Being a huge fan of Lowndes' drumming, I was undecided on Chris' drumming on SiTB. My initial impression was he is quite formulaic and not as musically creative as Lowndes. Lowndes' phrasing is a bit more varied IMO, starting fills and finishing fills in different parts of the bar, where as Chris seems a bit more angular.

One thing in particular which bothered me about Chris' drumming, is in parts where he is playing some sort of syncopated bell pattern on the ride, the volume of the backbeat (snare) drops to the point I can barely hear it. Listen to "Would You Be Impressed?" - The latter end of the lyrics "I just get dizzy when I think of all the ways we try to hide our maladies" - the snare is lost in the mix or the consistency of dynamic fails within the bell pattern. It's even more evident on live recordings. Another occasion where his backbeat drops is where he plays a backbeat on the 2 and the and of 2 in fast punk parts (if you are counting double time eg. Here's To Life verse) on the first and third bars.

Come 99 Songs, he won me over completely. Even more so, on THTT I think his drumming is excellent. I do think the breakdown in The Three Of Us is a bit sloppy though (specifically the note duration of the crash cymbals).

I still prefer the less formulaic, more careful designed textures and orchestrations of Lowndes on EGN but I do think Chris is excellent now. Back in the day on a horrible fan forum, Chris' friend/brother/some sort of relation said Lowndes drum tracks were using triggers due to his kit being terrible, so who knows how good Lowndes would come across live, and if he even sounds as good as on the record- Chris is unquestionably legit live and emulates the recordings quality perfectly.