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Matt Sorum's Drumming on Use Your Illusion - Yay or Nay?


Matt Sorum's Drumming  

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Can we settle this? I was of the opinion that most fans don't care for Sorum's drumming on UYI. I found his work a bland, uninspired affair. He's also not helped by the lousy mixing of those albums. I'll also give him credit that he had to record that material for UYI in a really short amount of time which may have hurt the quality of his work.

Civil War's drumming sounds great to me. Even if it took 90 takes to put together, Steven's drumming sound and groove is so much more appealing to my ears than Sorum's work. 

And for the record, I like Sorum's work on TSI and Contraband. Thought he did a great job on Sympathy for the Devil.

Agree/Disagree?

Edited by RONIN
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I love matts drumming. It may not have the seat of your pants playing like adler, but the band were wanting to develop and Matts drumming was perfect for the songs and for the time of the band. I don't know about sympathy for the devil as slash has said, the song is the sound of a band disintegrating. When I hear Franks drumming on the illusion songs it tells me sorums playing cant be replicated. Liked his drumming on Contraband to. The only reason hes not part of the NITL tour is because Axl doesn't like him because of ego simple as that.

Edited by Sydney Fan
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34 minutes ago, Sydney Fan said:

I love matts drumming. It may not have the seat of your pants playing like adler, but the band were wanting to develop and Matts drumming was perfect for the songs and for the time of the band. I don't know about sympathy for the devil as slash has said, the song is the sound of a band disintegrating. When I hear Franks drumming on the illusion songs it tells me sorums playing cant be replicated. Liked his drumming on Contraband to. The only reason hes not part of the NITL tour is because Axl doesn't like him because of ego simple as that.

He had some cool moments on YCBM and Locomotive. I totally see where you're coming from. For what it's worth, I think Sorum is really let down by the production and mixing of UYI. The drumming has a weird "tinny" sound to it that just feels sterile - like the kind of drumming you'd find in an overproduced Michael Jackson album. 

Sorum's big "stadium band" style drumming lacks that limber, energetic edge that Adler brings which gives the AFD songs a breakneck propulsiveness. Even Civil War has that. With Sorum, his drumming makes the songs "bigger" but they also drag and feel stiffer as a result. It's a stylistic difference I guess - the bigger, heavier style feels more metal while Adler's drumming seems more rock n' roll.

I'm with you re: Frank. Sorum would be way better. 

I recall Alan Niven mentioning that a big reason Adler was kicked out was not necessarily the drugs, but rather that he lacked the skill and technique to play on UYI material. I don't know how true that is since we have the "Mates" rehearsal where Steven is playing on a bunch of UYI demos. I lean more towards Alan Niven's version of the story and it would make sense why they gravitated towards a more skilled drummer like Matt rather than finding an Adler clone.

Edited by RONIN
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He only excel at YCBM, the other were regular as shit. It was okay at best. I gave him props for excellent timing and mad sense of stability, but that's also make him a human mpc drum machine, boring as hell.

And lol Frank completely change Matt's infamous pat-boone-debbie-boone on song like NR, something he held at high regard that led him had twitter fight with Portnoy.

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6 minutes ago, RONIN said:

He had some cool moments on YCBM and Locomotive, but I think Sorum is really let down by the production and mixing of UYI. The drumming has a weird "tinny" sound to it that just feels sterile - like the kind of drumming you'd find in an overproduced Michael Jackson album. 

Sorum's big "stadium band" style drumming lacks that limber, energetic edge that Adler brings which gives the AFD songs a breakneck propulsiveness. Even Civil War has that. With Sorum, his drumming makes the songs "bigger" but they also drag and feel stiffer as a result. 

I'm with you re: Frank. Sorum would be way better. 

I recall Alan Niven mentioning that a big reason Adler was kicked out was not necessarily the drugs, but rather that he lacked the skill and technique to play on UYI material. I don't know how true that is since we have the "Mates" rehearsal where Steven is playing on a bunch of UYI demos. I lean more towards Alan Niven's version of the story and it would make sense why they gravitated towards a more skilled drummer like Matt rather than finding an Adler clone.

