It's not unusual for Danny Carey's fellow Tool bandmates to refer to him as the greatest drummer in the world, and it's a point no one is arguing.
Carey has for nearly 30 years been at the forefront of heavy rock and progressive percussion, with each Tool album providing new testimony of his creative mastery and machine-like precision.
A new YouTube upload by drum gear manufacturer Vic Firth gives viewers a closeup of Carey at his best, performing the song "Pnuema" from Tool's latest album, Fear Inoculum.
Appropriately dressed in a Larry Bird Boston Celtics jersey for the Massachusetts gig, Carey is captured delivering a typically virtuosic feat of musical athleticism on one of Tool's most boundary-pushing songs.
For us mere mortals, the footage might take several views to comprehend. Carey's kraken-like coordination and limb-independence is remarkable — at least one of his limbs is executing a polyrhythm at virtually all times during "Pneuma." In the middle section of the song (around 6:15) all four of his limbs are playing different patterns. The camera also provides clear shots of the drummers face, so we can see how supremely focused and relaxed he is throughout even the song's most algebraic passages.
Wherever Neil Peart is, he's surely smiling down on Tool right now.
Watch the footage in the video player above.
Photo: Getty Images