Best Drumming in a DT Song

[rumborak]

Sound-wise I have to say MP's drums sounded worse and worse over the years. More and more compressed, and his bass drum sound just became this stereotypical flapping sound.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

Also performance-wise, I always felt that his later recordings were very lazy compared to some of his brilliant early work. Before people start telling "OMG FOOL NOT TRUE LISTEN TO A NITHGMAR TO REMBER! BEST DURMER IN THE WORLD INDONESIA SOON......", although he has some amazing drum performances in his last albums (The Count of Tuscany being the one that pops faster in my head), I feel that the overall quality of his drum compositions are on lower standards than on earlier DT albums. Before Octavarium, I looked forward to hearing the drums on the songs even though I'm not a drummer because they were exciting as hell; every time someone criticized Mike Portnoy I was the first one to stand up and defend him and praise his work. I remember, when I listened to Systematic Chaos for the first time, I was like..."Well yeah, it's cool..." but the drums were not something very special. It was Mike Portnoy, you could tell it was MP, you could hear it was MP, you could smell it was MP, but it became repetitive and stale. I knew what drum fill was coming next before hearing it, a bunch of fancy patterns that make up for some really cool drum fills that appeared in every song and made me feel like he was spending way too much time with bootlegs, interviews, administration, etc. and not so much time practicing and getting better on his game.

I feel like everyone in the band (yeah, even James LaBrie) began overshadowing him in terms of upping their respective games. John Petrucci's guitar sound and chops get better every time, Jordan Rudess is constantly upgrading his gear and technically he just keeps getting better, James LaBrie developed a stable singing voice after so many years and can assure you a good performance every time you go to see him in a show nowadays and John Myung... well, I missed him a lot before MP left the band and I'm glad he's still evolving nowadays and we can actually hear him in both ADTOE and the live shows. I felt that Portnoy became sloppy live, he knew the songs so well that he almost played them from his heart, but the technical side of things suffered a lot. Take the A Nightmare to Remember blast beat section, for example. Live, the whole section sucked. There was a pseudo-blast beat being played that you could barely recognize, but actually Portnoy couldn't handle it and that really sucks: to do something in the studio and not be able to replicate it live. I'm sure that with a good practice method he could have gotten better and nailed the part, but he was so involved with the band's administration that he lost chops and became a very formulaic drummer. I think it's kind of sad, because I can't see his fanbase getting bigger because his recent drum performances outside of DT are very...you know, good but they're nothing special as so to speak. He has a rabid fanbase that's going to follow him to the ends of the earth and that fanbase probably keeps him going and paying his bills and that's really cool, but unless he becomes again a jaw-dropping drummer by getting his shit together and practicing he will not be able to grow.

lol I don't know why I wrote all of that. That's my take on MP the drummer on this later DT/post-DT years.


EDIT: I think the best DT drum performance so far is The Great Debate. Amazing shit.

[rumborak]

I definitely remember seeing the blast beats live. Me and the drummer of my band were sitting on the edge of our seats, saying "wait, wait, hear it comes!"

And then....

"whaaaat? ..... that was ... not it."

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

Me too, I was extremely underwhelmed. I would have killed to hear Minnemann's or Mangini's take on that section on the audition videos.

[farizfariz]

Also performance-wise, I always felt that his later recordings were very lazy compared to some of his brilliant early work. Before people start telling "OMG FOOL NOT TRUE LISTEN TO A NITHGMAR TO REMBER! BEST DURMER IN THE WORLD INDONESIA SOON......", although he has some amazing drum performances in his last albums (The Count of Tuscany being the one that pops faster in my head), I feel that the overall quality of his drum compositions are on lower standards than on earlier DT albums. Before Octavarium, I looked forward to hearing the drums on the songs even though I'm not a drummer because they were exciting as hell; every time someone criticized Mike Portnoy I was the first one to stand up and defend him and praise his work. I remember, when I listened to Systematic Chaos for the first time, I was like..."Well yeah, it's cool..." but the drums were not something very special. It was Mike Portnoy, you could tell it was MP, you could hear it was MP, you could smell it was MP, but it became repetitive and stale. I knew what drum fill was coming next before hearing it, a bunch of fancy patterns that make up for some really cool drum fills that appeared in every song and made me feel like he was spending way too much time with bootlegs, interviews, administration, etc. and not so much time practicing and getting better on his game.

I feel like everyone in the band (yeah, even James LaBrie) began overshadowing him in terms of upping their respective games. John Petrucci's guitar sound and chops get better every time, Jordan Rudess is constantly upgrading his gear and technically he just keeps getting better, James LaBrie developed a stable singing voice after so many years and can assure you a good performance every time you go to see him in a show nowadays and John Myung... well, I missed him a lot before MP left the band and I'm glad he's still evolving nowadays and we can actually hear him in both ADTOE and the live shows. I felt that Portnoy became sloppy live, he knew the songs so well that he almost played them from his heart, but the technical side of things suffered a lot. Take the A Nightmare to Remember blast beat section, for example. Live, the whole section sucked. There was a pseudo-blast beat being played that you could barely recognize, but actually Portnoy couldn't handle it and that really sucks: to do something in the studio and not be able to replicate it live. I'm sure that with a good practice method he could have gotten better and nailed the part, but he was so involved with the band's administration that he lost chops and became a very formulaic drummer. I think it's kind of sad, because I can't see his fanbase getting bigger because his recent drum performances outside of DT are very...you know, good but they're nothing special as so to speak. He has a rabid fanbase that's going to follow him to the ends of the earth and that fanbase probably keeps him going and paying his bills and that's really cool, but unless he becomes again a jaw-dropping drummer by getting his shit together and practicing he will not be able to grow.

lol I don't know why I wrote all of that. That's my take on MP the drummer on this later DT/post-DT years.


