Yeah, MP became a quantity drummer instead of an innovative/quality one. He’s putting out all of these albums, doing all of these collabs and just keeping himself as busy as he possibly can has had a direct influence over his playing. It doesn’t get me as excited as it once did; because everytime I hear him I go like: “oh, it’s Mike again being the Mike he’s always been, doing all these fills and tricks I know by heart.”
His drumming is fine in all of these releases, of course, but it’s more of the same everytime around. Its still enjoyable, but I really cannot remember when was the last time I was impressed or just had to pay close attention to MP’s drum parts because of their genius. It’s been quite some years, actually. It’s as if you found a way to go through college obtaining solid and constant B grades knowing you don’t need more than that without having to study or work hard to do things better. I miss the incredibly exquisite Portnoy that wrote the drums for 6DOIT but oh well, his fans love that and will keep giving him money that will in exchange make him do even more collabs and whatnot.