Does anyone else like the rhythms?

[Pyrophoric_yeti]

I have listen to this song quite alot and when i came here i noticed that everyone seems intent on what it means etc. etc.

But if you listen intently he is playing some very very tricky rhythms *finds an example* there we go, for example at 6.35 he starts to play a beat (I'm talking about danny here just so ya no) that has a 3/4 HH feel with a 4/4 beat underneath. I took this to my drum teacher (I'm a drummer) and it took us a good month for us to get it, and this is just the shit he is playing as a standard beat.

I'm yet to discover what he is doing at the very begining with his wood blocks which seems to be the same style of 3/4 over 4/4 rhythm.

Danny seems to be at his most interesting when he plays quietly.

Anyone with thoughts on his style or anything else interesting please post.

[Madklikor]

Yep, a lots of parts have a ternary over binary feel (mostly 3/8 over 4/4, a hemiola), and not only on the drums. The vocals on the beginning have also a ternary feel at some moments, and the guitar and the bass during the part you're talking about are playing a 6/8 riff over the drum pattern. I love these parts...
I have a gp4 file of the intro if you want it...

[Pyrophoric_yeti]

I'm sorry but I'm unsure as to what a gp4 file is, but anything that I can get hold of is good. Are you a drummer as well? I find that listening to tool is like reading a well writen novel, first reading you get the story and a few clever puns etc. and as you read it more and more you pick up on references to all sorts of things and subtle humour that you first didn't pick up on. As with tool, it may sound like a normal drum patern or bass part but as you listen to it for the n'th time you see that no the bass is playing 4/4 while drums have a 3/8 rhythm and the whole thing only fits every 4 bars around. Eulogy is so far the best song to feature this I have found so far, but is by no means the only one.

[bewilderedone]

The drumming for the first couple of minutes is so atmospheric. The way he starts off with the wooden clicking sound and then gradually brings the toms in, it just sounds awesome. The thing that amazes me with Danny is how calm and relaxed he looks when playing (what sounds to me) like a pretty complex rhythym. I recently introduced a Maori friend of mine to Tool because he was telling me that his native island drummers were the best drummers in the world. Eulogy was the first song I played him then 46 + 2 and finally Ticks + Leeches was enough to convince him that Danny is the fn man :)

[Madklikor]

I'm a really poor drummer, but I'm a guitarist and I study Tool's music for some courses. Lateralus has even more complex rhythms (5/8 over 6/8 with another measure on guitars and vocals that have yet to transcribe (this part is really hard to get in a true and coherent analysis)). Other polyrhythms : The grudge (the "slash" sound at the end is 5/4 over 10/8), Triad (the soft bridge) , Schism (during the part before the soft the guitar is in 7/8 over a drum/bass pattern in 14/8 with a lag in the accents (you loose the beat - plus there is a 15/8 mesure just before it that fucked up the beat even more), the beginning of 46 & 2 (bass/guitar in 4/4, drums with 7/16 motifs), some parts of Third Eye and Aenema (I've yet to transcribe them too, maybe they are juste fucked up patterns and not really polyrhythms)... I think I'm forgotting a lot of them.
Overall, they use a lot of hemiolas (binary patterns over ternary patterns, the most commun in tool's music is 3/4 over 6/8).