The snare isnt even trigged. Mangini confirmed it on his facebook. Probably the way it was mixed, I guess. Also JP didnt send Mike drum parts. He sent him ideas, not fully written drum on ADTOE, then MM was there from the begining when they were doing the self titled. For TA, mike said he received demos with no drums. I remember when ADTOE came out and some people thought John wrote ALL the drum parts and was stating this as a fact when it wasnt even true. People please, do your search before stating things as facts !
As for the guitar tone, i liked it on this album better than DT12. But his tone from sfam, 6doit, black clouds and even adtoe was way better. A bit less muddy, more crisp and less chorus/flanger.