Yeah man I agree especially the overproduced sound, I guess in a way we will never know what the alternative could have sounded like if Matt didn't join. Even if adler was still drumming, I think that even matts drumming was more precise maybe more technical especially with some of the hi-hat stuff on certain songs whether adler could have had the same style, so I can understand what Alan Niven was saying also as the band had 36  days to do 36 songs I don't think with the way adler was he could keep up with the recordings and the pace in which the band were recording, they were under the gun. Also I remember reading that there was constant arguments between axl and slash. Slash wanting the song to sound a certain way and threatening to burn the masters if axl didn't give in, so the whole atmosphere wouldn't have been very pleasant.

I can undersntand the sound being overly produced but I think that was the way from 89-91 a lot of bands were recording. Motley Crues dr feelgood also has that big sound  style that just lacks that certain limber, energetic edge.  

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53 minutes ago, Sydney Fan said:

I love matts drumming. It may not have the seat of your pants playing like adler, but the band were wanting to develop and Matts drumming was perfect for the songs and for the time of the band. I don't know about sympathy for the devil as slash has said, the song is the sound of a band disintegrating. When I hear Franks drumming on the illusion songs it tells me sorums playing cant be replicated. Liked his drumming on Contraband to. The only reason hes not part of the NITL tour is because Axl doesn't like him because of ego simple as that.

Matt's sound is dated now, on the Illusions album - I like what he did on Contraband.

Frank does not try to replicate his style, he plays the songs his own way - the only thing he adapted was through his work with Duff n' Slash, to reduce the 'bombastic' setup and approach he had on previous tours.

Matt is not on the NITL tour because he's a loudmouth that fucked himself up with all of his stupid comments of the last 25 years.

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Playing wise, nobody makes the drums sound as cool and flowing as Steven Adler.

Matt is a very different kind of drummer, his work on the Illusions is good.

His style fits great with some songs (Ycbm, Locomotive, Double talking jive, etc.), for the more Appetite style tracks as in looser rock n roll tracks, Stevie would be so much better.

For the NITL tour I wish Steven Adler was the only drummer.

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Matt does have that 80s big hard rock sound that really worked on the epics. Maybe on some of the AFD era material is where Steven would have been better. But overall it took UYI in a different direction. He was a rock on tour it seems as well. 

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The only UYI song I really like Matt's drumming on is Locomotive - I'm not an expert or anything, but I think his "mechanical" style worked well with this song. I guess he's okay on some of the other songs, but I think they would have been much better with Adler (or some other drummer). I don't like him on TSI much either.

Edited by Blackstar
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Definitely 'Yay'.

Matt is one of the hightlights of the UYI albums/tour.

Drums-wise 'Civil War' is the worst track on UYI.

UYI is one of my all-time favourite albums in terms of drum- style, sounds and overall mixing.

With Matt intead of Frank, at least the drums would have sounded like GNR, not like the cover-band with the same name that came after it.

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For me, Sorum is a pretty good drummer and I liked what he did on UYI's. But... of course, I'd rather have Steven Adler. Sorum's drumming is way more technical and precise, Steven is the flow and the groove. Sorum can come as kinda boring or mechanical while Stevie is like a happy golden retriever puppy smiling behind his drum kit. :lol: The thing is, no matter how good Sorum was, I'd always miss Adler, but hey, the man did an excellent job with the UYI's with the little time he had and the amount of songs he had to learn. I especially like him on YCBM, I think he totally killed it in that intro.

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Adler was/is perfect on the Appetite stuff, Sorum can handle them but you can tell he's no Steven.  Frank- yowser, not so much.  The Illusion stuff- as someone said, Matt's drumming just made a lot of those songs more epic.  He is/was perfect on those, and again with Frank- he just doesn't get it. 

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I like his drumming. Especially on Locomotive, the Coma outro, the ballads, YCBM and some others.

I still prefer Stevens drumming. With Steven on the drums the Illusions wouldn't sound as bombastic as they do and that would be awesome. But that doesn't change my opinion that Matt did a good job.

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I think Sorum pulled it off, but it would have been better with Adler, there's something in Adler' style, the push/pull, the thick pocket he's still got to this day that Matt and certainly frank will never come close to being able to recreate.  for me, Steven's a one of a kind, a once in a lifetime drummer (Keith moon, john bohnam, Charlie watts, ginger baker, etc...)

but I love the illusion records I think most of the songs are so solid that they easily overcome any issues I have with Matt.  

i do consider Matt a member of gnr, I wish him the best and hope he and Adler can share the set on future tours.  

frank seems like a lovely guy but he ain't gnr.  To franks credit he threw a lot of praise and love Steven's way and I really respect him for that.  

 

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