XLN Audio launches Progressive Metal Addpak with Opeth drummer Waltteri Väyrynen

Waltteri Väyrynen’s playing gave XLN Audio’s new Progressive Metal ADpak something most metal drum libraries still miss: a real player’s sense of motion. Built from his Pearl Reference Pure kit, the expansion leaned into the kind of vocabulary prog-metal writers actually use, with alternating double-kick patterns, articulate tom movement, and a kit voice that stayed clear when the arrangement got dense. For Opeth fans and anyone programming modern progressive metal, that meant a library shaped around groove, detail and song flow rather than pure brute force.

XLN Audio released the ADpak on April 28, 2026, and priced it at $89. The expansion arrived with 48 mix-ready presets and a feature aimed squarely at fast metal programming, an alternating-kick mode that automatically turned rapid double-kick MIDI into natural every-other-hit movement without changing the note. Alongside the core kit, XLN included dark Sabian cymbals, a hand-selected gong drum and toms designed to stay dynamic and melodic, which gives the pack a wider range than the one-size-fits-all metal libraries that often flatten every tom run into the same triggered attack.

The kit itself carries real character. XLN said the Pearl Reference Pure drums used for the sampling were among the last made before the series was discontinued, and Väyrynen got them just before recording Opeth’s The Last Will and Testament. Pearl’s artist page lists the setup with dual 22x18 kick drums plus Reference Steel, Reference Brass and Reference Pure snare options, which helps explain why the package reads as a serious session tool instead of a generic genre badge. The dual 22-inch kicks, in particular, are built for definition in fast, layered mixes where kick notes can disappear under guitars if the source is too soft or too synthetic.

The programming value goes beyond the shell tones. XLN also tied the release to the Progressive Metal Beats & Songs MIDIpak, which included more than 390 beats, fills and evolving song structures. That makes the ADpak useful not only for drummers sketching parts, but for producers building full arrangements in a DAW. XLN’s broader Progressive & Heavy Collection bundled the Progressive Metal and Modern Heavy ADpaks with two MIDIpaks, and the company said the collection was recorded by metal producer David Castillo, underscoring its push toward complete production workflows rather than standalone sample packs.

Väyrynen’s own resume strengthens the fit. XLN said he started on pots and pans at age three or four, was behind a drum kit by five, had his own kit by twelve and practiced five to six hours a day as a young drummer. After seven and a half years in Paradise Lost, he joined Opeth in 2022, a move that placed him in one of progressive metal’s most scrutinized drum seats. That background is exactly what gives this ADpak its edge: it sounds built for players who need a virtual kit to keep up with real songwriting, not just blast beats.