Reviews

Review » Dream Theater: A Dramatic Turn of Events

Band: Dream Theater
Drums: Mike Mangini
Album: A Dramatic Turn of Events
Label: Roadrunner Records
Release Date: 13-Sep-2011
DD Rating:

There’s been a lot of drama with Dream Theater in the last year. Mike Portnoy “quit” (accounts vary 😉 ), and there was a protracted search for a new drummer replete with auditions documented in high-def and the hush-hush worthy of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mike Mangini, the foregone conclusion of legions of forum trolls, was selected and now the new album has been released. Is it worthy of the build up?

A Dramatic Turn of Events is a great album, for sure. Is it, as the packaging proclaims, “their most powerful album yet”? I can’t say that, but probably only because I’m so partial to the older catalog. A Dramatic Turn of Events is, however, a very strong album and the best of the last several Dream Theater releases. The individual musicians and the band as a whole are as inspiring as ever.

How is Mangini specifically? Has he ruined Dream Theater or made it so much more awesome that fans will forget Portnoy ever existed? Neither. The first time I listened to the album, I was a little disappointed that Mangini didn’t put a giant thumbprint on it. I wanted to hear stuff that really capitalized on his unique talents. Upon subsequent listens, though, I’ve changed my mind and have come to the following realizations:

Most importantly, Mangini has said from the beginning of his journey that he did not wish to change the band or be a wholesale replacement of Portnoy. The “voice from beyond” of Portnoy can be heard in Mangini’s parts. I believe Mangini accomplished his goal of both serving the music and respecting the vastness of Dream Theater drumming that came before him—and without merely mimicking Portnoy grooves and licks.
Mangini is a very different drummer, though the differences are in the nuances of the playing rather than in huge fills that sound as if played by an octopus. I would venture to say that, on the whole, Mangini’s playing is slightly more bare bones than expected. Mangini slams into some of the tightest kick-snare-and-hat grooves and locks them in for extended periods. Another thing: the sound of many grooves and fills is deceiving; keep in mind he’s probably doing a lot of stuff with one hand! Further, what sounds like the usual DT gobs and buckets of notes I suspect are more complex than a cursory listen would suggest. I have yet to sit and do a thorough analysis of any of the songs, but the really technical passages and meter changes sound tighter and more rhythmically complex. I’ll be able to say that with certainty once I do a better dissection.
I think the Mangini fireworks will emerge live and once he’s been in the band for a while. Once he’s lived through an album cycle or two with the band he’ll be more involved in writing and his unique musical personality will be more present.
Ultimately, the Mangini on this album is Mangini! Despite any sense of obligation and respect, Mangini recorded drum parts he wanted to record. Remove all of his inhuman circus tricks and Mangini is a solid rock/metal drummer playing for the music. YouTube baboons deride him for playing too much, YouTube baboons will deride him for not playing more. The poor guy can’t win.
Mike Mangini is the new drummer for an established band. He’ll have plenty of spotlight on tour; he wasn’t “owed” a big drum feature on the new album. He does an absolutely masterful job of accompanying his new bandmates and creating a work greater than the sum of its parts.

I do have minor quibbles with the album. I’m not one of those lunks who is dead set against the obligatory DT ballad. “Wait for Sleep” and “Silent Man” are great tunes. That said, I feel two sappy ballads is too many on one album. Yes, defenders will say that each is sandwiched between some seriously heavy and dense DT goodness, and I appreciate that. But I can’t help but start reaching for the Skip button halfway through “Far from Heaven”, and “Beneath the Surface” is an anticlimactic closer after “Breaking All Illusions” just blew you face off.

My only other complaint is the drum production. Portnoy always had an amazing drum sound, and I’m sure effort was made to make Mangini sound different even at the basic sonic level. I find the drums a bit lacking and the cymbals often too shrill in the mix. Part of it is cymbal selection itself. I don’t know which Zildjian hi-hats Mangini used to record, but they occasionally sound too small and not “washy” enough when he’s really laying into them.

Rather than list a bunch of highlights and favorite tracks, it suffices to say A Dramatic Turn of Events is a great album; get it. I love Mike Portnoy; I will miss Mike Portnoy in Dream Theater. But Mike Mangini is such an obvious and perfect fit for the band. I’m even more excited to hear the next album, which Mangini will presumably have a much greater role writing.

Review » Tales from the Cymbal Bag

12.13.10 by Patrick 2 Comments

Book: Tales from the Cymbal Bag
Author: Lennie Dimuzio with Jim Coffin
Publisher: Jump Back Baby
DD Rating:

Need to drop a hint for a holiday gift? Here ya go! This is a very entertaining chronicle of drumming’s most revolutionary periods. It’s a terrific book if for the pictures alone.

