Considered the best Brazilian heavy metal drummer for many years, Aquiles Priester founded the heavy metal band Hangar in 1997, where he began developing the style that would make him known worldwide. With Hangar he released five studio albums, an acoustic CD/DVD and a live album. Soon after Aquiles Priester was invited to record and go on tour with Paul Di’Anno, former Iron Maiden singer. In 2001 he joined the band Angra and recorded the album Rebirth, which went gold record in Brazil. After six years and three studio albums, an EP and a live CD/DVD, Aquiles left the band. He then released products directed to the drum world that became best sellers, among them two educational DVDs: Inside My Drums (2004) and The Infallible Reason Of My Freak Drumming (2010). He also released a textbook on the study of the double bass called Inside My Psycho Book (2007) and the DVD Aquiles Priester's Top 100 Drum Fills. Besides the educational products, in 2010 Aquiles also released his autobiography Aquiles Octopus Priester – From Fan to Idol that’s on its 2nd edition and includes testimonies of famous drummers such as Kiko Freitas, Vera Figueiredo, Serginho Herval and João Barone. In 2010, he was invited to go on a European tour with world famous American guitar player Tony MacAlpine and on a different tour with another guitar virtuoso, Vinnie Moore.
In 2012, Mapex created the Mapex Limited Edition Aquiles Priester drum set and the following year the signature Aquiles Priester PsychoOctopus Black Panther Snare. By 2014, the partnership with Tony MacAlpine would render another North American tour and Aquiles was invited to play with the German power metal band Primal Fear. In 2017, he took part in W.A.S.P.’s European tour, one of the main names of North American heavy metal. Before embarking on the W.A.S.P. tour, a former Angra bandmate, singer Edu Falaschi, invited Aquiles to take part in a commemorative tour playing the songs of the acclaimed albums he recorded with Angra, Rebirth (2001) and Temple of Shadows (2004).
In 2018, Hangar went back on the road after an almost 5 year hiatus. And in 2019, at the Namm Show, Mapex (who has endorsed Aquiles for 18 years), invited him to show off his drum set. It was one of the highlights of the show. Now he is releasing a new DVD & Blu-Ray “All Access to Achilles Priester’s Drumming,” which was recorded at the Harman Experience Center in Los Angeles, California, USA.
