The trial is over for drummer Bastian Thusgaard. He spent the last several months touring with Soilwork, filling in until they found an official replacement for Dirk Verbeuren who left the group last year to join Megadeth.

The band made the following statement:

We are super stoked to announce Bastian Thusgaard, as our permanent drummer. He’s been touring with us for quite a while and has been nothing short of amazing to work with, both on a musical level and on a personal level. Taking over after Dirk must have been pretty hard, but he has proven, time and time again, through our tours through North America, South America and Europe, that he is the perfect man for the job. Bastian is only 25 years old and already possesses such great groove and fantastic technique. We can’t wait to see, how his ability will take us to the next level, while we write our next album. It will be a beast, there’s no doubt about it. We have so much left to say musically and Bastian will be the perfect drummer, to help the band evolve on our constant musical journey. Give Bastian a warm welcome everyone!!!

Cheers, Soilwork”

Thusgaard expressed his excitement:

“First and foremost I would like to thank Björn, Sven, David, Sylvain, Markus and everyone else involved in Soilwork team for their very warm welcome.

I wanna thank Dirk Verbeuren for his guidance, support and ability to inspire young drummers like myself, to put in the hours needed in order to make it to this level. He is the reason why I’ve had my life’s best musical experiences, during the past ten months.

To the fans that I’ve already met around the world and all the wonderful people surrounding me. Thank you for your great support and positive feedback. It has truly been overwhelming.

I am truly honoured to be given the opportunity to continuously work with Soilwork. A band that I grew up listening to and one of the key elements in my musical education.

I feel 100% committed to Soilwork and I’m looking forward to create music with my childhood heroes and to see what the future will bring.

See you all on the road.

Bastian Thusgaard”

author avatar
Zenae Zukowski