Mangini on The Enemy Inside

[LKap13]

So, what did you guys think of Mangini's playing on the new single?

[Tom Bombadil]

I voted good. I thought thedrumming was solid but not insane. Being a drummer myself, there were a couple parts in there that made me go "wow", but for the most part it wasn't spectacular. Still good though. If the rest of the album has drumming like this I would be quite pleased.

[Tis BOOLsheet]

[FlyingBIZKIT]

Good, but I expect more technicality throughout the album.

[Ħ]

Incredible but the snare sounds terrible.

[Zook]

He sounds fine.

[wolven74]

I voted great.

I'm sure there will be other insane sections or perhaps totally insane songs when the album is released, but this was a good showing of what "unleashed" really means.

The man's a beast, no doubt about it. But on this track I think he's just waking up.

Great performance. We'll hear incredible on the 24th, or whatever day you Europeans get the CD.

[Dark Castle]

Went with Great. I'm willing to bet this is just the tip of the iceberg concerning insane Manginilicious drumming.

[The Boomr]

I voted great.

I'm sure there will be other insane sections or perhaps totally insane songs when the album is released, but this was a good showing of what "unleashed" really means.

The man's a beast, no doubt about it. But on this track I think he's just had a false awakening.

Great performance. We'll hear incredible on the 24th, or whatever day you Europeans get the CD.

FTFY




In other news, I voted Great. Drumming technique-wise is really nothing spectacular, I almost could've voted Good, but I went with Great because I'm so thrilled to hear MM lay down some truly metal beats with DT finally!

[Lucien]

There are five different threads on this song. This is getting ridiculous..

 

But yes, Mangini is amazing on this song. There's something he does between 0:52 and 0:54 that baffles my mind, it's so fast...

[jmasterx]

I love what he plays, but, I've never really liked the sound of his kit. Too reverby. And the triggered snare for a DT album is not my cup of tea. It wasn't on I&W and it isn't now.

Very anxious to hear the rest!

[wolven74]

I love what he plays, but, I've never really liked the sound of his kit. Too reverby. And the triggered snare for a DT album is not my cup of tea. It wasn't on I&W and it isn't now.

Very anxious to hear the rest!

Source? Where did you get that it's triggered?

[jmasterx]

Well, that's the thing, I'm HOPING the mix was just wayyyyy too compressed and that the real mix of the album version does not sound triggered. To me there was no snare dynamic. So it sounded triggered to me. But it could very well be the mix of the single that was way over compressed.

[The Boomr]

I love what he plays, but, I've never really liked the sound of his kit. Too reverby. And the triggered snare for a DT album is not my cup of tea. It wasn't on I&W and it isn't now.

Very anxious to hear the rest!

Source? Where did you get that it's triggered?

I'm fairly certain there has been no real confirmation that the snare is actually triggered; it just sounds that way on this single. Loud, fat, overly present in the mix. It does seem to be the same sound every single time he hits the snare with no dynamic contrast, so that is what has people thinking it could be triggered.

[Tis BOOLsheet]

I have a feeling the stream only made it sound a little worse. More or less, I think this might be the style of this engineer.

[jmasterx]

I have a feeling the stream only made it sound a little worse. More or less, I think this might be the style of this engineer.

Yikes! I hope not!

I can barely hear Jordan in some parts. A good mix should mean that no instrument strictly stands out, but, you should be able to clearly pick out each note of each instrument. I really enjoyed what each member was doing on this single, but something about the levels seriously bugged me...

[Tis BOOLsheet]

I have a feeling the stream only made it sound a little worse. More or less, I think this might be the style of this engineer.

Yikes! I hope not!

I can barely hear Jordan in some parts. A good mix should mean that no instrument strictly stands out, but, you should be able to clearly pick out each note of each instrument. I really enjoyed what each member was doing on this single, but something about the levels seriously bugged me...

I agree. That was one of the first things I noticed about the mix. There are times when I can ONLY hear guitar and drums. And I'm not crazy about the sound of the drums at all. I don't know a whole lot about Rich Chycki's style, but I do get the feeling the stream would mess up the sound THAT much. Is it possible there could be some mix editing (finishing touches) in between now and release? I think a lot of bands do that.

[Kotowboy]

I love what he plays, but, I've never really liked the sound of his kit. Too reverby. And the triggered snare for a DT album is not my cup of tea. It wasn't on I&W and it isn't now.

Very anxious to hear the rest!

Source? Where did you get that it's triggered?

I'm fairly certain there has been no real confirmation that the snare is actually triggered; it just sounds that way on this single. Loud, fat, overly present in the mix. It does seem to be the same sound every single time he hits the snare with no dynamic contrast, so that is what has people thinking it could be triggered.

Mangini said recently that he loosened his snare for this album to get it louder and he is renowned for being ridiculously consistent with his hits. . . It's one of his "tricks ".

[jmasterx]

I have a feeling the stream only made it sound a little worse. More or less, I think this might be the style of this engineer.

