Matt Cameron improvises fresh drum part on Bad Omens’ Just Pretend in Drumeo challenge

Matt Cameron walked into Drumeo’s latest “For the First Time” challenge with decades of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam muscle memory, then had to make sense of Bad Omens’ “Just Pretend” with no drum part underneath it. Drumeo posted the segment on June 9, 2026, and the teaser shows Cameron hearing the track cold and trying to play along on the spot.

That setup fits Cameron because his playing has always been defined by odd-time feel, spacious phrasing and the tom-heavy textures that gave Soundgarden so much of its weight. Drumeo’s hosts said they wanted him for exactly those qualities, and Cameron even joked that he would rather not be handed a Sleep Token song, since Drumeo has already leaned on that idea a few times.

Once the song started, Cameron did what veteran drummers do when they are not just copying a chart but translating it. He kept “Just Pretend” moving with a more intricate rhythmic footprint than the original, but he never crowded the hook. The part leaned on subtle shifts, deliberate placements and extra percussion-like touches, the kind of choices that make a modern heavy ballad feel more open without flattening its dynamics. Instead of forcing a blunt backbeat over the track, Cameron treated the arrangement like a space to shape, letting the kick pattern and cymbal phrasing support the vocal line while his fills answered the gaps.

That instinct earned a direct nod from Nick Folio, Bad Omens’ longtime drummer. Folio told Cameron, “There’s a lot of pauses in that song where I don’t really play, and you fill the space perfectly,” a line that gets to the heart of why the performance lands. “Just Pretend” comes from The Death of Peace of Mind, released on Feb. 25, 2022, and the song later went Gold in July 2023 after its official video passed 62 million views on YouTube. Bad Omens formed in 2015, and Folio’s reaction shows how carefully Cameron respected the arrangement while still making it his own.

The clip also fits into a broader Drumeo run around Cameron, whose playlist already includes breakdowns of “Black Hole Sun,” “Spoonman” and “Rusty Cage.” As a two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee through Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, Cameron keeps proving the same point in every first-listen challenge: the best drummers do not just hit the song, they reveal its shape in real time.