A Focus on Attack

[BassDriver]

Have you noticed that a lot of time in heavy metal, tom-toms sound really un-resonant and the sound is almost completely made up of punchy attack with a quick almost un-noticeable decay?

I'm wondering about what heads and tunings are used for this.

 

[KarlCrafton]

Studio compression and effects are why the drums sound like that.
Unless a head is completely dampened, a drum is not going to sound like that "normally".
Zero rings, Moon Gel, tape...
Those things on heads will get that type of sound. Fine for home playing, but in a band situation you need some ring and projection for the drums to be heard.
If your drum is really low, & dead to begin with, no amount of mic'ing is going to make it cut through loud guitars, bass and vocals.

Tune your drums till they sound good to you, then let the sound guy's do the rest.

Something like an Aquarian performance 2 will get a deeper sound, but won't deaden the drums too much.

Good luck!