EDIT: I think the best DT drum performance so far is The Great Debate. Amazing shit.

That's MP's minus point, he didn't really got any attempt to practicing something new, maybe he forgot his main role as a musician and not a manager ?
And that"OMG FOOL NOT TRUE LISTEN TO A NITHGMAR TO REMBER! BEST DURMER IN THE WORLD INDONESIA SOON......"  as an Indonesian people i was kinda annoyed with these  And somehow some friends of mine that also a "DT Fan" still cannot move on from MP being not in the band anymore, and they still think MP is the best.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

The Indonesia thing, that's an inside joke. I'm really sorry if I offended you, that wasn't really my purpose.

And...I really couldn't understand if you agree with me or not, but that's just how I feel about DT's last years with MP and MP's drumming in general.

[farizfariz]

No no i'm not offended at all    What i'm trying to say earlier about that joke, is i was kinda annoyed with some Indonesian DT fans on twitter that tweet things like that , which is ironic because at the time DT come to Indonesia, some fans didn't realize yet that MP wasn't in the band anymore and they mentioned MP's account with that kind of response 
And i'm 100% agree about your opinions on MP's drumming, Mr. DarkLord.  He utilize his kit less now, and his fill is stuck between single stroke roll over the kit and snare-kick fill over and over again or snare-kick-stack fill. That's why when the news of MM became the DT's drummer came out, i was excited because of how he's played on his previous band, especially Annihilator.

[TheLordOfTheStrings]

Sound-wise I have to say MP's drums sounded worse and worse over the years. More and more compressed, and his bass drum sound just became this stereotypical flapping sound.

I think his tom sound on BC&SL is incredible! I get what you mean by the kick drum though.. fit perfectly with Avenged though. haha. I still think his snare sound on Train of Thought was by far his best!

[DebraKadabra]

Also performance-wise, I always felt that his later recordings were very lazy compared to some of his brilliant early work. Before people start telling "OMG FOOL NOT TRUE LISTEN TO A NITHGMAR TO REMBER! BEST DURMER IN THE WORLD INDONESIA SOON......", although he has some amazing drum performances in his last albums (The Count of Tuscany being the one that pops faster in my head), I feel that the overall quality of his drum compositions are on lower standards than on earlier DT albums. Before Octavarium, I looked forward to hearing the drums on the songs even though I'm not a drummer because they were exciting as hell; every time someone criticized Mike Portnoy I was the first one to stand up and defend him and praise his work. I remember, when I listened to Systematic Chaos for the first time, I was like..."Well yeah, it's cool..." but the drums were not something very special. It was Mike Portnoy, you could tell it was MP, you could hear it was MP, you could smell it was MP, but it became repetitive and stale. I knew what drum fill was coming next before hearing it, a bunch of fancy patterns that make up for some really cool drum fills that appeared in every song and made me feel like he was spending way too much time with bootlegs, interviews, administration, etc. and not so much time practicing and getting better on his game.

I feel like everyone in the band (yeah, even James LaBrie) began overshadowing him in terms of upping their respective games. John Petrucci's guitar sound and chops get better every time, Jordan Rudess is constantly upgrading his gear and technically he just keeps getting better, James LaBrie developed a stable singing voice after so many years and can assure you a good performance every time you go to see him in a show nowadays and John Myung... well, I missed him a lot before MP left the band and I'm glad he's still evolving nowadays and we can actually hear him in both ADTOE and the live shows. I felt that Portnoy became sloppy live, he knew the songs so well that he almost played them from his heart, but the technical side of things suffered a lot. Take the A Nightmare to Remember blast beat section, for example. Live, the whole section sucked. There was a pseudo-blast beat being played that you could barely recognize, but actually Portnoy couldn't handle it and that really sucks: to do something in the studio and not be able to replicate it live. I'm sure that with a good practice method he could have gotten better and nailed the part, but he was so involved with the band's administration that he lost chops and became a very formulaic drummer. I think it's kind of sad, because I can't see his fanbase getting bigger because his recent drum performances outside of DT are very...you know, good but they're nothing special as so to speak. He has a rabid fanbase that's going to follow him to the ends of the earth and that fanbase probably keeps him going and paying his bills and that's really cool, but unless he becomes again a jaw-dropping drummer by getting his shit together and practicing he will not be able to grow.

lol I don't know why I wrote all of that. That's my take on MP the drummer on this later DT/post-DT years.


EDIT: I think the best DT drum performance so far is The Great Debate. Amazing shit.

Hell of a post there, DarkLOL.

[olliemedsy]

to do something in the studio and not be able to replicate it live

But even when he plays that, on the studio footage of him playing it, he struggles loads , he looks like he is in extreme pain playing it. I'm an 18 year old drummer and could play that in my sleep. I think it's the whole practice thing, which he admits he doesn't do.

[CrimsonSunrise]

Honestly...the first song that pops in my head is The Great Debate.  But like many have said, 6DOIT overall is MP's best work IMHO.