Mike Mangini

I've had the pleasure of taking private lessons from Mr. Mangini. He has earned his new post. Congrats, Mike!
 
Just heard the new Dream Theater single. This album is the second with Mike but the first on which he is writing his own drum parts.

I am just so happy for Mike, he earned everything he got and he is the perfect drummer for this band.

Of course, he lets some killer fills rip near the end on this relatively "radio friendly" first single off the record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoVAUUFjl0I
 
Just heard the new Dream Theater single. This album is the second with Mike but the first on which he is writing his own drum parts.

I am just so happy for Mike, he earned everything he got and he is the perfect drummer for this band.

Of course, he lets some killer fills rip near the end on this relatively "radio friendly" first single off the record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoVAUUFjl0I

I like his stuff a lot. One thing that bothered me about the song that I didn't want to make a whole thread about- anybody else think his snare tone just kinda lacks character? It usually sounds fine, but this one really just sounds... bad to me. Like an extremely low-tuned drum with a bunch of dampening on it. I'm just not a fan of that. The song is fine, hopefully the multiple suites on the album break into more progressive territory.
 
I just watched on the tube the Dream Theater auditions. Mike is playing on a different plane than the rest of us. speed is one thing but combined with the rest, he is truly a great drummer.
 
Very true, this guy is amazing at what he does technically.

I read an article on him in DRUM (or MD) where he went on to say people of certain cultures do not understand odd-times. Hmmm, interesting, I guess he hasn't done much traveling or studying world cultures. After reading that (and a few other 'legendary' articles) and being disgusted by it, I thought, OK, amazing drummer but I will now refer to him as Mike Mangina.
 
Very true, this guy is amazing at what he does technically.

I read an article on him in DRUM (or MD) where he went on to say people of certain cultures do not understand odd-times. Hmmm, interesting, I guess he hasn't done much traveling or studying world cultures. After reading that (and a few other 'legendary' articles) and being disgusted by it, I thought, OK, amazing drummer but I will now refer to him as Mike Mangina.

Did he say people of all other cultures or certain cultures don't understand odd-times? You seem to imply the latter which is not necessarily inconsistent with having a world view.

His comments might also imply that persons of a particular background that are even located in the U.S. may lack sensitivity to odd-times.

All this is to say that Mike's comments may have been more nuanced and worldly than you give him credit for.
 
Did he say people of all other cultures or certain cultures don't understand odd-times? You seem to imply the latter which is not necessarily inconsistent with having a world view.

His comments might also imply that persons of a particular background that are even located in the U.S. may lack sensitivity to odd-times.

All this is to say that Mike's comments may have been more nuanced and worldly than you give him credit for.

Maybe I did misunderstand it so I'll look for the article in my archives. However, I remember while I was reading it I was thinking he hasn't had much exposure to African or East Asian cultures, which was where I believe it was referenced.
 
So it's been about 6 or 5 years since Mike Mangini replaced Mike Portnoy so I thought I'd share my thoughts on how he's been so far in Dream Theater. Just from watching him play, I notice his open handed technique is very unique because given the massive setup he has, he probably has to do that but whatever. I know people say Mike is better than Mike but I remember watching some Dream Theater video and someone said in the comments that Mike is like Shawn Drover, he plays the stuff straightforward but doesn't have any emotion when playing but I think it's probably because Mike isn't a huge showman when it comes to playing. Sure he's won I don't know how many WFD (World's Fastest Drummer) records but what do I think of him overall? I think he's a great drummer but he isn't Mike Portnoy but Mike Mangini has his own approach towards the music I guess you could say. Let me know what you guys think of him so far?
 
Mangini is a monster behind the kit. I think his drumming fits the music well, but I dont care for the music any more. Its not because of his drumming though. Its the structure of the songs, the awkward key and timing changes that get made and the general direction the music is moving towards, which is strangly sci-fi, theatrical and over the top.

Lots of the musical direction came from Portnoy who kept it more grounded in a heavy prog rock style. But with Portnoy gone you are left with Petrucci and Rudess to go crazy. Granted both of these guys are musical virtuosos, but its too much crazy and really needs to get grounded back to its heavy prog rock roots. This latest "rock-opera" album is neither rock, nor opera. Its awful.