Tales from the Cymbal Bag is the biography of Lennie Dimuzio, Zildjian’s Artist Relations director for decades. A quote from Zildjian says it best: “There’s a little bit of Lennie DiMuzio in almost every great drummer’s sound.” The book begins at the beginning, with trailblazers like Chick Webb, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, and Papa Jo Jones. (Great stories on all, but the ones of Papa visiting the Zildjian factory are priceless.) It progresses through the rise of rock drummers and the necessary invention of Zildjian A cymbals, on to the rise of the phenom fusion guys and the invention of Steve Gadd’s signature sound—the Zildjian K line. (The development of the modern recreation of the K Constantinople sound for Bill Stewart is another great anecdote.) I particularly love the period of the ’80s and ’90s, which was when the explosion of super drummers and big-time endorsements really had its heyday. There are many pictures and stories involving the giants of that period like Weckl, Gadd, Vinnie, and other monsters on the Zildjian endorser roster.

I think the book is especially interesting for those who grew up drumming pre-2000, before the age of every jackass thinking he’s a drum god on YouTube. It seems to me that either because of or in conjunction with Web 2.0 we’ve lost much of that legitimate hero worship that made the Gadds, Vinnies, and Weckls exalted superstars. There doesn’t seem to be as strong a sense of history anymore. Few up-and-comers see further back than Travis Barker and Joey Jordison—and I don’t say this as a slight to those two. I’m sure many big band drummers said the same of the mid-20th century modern jazz drummers, who said the same of rock and fusion drummers, and so on. Certainly a topic for another post… It’s not just nostalgia that makes Tales from the Cymbal Bag enjoyable, but the sense of honoring what came before.

In addition to the who’s-who stories and photos, there are also many great tales that have nothing to do with drumming but with business and tomfoolery. I have on good authority that some of the recollections aren’t entirely accurate, Lennie’s defection to Sabian is pretty well glossed over, and much of the real shenanigans have been toned down, but this could only be known by true insiders and won’t affect in the least the entertainment of the general drumming public. Regardless, Tales from the Cymbal Bag is a fascinating personal account of drumming’s most important eras, periods with fundamental importance that we are unlikely to ever see again.

Review » Dimmu Borgir: Abrahadabra

12.03.10 by Patrick Leave a Comment

Band: Dimmu Borgir
Drums: Dariusz “Daray” Brzozowski
Album: Abrahadabra
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release Date: 12-Oct-2010
DD Rating:

This review is long past due. I got this album the day it came out but kept forgetting to do a write-up!

I don’t even know what to call this kind of music anymore. At this point in its evolution, it’s really a sub-genre of a sub-genre of metal. Don’t dare call it black metal; the purists will flambé you alive inside a centuries-old church. (I know, it’s a tired stereotype, but I couldn’t resist.) No, as soon as you can decipher lyrics or even instrumentation in a recording obviously not made for $50 in some brooding Norwegian dude’s mom’s basement, it’s no longer black metal. I guess we’re calling Dimmu “symphonic black metal” now? In any case, Dimmu Borgir has long been far afield of the origins of black metal, and Abrahadabra is their biggest, most polished album to date.

[Sidebar: Check out the documentaries Metal and Until the Light Takes Us for more on the evolution of black metal.]

The bad news is that Simen Hestnæs (I.C.S. Vortex) is no longer in the band, and his absence of is conspicuous. If there was a single reason for my 3.5/5 rating, I think it might be the lack of Vortex. The good news is that the new drummer, Dariusz “Daray” Brzozowski, is a monster. Better news: Gone are the ridiculously phony-sounding triggered drums of Hellhammer…

Daray was the drummer for Polish death metal band Vader. I am not familiar with much Vader, but what I’ve heard has been pretty badass. Daray’s drumming on Abrahadabra is impressive. It’s not particularly unique like Nick Barker on Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, but there’s some neat stuff here, and his blast beats will definitely melt your face.

The production is incredible and sooo un-black metal: huge, crystal clear, expensive. Many lambaste the inclusion of orchestras in rock/metal, but the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (Kringkastingsorkestret) adds an indispensable dynamic and texture to the songs, and it makes all the synthesized strings and such of albums past sound cheesy in comparison. (The hardcore fans are seething right now, but listen to Abrahadabra, then listen to Enthrone Darkness Triumphant and imagine how much better it would be with a string section. Am I completely off base?)

Also against the tenets of black metal are the lyrics. Previous albums were cartoonishly “evil”, but Dimmu Borgir seem to being moving in a different direction. The lyrics of Abrahadabra are dark for sure, but by being more mystic, existential, misanthropic than outright beasts-and-pentagrams malevolent. This, in my opinion, is much more interesting.

Tracks of note include “Born Treacherous”, “Gateways”, “The Demiurge Molecule”, “A Jewel Traced Through Coal”, “Renewal”, “Endings and Continuations”… Actually, that’s more than half the album—and the other four tracks are good too—so I guess I liked all of it!

Abrahadabra isn’t the type of album to create converts to the genre, so I recommend it only to fans and the most open-minded of listeners.