Jason Bittner
| Jason Bittner | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 11, 1970 Albany, New York, United States |
| Genres | Metal, Thrash Metal, Rock, Hardcore, Death Metal, Ska, Jazz fusion, Latin |
| Occupation(s) | Drummer |
| Instruments | Drums, percussion |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Labels | Century Media, Atlantic/Roadrunner |
| Associated acts | Shadows Fall, Stigmata, Burning Human, Anthrax, Toxik, Flotsam and Jetsam |
Jason Bittner (born January 11, 1970 in Niskayuna, New York) is an American drummer, best known as the drummer for American metal band Shadows Fall. He is also the drummer for American thrash metal band Flotsam and Jetsam since 2014, and was the drummer for the thrash metal band Toxik from 2013 to 2014.
He has won numerous awards including the Modern Drummer Magazine reader poll for #1 Up and Coming Drummer of 2004, and in 2005, #1 Best Recorded Performance for the Shadows Fall album The War Within, #1 Metal drummer (2005/2006) #2 Clinician DRUM! magazine 2011. He is recognized for his tight playing, extensive skill with double bass drumming, particularly his ability to play complex patterns at high speeds, and his familiarity with numerous styles of drumming, including latin and jazz.
Bittner started taking formal drum lessons at the age of ten years, however he has stated that he "had been banging on pots, pans, and garbage cans since he was about five". A native of Schenectady, NY, he continued to take lessons and perform in his middle school and Linton high school jazz and orchestra ensembles before attending Berklee College of Music in 1988. After a year of intensive study, he left Berklee to pursue his musical career outside the educational environment. This led to playing in various metal and hard rock bands throughout the late eighties and early nineties.
In 1994 he joined the band Stigmata, a prominent hardcore band in the New York scene, and over the course of the next 7 years, recorded 3 albums, released a home video, and toured the U.S. and Europe with this outfit. Bittner also played in death metal band Burning Human. They recorded 7 songs that would appear on the album "We The People: A tribute to upstate NY's hardest". Most of these songs would be rerecorded for their first album which would not come out for another decade after Bittner joined Shadows Fall. Burning Human would eventually disband in the late 90's. Stigmata disbanded in 2001; the following fall, Bittner joined Shadows Fall. Initially, he had signed on just to do one tour of Europe with the band, but subsequently decided to remain as a permanent member.
In September 2002 the band released "The Art of Balance" and went on to tour throughout the US, Japan, and Europe. Over the course of 2005, following the release of Shadows Fall's follow up effort The War Within, Bittner started establishing himself as a clinician, performing at the Modern Drummer Festival, the DRUMMER live festival in the UK, followed by a clinic tour of Germany, and also PASIC in November 2005.
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