Hello. Long time no post! Just wanted to share the Mike Mangini Discography playlist I made which contains all the songs Mike Mangini played in that I can find in Spotify.
The Mike Mangini DiscographySome tracks that I can not find are the two songs in Nuno Bettencourt's Schizophonic album and Annihilator's Metal album.
I used to rank Steve Vai's Alive in an Ultra World and James Labrie's Elements of Persuasion as his best pre-Dream Theater work. But while I am still keeping Alive in that list, I am replacing Elements with Sal Difusco's Great Exploits and Tribe of Judah's exit elvis. I only got to hear his work with Sal Difusco when I finally got Spotify and wow, that was amazing work. Check out Great Exploits, I implore you! You can actually hear cymbals.
In Sal Difusco's 2008 album, Vanishing Mist, we even get to hear Mangini doing jazz!
I am still amazed that Mike churned out some of his best work in 2018 and 2019 with Into The Great Divide and Distance Over Time. He keeps on improving, trying new techniques, playing things we haven't heard before. Progressive in the true sense of the word. What an inspiration.