Jimmy "The Reverend" Sullivan

Re: The Reverend

What annoyed me about that clip (and based solely upon that clip) was just the sheer lack of imagination. He did nothing there that Lars Ulrich could and was doing back in the early 80's, which is saying something. The sound was awful and I just got so plain bored with the drumming. Sorry to any A7X fans out there, and I know there are a lot, but I just didn't find that clip remotely interesting.
 
Re: The Reverend

Finn
I know what you mean I was just pointing an important quality in him that makes him good. I say he's good because of this because he does keep time better than alot of drummer. I didn't mean to annoy you. I should've been more direct.
 
Re: The Reverend

Finnhiggins said: "I really, really don't like their (Avenged Sevenfold) drummer's technique -he just hammers away like a basher, almost all of it from the arms rather than wrists. No obvious finesse at all, and from all reports he can't pull off the album parts live either."

I partially agree wih the first part: I'm not so sure of the Reverend's skill, although he has pretty good studio performances based on Waking the Fallen and City of Evil. But I have heard that this guy is not good live. I did not catch them live, but my friend said the Reverend was not good (he is a fan and a drummer), and it played with no "umph" in his perfromance.

- Marc
 
Re: The Reverend

Dude, what are you talking about, i love the sound of his drums on bat country. I think the snare sounds amazing and compliments the song perfectly, his drummin is spot on!
 
Re: The Reverend

What I've noticed about The Rev is that he has some good chops, but alot of it is triggered.

When I first heard them, I thought he was amazing, then after seeing him actually play, its obvious that hes not doing everything you hear.

I'm not saying he's a bad player by any means, I'm just saying, he won't be the next drum god
 
Re: The Reverend

I don't like the way he sets up his floor toms; I prefer mine to be parallel to the ground, like my snare.

- Marc
 
Re: The Reverend

my band asked me to play beast and the harlot today as our cover for out next gig....I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE ON DOUBLE BASS! He's way too fast for me. horrible snare sound.
 
Re: The Reverend

I reli dnt like his new set up!!! its just donyt look comfturbul and looks like sthey set it up in a hurry...i liked his single bass set up beta!
 

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Re: The Reverend

apparently all of you that say he is a basher dont listen to drums when u listen to music, u just assume. ive spent like the past 2 weeks going through only like 4 songs, probably the ones you guys didnt listen to, and his drumming is AMAZING. listen to The Wicked End, Betrayed, Sidewinder, and Strength of the World. His drumming completely changes, and he is insanely intricate with his style. and for all of you that said the DEP drummer was better, im ashamed of you, because he is just a steriotypical screamo drummer....
 
Re: The Reverend

I think the Rev is simply fantastic. And for you all that don't like the snare sound, the Rev said that almost all of his snare hits were rimshots, so there you go. I think he's great; he changes up a lot, and is creative. It seems a lot of you disagree, but that's fine. We all have our opinions.
 
Re: The Reverend

Seriously, there's whole worlds of drumming between where this guy is and where Chris Pennie is at. Pennie is terrifyingly good, this guy with the stage name appears decidedly average from everything I've seen.

As for the rimshots thing, that goes for most pro drummers since about the early 80s. It's no excuse for an abrasive snare sound - rimshots are an integral part of Vinnie's snare playing for a start. I don't hear people complaining about his sound in the same way.
 
Re: The Reverend

what are drum triggers exactly? dont they just smooth out the sound or am i missing something? He sounds good on all the songs, i like how he doesnt over due the double bass
 
Re: The Reverend

llamanator said:
what are drum triggers exactly? dont they just smooth out the sound or am i missing something?

Triggers plug into a drum brain, which converts acoustic hits into MIDI events - basically makes it like pressing a key on a MIDI keyboard every time you hit one of your drums. You can then use those events to trigger electronic sounds, usually samples of some description.

In short, triggers make an acoustic kit produce electronic kit sounds. They're good for some things, but a lot of metal drummers use them because they can't achieve sufficient power with their hands or feet so they trigger some stupendously loud sample whenever they tap the drum gently.

Triggers are fine if you have a creative use for them, but if you're just using them as a crutch to make up for your inability to play the instrument they're pretty clearly the suck. Also I'd like to point out that all the people judging this Rev character by his playing on very heavily-produced album tracks are probably barking up the wrong tree. Here's some videos on the kind of stuff that can be done these days with timing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jhVkzFyacM (watch the whole series)

Combine that with the ability to replace drum hits with samples even when you're NOT using triggers and MIDI stuff can be snapped into perfect time with live playing and you have an environment where nearly ANY drummer can sound like a hyper-technical metal god without actually being able to play their instrument. The test of a metal drummer is whether they can play their stuff live, nowadays: the last Meshuggah album didn't even have any live drums on it, it was all programmed.

So if this Rev guy can't pull his parts off live then he just plain can't play them, and he doesn't deserve all the attention he's getting.
 
Re: The Reverend

Great drummer listen to blinded in chains that shows his skill, he deserves to be here and is underated greatly.
 
Re: The Reverend

My opinion is that the rev is a really great drummer, indeed his snare sucks but he plays so fantastic... yeah maybe he doesn't put nuances like a jazz player but damn, he's a Metal drummer. I don't really like his setup neither, but its more like Iron Maiden's drummer, and it's their biggest influence

And do anyone here listened to him live ? I got twice, and HELL YEAH he reproduce all his tracks like a god ! I mean, there's no lack in his live play, he plays the same way as in studio. The only song that I wanted to hear from them and that they didn't play both time I saw them live, is sidewinder.

BTW, his name is James Sullivan
 
Re: The Reverend

His drumming completely changes, and he is insanely intricate with his style. and for all of you that said the DEP drummer was better, im ashamed of you, because he is just a steriotypical screamo drummer....
I'm sorry, but that is actually offensive to read. Ok I'm kidding but you might want to study up a bit before you say anything like that
 
Re: The Reverend

All of you that have talked about his tightness, chops, fitting with the band, obviously haven't done an A-B comparison between the City Of Evil / Waking The Fallen albums, and the Sounding The Seventh Trumpet album.

COE, and WTF are uber engineered, edited and processed which is why his kit sounds as it does and how he plays so tightly with the band, cos a protools engineer has cut the drum tracks up and moved them into place with the rest of the band. As far as I can tell, A7X's budget was slightly smaller on the STST album so we hear them as they are. Loose. Like their playing material too tricky for them. Just listen to the bass drum when it should be in sync with the guitar chugs, or his immense tom fills that dont quite end on the beat.

Dont get me wrong, I have seen them live, and they get most of it right, but as it's been said on previous pages in this thread, most of it is triggered as u can see by the mahoosive rack of samplers, midi processors, etc that sits on his left in the photos.
 
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