Let's discuss about the drumming on the album. I don't really know much about drums so I was interested in what others thought. Honestly, the fact that Rob blew his back out while practicing and still managed to record THP impresses me.
As someone who plays drums to some extent, what Rob is doing on this album isn't necessarily impressive because of any major technical difficulties. Some aspects of it are tough to play, for certain, but a lot of that is the speed with which he is playing. I think for a while we all knew Rob was capable of playing drums like he did on The Hunting Party, but I'm not going to go out there and say that this was some of the toughest drumming I've heard. You'd have to look elsewhere for that kind of performance.
I would agree that his drumming is far from "zomg hardcore death metalz" but I was glad to see him grow and deliver a much-needed backbone to Linkin Park's music that's been missing for some time IMO.
Rob's been fantastic since ATS. I don't know why people are surprised. And even before that he was good.
On a scale of 1 to 10 the difficultly of what he is doing is about a 6. But in the context of Linkin Park it's a major step up. I love how he has some swing on parts like the pre chorus fill in Wastelands. He uses the double pedal tastefully. I think what makes the drumming take off is a) the sound however they mic'd the kit plus recording to tape gives the drums a wide, warm and more room like sound. His drums seemed close mic'd to hell and sterilized before. The Catalyst was the first time I thought "oh they can sound like drums! They make them sound like crap on purpose!" b) for the first time I feel like they have a rhythm section. Yeah the drum patterns are kicking ass but if the bass and guitar don't fall in line you have nothing. Drums felt like an after thought before. Hey we wrote this track now go record on top of it. Now he and Phoenix feel really tight and integrated. I love all things electronic but the from sound and human performance he brought makes me want to tell Mike to stop making shitty drum loops when you have a gut like Rob in the band. Easily the best one at his instrument in the band as far as skill and consistency.
It's not that the drumming is particularly technical or difficult, but for the first time I feel like he really stands out. I mean has badass parts on that album.
His drumming skills really shine on faster paced songs like KTTK, War, Rebellion, GATS but his drumming in all the songs are good.
There are some really insane drum songs on THP, like GATS, ALITS, and Rebellion. Rob was always good at technical drumming (think Waiting for the End) but his brute force drumming side showed on THP.
I remember seeing LP live Brisbane in 2007 and Rob did hos solo in BIO. The drummer for Chris Cornell's backing band also did one during their set, and I remember thinking after Rob's, "Man that random drummer owned Rob". Take a look at his drumming from then until now, and you can see the giant leaps Rob has made. He works hard at his craft, and is building into somewhat of a very good drummer.
I haven't been this impressed with Rob's drumming since MTM. He has really stepped it up this time around.