Yikes! I hope not!

I can barely hear Jordan in some parts. A good mix should mean that no instrument strictly stands out, but, you should be able to clearly pick out each note of each instrument. I really enjoyed what each member was doing on this single, but something about the levels seriously bugged me...

I agree. That was one of the first things I noticed about the mix. There are times when I can ONLY hear guitar and drums. And I'm not crazy about the sound of the drums at all. I don't know a whole lot about Rich Chycki's style, but I do get the feeling the stream would mess up the sound THAT much. Is it possible there could be some mix editing (finishing touches) in between now and release? I think a lot of bands do that.

Yup, I can confirm that I feel the same way. Yet, I did not feel this way at all about OTBOA. Though, even before hearing OTBOA drum stem, I felt the snare on that was a bit reverby, and not the melody master of Portnoy's I was used to, but I never felt it was triggered.

Maybe they used a gated reverb on the snare. I hope not.

The notes are like a cake, but for me, the mix is not a cake so far

[wolven74]

The notes are like a cake, but for me, the mix is not a cake so far

Give it time. The cake needs time to bake.

[Grizz]

Incredible but the snare sounds terrible.

Worse than the Bubinga snare on the Worcester bootleg.

[The Letter M]

In other words, he is amazing. If this song is any indication, I think he'll really shine on this album, and hopefully his technical prowess pushes the others to a new level!

-Marc.

[adastra]

I thought there was nothing wrong with the snare o_O

[BlobVanDam]

I went with great. It's only a relatively simple song, so I don't think there's enough room for "incredible", but he certainly added a lot of nice touches, such as his hi-hat patterns, and the fast snare/cymbal fills.

[TheLordOfTheStrings]

Incredible but the snare sounds terrible.

I think it sounds triggered when he does double/triple/etc. strokes on it. But during the verse and chorus beats, I think it sounds miles better than his ADTOE snare.

[Jaq]

I didn't think there was anything wrong with the drum sound on the song either, but I'm the guy who can't hear if anything's brickwalled, so I may not be the best judge of that 

I went with great. The intro and some other parts gave MM room to really stretch out, but a lot of the song is a straight ahead burner, so there isn't as much room for him to go nuts. Give him something as complex as, say, Outcry's instrumental break this time and he'll go insane.

[MoraWintersoul]

Went with Great. I'm willing to bet this is just the tip of the iceberg concerning insane Manginilicious drumming.

^ this absolutely.

[TheGreatPretender]

Went with Great. I'm willing to bet this is just the tip of the iceberg concerning insane Manginilicious drumming.

^ this absolutely.

Well, I highly doubt they'd put out his best work as the single. If they did that, that'd be like saying, "Here's Mangini at his absolute finest on this album. Everything else is downhill from here." And that wouldn't be very smart.

[eviljust]

Damn I think I misclicked. Coffee for me. Went with Incredbile but wanted to go for Great. That's 'cuz it really didn't amaze me that much. I know what he can do, I know he's an hell of a drum artist. His power, his strenght are equals to his fluidity and softness when required. Again, didn't like the snare sound on it, but I think (read hope) it will stick to this song.

EDIT: huhu I took too long to write (am at work and had to stop writing for a while) and it reset for me. So, yes, Great on the poll as well

[mellotron_scratch]

I voted great. It was fantastic drumming, but not amazing enough to be 'incredible'.

[nikatapi]

I voted good. The drumming itself is fine and has some impressive moments, but the sound is once again a letdown for me. I think it is a combination of mixing and bad drum-cymbal choices by Mike.

Still this is a very metal song and i think he did a great job in that context, still the sound disappointed me.

[aprilethereal]

Really good, although nothing truly spectacular. And I agree that the sound is a bit weird.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

I think he did good laying down some nice metal grooves. There's also some nice intricate parts. I did however find the 16th notes on the snare drum at 0:15 a bit sloppy. Love the way he supports the guitar and bass with his bass drum, some really cool figures.

I like the low sounding snare, adds a nice "thunk" to the metal feel of the song. Can't wait to see what he's come up with on the album. 

[The Boomr]

I honestly love pretty much everything about the way his kit sounds now in the mix, aside from the snare. Even after listening to the higher quality download. Actually, in my car with mediocre speakers I didn't notice the distortion on the snare this morning, but in my higher quality headphones it's definitely there. I just don't get it If I  got really nitpicky, I'd prefer a bit more tone out of the toms, but that's definitely not a big deal for me in a context like this.

[mikeyd23]

I voted great, I thought he played the song well.  It isn't the most technical DT song ever, so I wasn't blown away with his playing, but the parts he put down sounded great.  Grooves were really nice, hi-hat work in a couple sections was cool, his fills were good as well and that intro is sick!! 

Overall, I thought he sounded great, this is the drum sound that will show us how impacting his parts can be on the heavier DT stuff.  Is the drum sound perfect? Heck no! Does it seem to be a better representation of his playing than ADToE? Heck yes!