On Antithesis, it sounds more like something other than a drum....kinda like that sound you hear when Harrison Ford punches someone in any of his movies, but super-condensed and at warp speed...you really hear it when longsteth goes into a groove other than a blastbeat...it almost has more of the character of a heavy, dry ride cymbal than a drum! I'd love to hear just the drumtracks of the album...then again there's tons of EQ of course, and thats why i really want to hear the natural tone. Even his live videos are not really enough to justify the sound/character of it because he triggers the whole kit.
I recently re-tuned my 6.5x14" steel snare drum to have more of this kind of sound, you know that razor-sharp, cutting attack with almost no overtone, yet without choking the sound like what moongel does to the sound. 42 strand wires cranked all the way up really makes it happen.