I think Mangini's happiest time in DT seems to have been before he entered the band, in the documentary. He's an absolute pro and did everything the band needed to keep going (I especially like that he helped with songwriting with Paralyzed, Room 137 and The Alien, to mention a handful of examples), but I've always felt like he's followed by a dark cloud when talking about his work in the group. Not in terms of personal interactions with the members, but the whole ancillary structure – the public perception of his drum sound on the records, the "precision vs. feel" debate, being called upon to only play drums on The Astonishing (where, mind you, JLB and JM weren't also invited to the songwriting process as far as I know)... I've seen too many interviews where it felt like he was making excuses for things that were decided for him. He was always enough of a team player to take that and the (often unfair) criticism in stride, but (again, just speculation) it might be that he took the call of "we're getting MP back in" less like "oh no, my life's work! How dare you shitcan me?!" and more like "oh well! Time to [keep doing!] my stuff on my own then".
This made me think how JP and the rest of the band really didn't do him any favors for
years, to put it mildly. Seeing what a sensitive subject the drummer change was, they should have been on top of it and ensured that MM had a by all accounts great and unquestionable drum sound from the beginning. Instead he got:
- A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011) - drums sounded like a 3-mic demo;
- Dream Theater (2013) - that infamous snare;
- The Astonishing (2016) - still a bad snare sound, plus that typewriter bass drum (
https://youtu.be/fae4FQ4McSY?si=_sAVT9Bjo6E_GGqm&t=176 - we were listening to this in the car the other day, and right around this part my wife went: "What is that horrible noise, is there something wrong with the CD?").
Only by Distance over Time (2019) he got a drum sound that was beyond obvious and immediate reproach (still entirely average though), which means he had to weather nearly a decade of bad drum sound criticisms. By the time he got a drum sound that was actually pleasant to the ears, he was out.