Lets get back to something like Train of Thought. That was a fantastic album! If they want to get "proggy" try writing songs like When Dream and Day Unite, or make another album like Six Degrees of Inner Turbulance if you want the concept style album with "balls and chunk" (to use a DT term).
 
Mangini is a monster behind the kit. I think his drumming fits the music well, but I dont care for the music any more. Its not because of his drumming though. Its the structure of the songs, the awkward key and timing changes that get made and the general direction the music is moving towards, which is strangly sci-fi, theatrical and over the top.

Lots of the musical direction came from Portnoy who kept it more grounded in a heavy prog rock style. But with Portnoy gone you are left with Petrucci and Rudess to go crazy. Granted both of these guys are musical virtuosos, but its too much crazy and really needs to get grounded back to its heavy prog rock roots. This latest "rock-opera" album is neither rock, nor opera. Its awful.

Lets get back to something like Train of Thought. That was a fantastic album! If they want to get "proggy" try writing songs like When Dream and Day Unite, or make another album like Six Degrees of Inner Turbulance if you want the concept style album with "balls and chunk" (to use a DT term).

I'm not a fan of DT but I can see how this happens. Even Emerson, Lake, & Palmer would be totally weird if Keith Emerson had his way. Greg Lake helped to balance that out and the group was grounded with a couple of hits.
 
Even Emerson, Lake, & Palmer would be totally weird if Keith Emerson had his way. Greg Lake helped to balance that out and the group was grounded with a couple of hits.
This is arguable and anyway Keith is sadly no longer with us.
 
Mangini is a monster behind the kit. I think his drumming fits the music well, but I dont care for the music any more. Its not because of his drumming though. Its the structure of the songs, the awkward key and timing changes that get made and the general direction the music is moving towards, which is strangly sci-fi, theatrical and over the top.

Lots of the musical direction came from Portnoy who kept it more grounded in a heavy prog rock style. But with Portnoy gone you are left with Petrucci and Rudess to go crazy. Granted both of these guys are musical virtuosos, but its too much crazy and really needs to get grounded back to its heavy prog rock roots. This latest "rock-opera" album is neither rock, nor opera. Its awful.

Lets get back to something like Train of Thought. That was a fantastic album! If they want to get "proggy" try writing songs like When Dream and Day Unite, or make another album like Six Degrees of Inner Turbulance if you want the concept style album with "balls and chunk" (to use a DT term).

Couldn't agree with this more. There is no bigger DT fan than me and I can't listen to the latest "Abomination". Ruddess is a fantastic musician but their songs went downhill once he joined.

I loved Portnoy in DT but I am so glad he left because it opened my eyes to Mangini. I recall everyone wringing their hands over his departure but I was excited because I knew they would bring in someone who was at least as good. Boy did they ever.
 
Ruddess is a fantastic musician but their songs went downhill once he joined.

I haven't really noticed a big change since I only have stuff from Images and Words to Black Clouds and Silver Linings but Im not a hardcore DT fan like some people but I even thought some songs after Metropolis Pt. 2 sounded I guess a little bit brutal metal sounding and not very prog
 
This is arguable and anyway Keith is sadly no longer with us.

True, it's arguable. However, if you didn't have Greg Lake's Lucky Man on that first album, would they have gotten to Tarkus?

Watching a ELP historical documentary, Emerson was always pushing the musical boundaries, which I think is a great thing. But, I think if ELP just followed Emerson, they would've lost much of their audience which may have shortened the lifespan of the band, I think anyway.
 
I've seen DT with Portnoy maybe 20 times and with Mangini twice

As far as drumming goes, Mangini > Portnoy and it's not even close.

But
Ruddess is a fantastic musician but their songs went downhill once he joined. .
1000% agree.

I think Rudess joining the band was the worst thing that every happened to them. Funny enough it was a move pushed for by Portnoy.

I do agree with Tommy D that Train of Thought is fantastic.

I don't agree that it was Portnoy who kept it more grounded. It was musical direction from Portnoy;s leadership that started it. It was Portnoy that pushed for not using outside producers, it was Portnoy who went to the record company and said the band should be able to do whatever they wanted (with him as leader) or else, and it was Portnoy who insisted the band stop writing songs in advance and always write on the fly in the studio.

I actually though Portnoy quitting might make the band go back to writing songs, and they almost did that on their first album without him, before going back to jamming on 100 minute long guitar and keyboard solos and calling them songs.
 
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