Dirk Verbeuren is the Belgian-born, American-based drummer of thrash metal icons Megadeth. Since joining in 2016, Verbeuren has recorded two studio albums and performed hundreds of shows with the band, led by vocalist/guitarist and metal pioneer Dave Mustaine.

Born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1975, Dirk Verbeuren began his musical training in elementary school with the violin, which he played proficiently for seven years. At age 13, his family moved to Paris, France where he studied piano and electric guitar. In 1991, Verbeuren discovered his gift and passion for rhythm on a second-hand drumkit his father bought for him. He immediately began practicing and soon started creating and performing with fellow musicians.

Verbeuren relocated to Nancy, France in 1993 to study at the Music Academy International. Following his graduation, the school promptly hired him as a drum professor. He co-founded Scarve, a forward thinking death metal band which released four albums and toured Europe extensively. Verbeuren’s fine-tuned ear, impeccable musical memory, sensitivity to structure and ability to read and write rhythm made him a highly demanded session drummer overnight. He recorded with bands such as Aborted and Sybreed, among many others.

In 2004, Verbeuren joined Swedish melodic death metallers Soilwork with whom he recorded and toured worldwide for twelve years. During this period, he also recorded and/or performed with a multitude of established artists, including Glen Danzig, Testament, Devin Townsend, Sasami Ashworth, At The Gates, Satyricon, and Fredrik Thordendal of Meshuggah.

A long-term collaboration with Swedish software company Toontrack resulted in the Library of the Extreme, the first ever collection of MIDI metal beats and fills. The series became a smash hit among producers, composers and musicians alike. Verbeuren toured solo in Europe, China and the US performing drum clinics for Toontrack, Tama Drums, Meinl Cymbals and Evans Drumheads alongside artists such as Pete Lockett (Björk, Peter Gabriel), David “Fingers” Haynes (Chaka Khan, Prince) and Richard Devine. Launching his own grindcore band Bent Sea in 2011, Verbeuren took on drums and guitar, as well as the roles of composer and lyricist, backed by Napalm Death’s Shane Embury and Aborted’s Sven de Caluwé.

In May 2016, Verbeuren was asked to take the drum throne for Megadeth, the legendary Los Angeles band, member of the infamous “Big Four” of thrash metal. A few months later, band leader Dave Mustaine officially announced Dirk Verbeuren as the new permanent drummer of Megadeth. Following three years on the road supporting Grammy-winning album Dystopia, Verbeuren made his recording debut with Megadeth, co-writing two songs for The Sick, the Dying — and the Dead! The album was released to critical acclaim on September 2nd, 2022 via Tradecraft/Universal, and was followed by a two and a half year long world tour. Megadeth is currently putting the finishing touches to its seventeenth studio album and gearing up to tour the planet once again.

Profiling himself as a pioneer in modern drum recording techniques, Verbeuren runs Die Crawling Studio, his own high-tech facility incorporating the most recent innovations developed by Roland and Toontrack, as well as Northwood Sound Studios where he records acoustic drums with producer/engineer extraordinaire Adair Daufembach (Angra, WASP, Tony MacAlpine etc).

A teacher since 1995, Verbeuren offers in-person and online drum lessons sharing techniques, exercises and career advice to a growing community of students. He continues to be an in-demand session drummer, recording music for Epic Games’ smash hit video game Fortnite, as well as a large number of international artists. In late 2024, Toontrack released the Metal Mania drum sample pack for which Verbeuren tracked samples of three full drumkits at the legendary One On One Recording facility in Los Angeles.