Tom Walling on Twilight In Olympus

[Marre79]

Anybody knows where he is playing these days?
I kinda liked him playing on Twilight In Olympus cause that album was the first one I heard of Symphony X. It was In The Dragon's Den that got my attention in the fist place Excelent drumming!!! Yeah Yeah i know you all gonna say that J.Rullo is better but still I liked him as a replacement drummer...

Don't you say?

 

[Manga-San]

Yeah, he was a really good drummer...

I also would like to know where he is at these days...

 

[Mr. Shred-ididle]

There was another thread like this a little while ago. But the way I see it is that Tom was more of a "Metal" drummer. Much harder. While Jason is a more complex, kinda jazzy drummer as he is very interested in jazz/fusion. He (IMO) fits ther music better. But I still Tom is a great drummer. They're just different.

 

[Kate Bush Rules!]

I don't know about Tom, but I think it's better for the band to have Jason who is interested in jazz drumming. This is based primarily on the generalisation that jazz drummers are more likely to be more creative than metal drummers (let's face it, it's true in general).

 

[Luis]

Michael Pinella talking about Tom Walling:

Well, Tom (Walling) is more aggressive drummer. It's funny, he should play that because he's actually... He went to School of Jazz, okay? University for 4 or 5 years. For Jazz. But I think deep down he's a real metal drummer, you know. Because I've been knowing Tom for about 12 years and I haven't seen him until we called him and put him in July, but I did know him from... I went to school with him, I grew up in the same town. So it's kind of funny that we contacted him, he was the only drummer that I could think of. And Mike and Tom Miller also knew him. They'd seen him play before, you know, when metal was kind of big in the US. He used to do a lot of rock clubs. So, we kinda needed this guy. So we tracked him down. But, I think he's more an aggressive drummer

Anyway, i heard Tom Walling was a problematic guy...but if you want to know why he left the band, you could ask Pinella

 

[ProgMetalFan]

That was very interesting, Luis.

Personally, I think Walling's drumming on "Twilight" is the 2nd best drumming effort after Jason's performance on "V". He's very explosive and technical.

 

[The Stormbringer]

I liked his performance on TIO, very spectacular.

 

[Xtopher]

but did he write the drum parts? or just recorded them?

 

[LittleTortillaBoy]

I read somewhere that he plays in some Megadeth tribute band...

 

[DavidPartay]

To be honest... I didn't really dig his drumming on a lot of the album, or it may have simply been because the drums sound like they were recorded in a bathroom.

But, he did a great job on Smoke and Mirrors. I'm just not so keen on the drumming in the rest of the album.

 

[Progbass]

but did he write the drum parts? or just recorded them?

I believe when Romeo writes a song, he often does the drum parts for it too. And then Rullo and Walling record them and add the final touch and fills etc. But dunno, of course they can write parts of the songs too.

 

[_Gentleman of_the Snow_]

I'm not a huge fan of the drumming on TiO either. It's not bad by any means...

Some of it is definitely due the sound of the drums themselves (as mentioned), but the playing is also not really to my tastes.

IMO, V has the best drumming of all SX albums. Brilliance.

 

[manticore999]

Here's what he's doing now. Or, at least one thing he's doing now.

http://www.debcallahanband.com/tom.php

 

[sweepking]

Pretty shocking to see him go from Symphony X to Deb Callahan! I was not aware of his extensive formal training. It doesn't surprise me though as I thought he did a very good job on TiO. I am not a drummer so I probably don't hear the nuances that make one drummer better than another. I remember an interview with MJR around the V timeframe which made it seem pretty clear that they were glad to have Rullo back though.

 

[Argentina X]

I play drums since 17-18, and (to me, obviously) Walling in TiO sounded like a very VERY standard drummer: double bass everywhere all the time, no accented strokes, easy-going drumming during the riffs, etc.. But if Romeo hired him, had to be for something!

 

[Marwen]

V has the best drumming of all SX albums. Brilliance.

This.

 

[Progbass]

This.

Indeed, good example: Fallen outro

 

[Xtopher]

another example, mid part of Egypt.

 

[Prismatic Sphere]

Another example, the ingenius ending of Absence Of Light.

I really liked Tom's work too though; especially that Dragon's Den intro.

 

[_Gentleman of_the Snow_]

Hmmm... that intro is too "basic metal style" for my tastes. It's not hard to do, and it's not very musical, but it does fit the song nicely.