I’m fairly sure I know the great drummers of the classic rock era, eg: Peart, Mitchell, Moon, Bonham. I would love to know the actual timing to Mitchell’s “Fire” playing.
What are the “player” drummers of the past 15 or so years? I would like to absorb good playing so that I might actually achieve 5% of it. Oh yes, I saw Mike Portnoy play Who songs with “Amazing Journey” a few years ago in Whitter, CA. I really liked that, but I don’t know any Dream Theater. Should I?
Oh, and Ian Paice
YES 
Good in studio video that’s still up on YouTube as an example, but really it’s all good 
Mark Zonder who used to be in Fates Warning is up there. He is now in a band called Slavior (side note, I used to know the vocalist for that band. He was in a band a friend of mine put together called Seventh Sign. They were pretty damned good).
Slee
Stanton Moore, who plays with the band Galactic, has always impressed me. His stuff with Galactic is best.
I think there will be dramatically different responses to this thread depending on the genre of music that the poster is the most into, mine being metal.
Tim Yeung currently of Divine Heresy is a frigging machine. Plays some really tough stuff and plays it so fast that it sounds like a sampler. There are videos of him on Youtube if you want to check him out.
Hard not to go with Dave Grohl. Yeah, I know he’s primarily on guitar with the Foos (love the Pelham Blue Dave Grohl signature guitar he plays), but his work with Nirvana and all of the side projects like Queens of the Stone Age and Probot these days still keeps him in the ring…
He makes a big noise and appreciates and executes great songcraft.
Stanton Moore, Tim Yeung, and Mike Portnoy are all good choices.
I’ll chime in with votes for Dave Witte and George Kollias. Vitek from Decapitated was one of the best before his untimely death. Derek Roddy is a demon on the drums, and extremely technical, but I feel like his drumwork tends to overwhelm the bands he plays with as opposed to complementing the other musicians. I’d rather listen to someone like Stanton Moore, who creates a nice rhythmic backbone with the occasional flourish.
My votes for “Drummers Drummer”:
Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa, BLS, studio regular and Drum instructor in Austin, Texas).
Bill Bruford (King Crimson, ABWH, solo and many other projects).
Alan White (Yes).
Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa).
Unclviny
I always hear people talk about Danny Carey of Tool as a great drummer. Here is an example. I’ve always been pretty impressed by the high-hat at 4:56 but I’m not a drummer so I can’t really say how hard that would be to do for a drummer.
John Dolmayan of System of a Down seems pretty well respected as a very talented drummer that doesn’t show off very often. Named Drummer of the Year in 2006 by Drum! magazine.
Kenny Aronoff deserves to be on the list.
Danny Carey has the same problem that many death metal drummers have, which is showing off instead of just complimenting the other musicians. Whereas the wankery of death metal drummers manifest in excessive blast beats and technicality for the sake of technicality, Danny Carey decided that his playing should manifest itself in sacred geometric drum patterns.
I don’t care how impressive they look on Youtube, when they do that crap I just want to smack upside the head and tell them to just play a damn song.
You mean how impressive he sounds on YouTube? The video linked is all visuals of artwork rather than the actual band.
I’ve never found Danny Carey’s percussion to be obtrusive in Tool’s music. In fact, without it they would not be nearly as notable.
OMG you should know Dream Theater if you’re a big drummer fan. Check out www.mikeportnoy.com for his setup. His siamese monster is phenomenal!! I went to see Dream Theater last weekend in DC and the weekend before in Orlando, and he never ceases to amaze me. Probably the best drummer out there who refuses to do a drum solo anymore!
Other drummers to listen to are Scott Rockenfeld from Queensryche and Mike Wengren from Disturbed.
Manu Katche has done some really good drumming for Peter Gabriel.
Matt Cameron (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and others) and Jimmy Chamberlain (Smashing Pumpkins) would be my picks.
edit: I’d throw in Carter Beauford of Dave Matthews Band as well, although that might depend on whether you want to call that “rock” or not.
I was going to take issue with classifying Tool as “death metal.” IMHO, they are anything but.
Then I decided you didn’t really say that, you just said that you think Carey is a drummer diva and I think that means you haven’t listened to much Tool, really. The entire point of that band is that no one performer dominates the others.
After the recent Tool show I just saw in Atlanta, I was talking with this complete idiot who could not name his top 5 favorite drummers, but he was insistent that Carey would not appear on that list. The more he talked, the bigger an idiot I thought he was because he had nothing really to back up his assertions, aside from testosterone and too much beer.
Having said that, here’s my list, in order:
Sheila E. – I’d give Danny Carey #1 position except I’ve never seen him bounce his sticks off the floor and catch them without dropping the beat, while wearing 4" high heels and a bustier, while singing and dancing the song he wrote and produced, which used a bunch of Latin polyrhythms fused with a pop beat. Do all that, and look that hot doing it, and you’ll be a better drummer than Sheila E., in my opinion. 
Danny Carey – Yes, I heart him. 'Nuff said.
Josh Freese – Has worked with: A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails, Devo, The Vandals, Sting, Paul Westerberg, Guns N’ Roses, Ween, The Offspring, Weezer, Desert Sessions… He’s very versatile and I heart him as well.
Tim Alexander – Has worked with: Primus, Fata Morgana, Laundry, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, Into The Presence, Attention Deficit… I heart him too.
I give it to Dave Grohl, although I could go in a dozen different directions with this spot. I’m especially fond of the work he did with Killing Joke, one of my all time favorite percussion-centric bands.
Definitely agree here
Can’t wait to hear his newest project (the linked video doesn’t really count IMO :D)
I thought the person who posted Danny Carrey wrote Dana Carvey who does play the drums.