Seeing Opeth in Worcester (5th time seeing them) this past Sunday, and sparked by a comment in another thread, I felt like commenting on the drumming of Opeth.
It's a good way to compare because I've now seen Axenrot & Lopez perform the same music. Of course, Axenrot is at a disadvantage because he's not playing music he's practiced and is 100% comfortable with.
I think Axenrot is a great drummer, and he takes absolutely nothing away from Opeth's live performance. I've noted several times seeing Opeth that they generally play at a slower tempo live, so I'm not sure that Axenrot is the only reason they've slowed the tempo. But what this comparison has done for me is shown how great Martin Lopez is (I already knew this). He has so much more feeling, and to me is one of the smoothest drummers I've ever heard.
Lopez is better, but Axenrot is still agreat drummer IMO.