metal drummer, you have come across Samus Paulicelli — 66Samus — whether you know it or not. Blast beats, a filthy sense of humour, and those catchphrases.
He is a seriously good drummer and one of the most entertaining people on drum YouTube. What has changed since we first wrote this page is the scale of it all.
We keep this page updated with the latest 66Samus news.
Who is 66Samus?
66Samus (Samus Paulicelli) is a professional drummer, born on 14 September 1987 in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and these days based in Winnipeg, Canada.
He started drumming at three, when his parents bought him a junior kit, and took private lessons after a few years of banging about on it.
At fourteen he found metal and double bass, decided lessons were holding him back, and taught himself from there. Mike Portnoy’s Liquid Drum Theater VHS became his blueprint.
He is not only a drummer either. He taught himself guitar and bass by ear, playing along to covers — which is exactly why he can release finished songs on his own.
66Samus on YouTube
The channel is genuinely old by YouTube standards. He started it back in 2006, though the first few years were sporadic. It was 2015 when the content became consistent, and that is when it turned into the channel we know.
Today it is one of the biggest drum channels anywhere: around 1.1 million subscribers and north of 350 million views.
What content does 66Samus create?
- Drum covers
- Original songs
- FAQs
- Tutorial videos
- Gear reviews
- Reaction videos
And then there are the ones that are harder to explain. Comedy? Viral? You have to see them.
For example, Blast beats but the snares are farts.
So stupid. So funny.
Becoming a full-time content creator
In 2020 Samus took the leap and went full time. That is not an easy choice — bills do not care how good your blast beats are.
He did it about as sensibly as anyone could: he built the audience over several years while working full time, so the jump happened from a position of strength rather than hope.
He has also been unusually smart about turning that audience into a living, which is the part most creators get wrong.
How Samus monetises his audience
- YouTube ads. By writing original songs and making videos without licensed music, he keeps the ad revenue. A huge channel made purely of drum covers earns the original artists money, not the drummer.
- Video sponsors. Most videos open with a sponsor slot before the main event, so even licensed-music videos earn something. Special shout out to Raid: Shadow Legends.
- Patreon. Perks for the people who care most, and a predictable monthly income rather than a lottery.
- Affiliate links. He earns a cut when viewers buy the gear he uses through his links.
- Merchandise. His own shop, rather than a table at a gig.
- Session work. You can hire him to track drums for your band from his home studio, with rates on his site.
If you want a model for taking drumming full time, he is about as good a one as exists. Our guide to getting a drum endorsement covers the other side of that coin.
Who has Samus performed with?
He has toured and recorded with a long list of metal acts: Decrepit Birth, where he held the drum chair from 2010 to 2018, plus Devin Townsend, Goatwhore and Abigail Williams.
He also releases his own music under the 66Samus name.
Music releases
Mostly singles, released whenever he fancies it, and available on all the usual streaming platforms.
If you want one standout track, it has to be Fart Metal. We are not sorry.
What gear does 66Samus use?
It is a monster of a kit — toms across the top, two rides, two kicks, and a lot of everything else.
- Drums — Pearl. He has run everything from an Export up to Masters over the years.
- Snare — his own drum-tec 66Samus signature, 13” x 7”, birch and maple with a mappa burl outer, in acoustic or electronic form.
- Cymbals — Meinl, largely Byzance: 13” Byzance Brilliant Fast Hats, a 17” Byzance Medium Thin Crash and a 20” Byzance China among them.
- Pedals — Axis. Direct drive, as you would expect at those tempos.
- Sticks — his own 66Samus signature model, built on the Vic Firth X5AN: 16.5” long, .565” diameter, medium taper.
- Heads — Evans.
- Triggers — Roland, feeding Toontrack for drum replacement.
That last point is the one people argue about. His full kit is triggered, and he has never pretended otherwise — he explains the whole workflow on camera. Triggering is a touchy subject for some drummers, but honesty about it costs nothing and Samus has plenty.
See 66Samus’ full rig, era by era, in the Rig Vault →
Find more of 66Samus
Final thoughts
66Samus is a hell of a drummer and a genuine breath of fresh air. Five years on from when we first wrote this page he has gone from a big channel to one of the biggest in drumming, and he has done it without sanding any of the weirdness off.
That is the impressive part. The blast beats were never in doubt.
If you want another YouTube drummer to lose an evening to, try rdavidr for the DIY builds, or Luke Holland for more of the metal end.