Tim "The Missile" Yeung is a prominent drummer in the extreme metal community. He was born on November 27, 1978 in Rochester, New York, though he currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Tim started playing drums when he was 11 years old.
He attended Hochstein School of Music in Rochester, New York until he graduated in 1995. He was first introduced to the death metal genre in the 1980s. His breakout performance was in 1999 on Hate Eternal's debut Conquering the Throne, after which he became a big name in the death metal scene. Although he left Hate Eternal after the release of Conquering the Throne, he started lending his talents as a session drummer, as a live drummer, such as with metalcore band All That Remains and death metal bands Vital Remains and Nile, and as a studio drummer, such as on ...And Time Begins by Santa Cruz, California-based brutal death metal band Decrepit Birth. Currently, Tim is the drummer and co-founder for the death metal/metalcore band Divine Heresy, and can be heard on their debut album Bleed The Fifth. He is also the drummer of World Under Blood, CKY frontman Deron Miller's death metal side project.
As his nickname implies, Tim is known as one of the fastest drummers in metal. In 2004, Tim hit 872 bass drum hits in one minute at a World's Fastest Drummer competition, which earned him the Fastest Feet Title for that event, though not the world record, which clocked in at 1030 hits in one minute, held by Tim Waterson who was using doubles, as opposed to single strokes.[1] By Tim (Yeung)'s standards, 872 hits in a minute is comparatively low, translating to one minute of 16th notes at 218 bpm, which is considerably slower than the speeds he has displayed in his group work. Yeung has stated in interviews that he could have played much faster if he were using his own setup.
Although he is most known as a drummer for brutal death metal bands such as Hate Eternal and Decrepit Birth, Tim has stated that he has diverse tastes. In the January 2008 issue of Drum! Magazine, Tim states "...if it has a good drummer then it's good music." His straddling of the extreme and mainstream is perhaps best reflected in his work with Divine Heresy, whose music features elements of extreme death metal as well as more mainstream genres such as metalcore (from Tommy Vext's vocals) and industrial metal (from ex-Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares' guitar work).
