The d-beat is named after the British band Discharge, who built every song they recorded between 1980 and 1983 on the same drum pattern: hat or china on every 8th, snare on 2 and 4, and a cluster of kicks on the 1, & of 1, 3, & of 3 that gives the bar its trademark gallop. Played at 180+ BPM, it became the engine for crust punk, hardcore, and a great deal of extreme metal afterward — Doom, Disclose, Nausea, half of Tragedy's discography, every Discharge tribute band ever.
Mechanically the d-beat is straightforward; what's hard is the tempo. At ♩=180 the 8ths come fast and the kick clusters need to land precisely on the & of 1 and & of 3. Below 170 it doesn't sound right; above 200 most drummers can't keep the kicks even. Find your speed in that range and stay there.
Exercises
The canonical d-beat. Hat on every 8th, snare on 2 and 4, kick on 1, & of 1, 3, & of 3. Two kick pairs per bar — one in the first half, one in the second. Tempo is ♩=180, fast enough that the 8th-note hi-hat is a real workout. Keep the hat strokes small (1 inch from the cymbal) or your wrist won't last 30 seconds.
Same d-beat with the right hand on china instead of hat — the louder, trashier crust-punk sound. Tempo drops slightly (♩=170) because the china is harder to articulate than the hat at extreme speed. The snare hand crosses to the snare on 2 and 4 while the right hand stays on the china. This is the sound of Doom, of every Discharge B-side, of Tragedy.
♩=190 is the sweet spot for the d-beat — fast, urgent, just shy of the tempo where the kicks start to blur. The bar ends with an open china on the & of 4 that doubles as a kick — one cymbal hit, one kick, both on the same 8th-note. That paired accent is the d-beat's signature exit and the cue for the next bar to repeat.