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I'm in the process of attempting to record a cd/ep, with an 8 track digital recorder. It will consist of vocals, guitar, bass and keyboards, and is in the progressive/power metal vein. At this time, using a human drummer is'nt possible. Can anyone suggest a good drum machine, that will fill the need. I need to be able to program it with off time beats and sick fills. Also, it needs to sound like actual drums and come at a resonable price. Please help...

A good cheap drum machine would be the Zoom MRT3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7iqDd3DNGI

No drum machine on earth is going to come pre-loaded with kick-ass metal beats/fills. You have to do some programming. I use an old Boss DR-5 for the odd time-signatures. Any of the Boss DR series drum machines are going to probably work for you. As far as "real" sounding drums, I would like to stress that most of the newer drum machines have pretty realistic sounding drum samples. It's really just a matter of how much time you put into making patterns. However, be warned...a drum machine is a drum machine is a drum machine...

about as close as you can get to that would be one of the software drum synths out there (names escape me right now).

I like the zoom rt323 to program cause it's laid out in a way that is condusive to 'real sounding' tracks.... but the zoom line in general is going to sound like a toy IMO. Pretty much all synthetic drums sound weak for anything but rap/hip-hop-etc.

you could try using a sampler for the actual drum sounds... works for me.

as an alternative -you might just search beta monkey on ebay and buy a $9 cd of real drum tracks. chances are you can find something original sounding that will fit your style.

I'd suggest the Drumkit From Hell as a program [not an actual machine]. Its blast beats and fills are pretty realistic.