It reminds me of something a very funny and evidently very wise musician I used to work with said on many occassions. "Don't sing angry, don't play angry, and the music might flow a bit better."

dang. There's some serious negativity flowing from that group.

The reason you're hearing the yucky drum sounds is because that producer chose to focus the drums in the mids. I don't know why, but he did. I guess it made room for the angry young vocalist. Not sure who's playing, but he's lacking restraint. That's the nice way of putting it. Pretty bad to my ears.

the reason they tune to the range they do is at the speed this music is played at and the volume level to cut through the music, the drums have to have a very quick and active response, you can't use a john bonham sound here it won't fit, or a jazz tuning!

I understand why they sound bad, what I don't understand why anyone could deem them as acceptable/pleasant to the ear, it boggles my mind. Their singer is no young gun he's in his mid 40s ( I know not old but not young either)

I agree you can't have a boomy john bonham esque sound but I have heard metal drums, from groups that are much "heavier" than this that cut through the mix just fine and don't sound like slop.