I've spent some significant time with ADToE and DT12 over the last couple weeks. Setting aside the sound issues and focusing on
what MM has brought to the band and I have to say, even though I have a TON of respect for his super human abilities I just can't
seem to latch onto anything memorable or even a signature style. I know many will disagree with this and that is fine. I hope that
he is allowed to be unleashed and on his 3rd DT album we will see him shine and become an integral asset that raises the overall
level of the music.
I have been one of the more active advocates of Mangini in this forum, and I am still quite puzzled at why people would not find anything memorable in MM's playing in Illumination Theory, Surrender to Reason, The Enemy Inside, and The Looking Glass. The distinct patterns are there to be picked up, and they do not sound generic at all.
I said before that maybe MM does not yet have a really distinct style because it's his first time to really put the drum ideas that he used to teach in Berklee as a full-time member of a band. But, if you have intently listened to the DT album, there are seeds of a distinct style there, which includes 1) the syncing and highlighting of what the other instruments are doing, sometimes displaying extreme limb independence with different limbs highlighting different instruments, 2) the use of left and right cymbals, especially for the rides and hi-hats where he plays his "ghost notes", 3) the purposive use of very fast drum speed, especially in The Enemy Inside and in the one handed drum rolls in IT, 4) polyrhythms, which is heard a lot in Illumination Theory, 5) odd time signature combinations, like the "mothers for their children..." part of IT, and the instrumental section of Surrender to Reason, and 6) his amazing command of the bass drums, which you could hear in TEI, IT, and BTV.
MM drums differently from how Portnoy composed his drum parts, but that is to be expected. MM's distinct style is not really heard in drum fills, which MP has gifted us with a lot of air-drumming moments over the years. MM's genius, however, manifests in how he drums the song along with the other instruments. I have been looking at drum covers in the internet, and I have not seen anybody play correctly how he highlighted the high harmony in The Bigger Picture instrumental using his ride cymbals, for example.
Or even the intro of IT, where he hits the downbeat on a large oriental cymbal with his left hand, small cymbal highlights and the snare with his right hand, double time hi-hat with his left leg, and the bass drum syncing with the other instruments with his right leg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD7v2sTr1Es&t=03m40sIt's those drumming moments, simple they may seem to be (but are actually difficult to play once you do it) where he contributes a lot to the song without calling much attention to himself with flashy fills.