I plays the drum

[Vincent, Thunder God]

I've heard of Portnoy and seen a few videos - he is very good from what I've seen, definitely one of the best drummers out there, especially from more recent bands, but I haven't given him enough of a chance to really glean some influence. The others I'm not too familiar with - though I do think Bonham doesn't deserve to be among the others in that list. He's completely and utterly overrated and a fairly common-sounding drummer. He was good at what he did, but in terms of technical skill, originality, and creativity in his style he was rather weak.

His kit ought to say something about how skilled he is. xD This is one of his kits, anyway, and goes by the name of "The Siamese Monster" because it's essentially two drum kits joined together. You should check out some of Dream Theater if you like prog - these guys define the genre in my opinion. Have a listen to their song "Dance of Eternity", it's awesome.
<img src="http://bademagaci.com/resim/101/siamesemonster.jpg" />

That kit is smurfing awesome! *envious* I actually did try them once, but I'm someone who isn't as a big fan of heavier music. It gives me a headache and grates on my nerves. I'm fine with some noise, some dissonance, some bombast - but too much of all three, and I just get annoyed. But I'll give them another try for you.

I also prefer a lot of the earlier bands from the 70's (prog's heyday) to the newer ones. But Crime in Concert are as good as the classic bands to me, for one. Which of the classic bands do you prefer?

Also, have you ever tried a digital set? If so, what did you think of it in comparison to acoustic?

I have and I can't say I liked it. I've only played one a few times, which doesn't help, but there are quite a few things about them that I don't like. For starters, the pads are usually a lot smaller than actual drums and don't have the same "bounciness" as a drum skin. It felt like playing one of those rubber practise pads which were far too bouncy. One thing that was kind of a novelty was playing on pads bouncy enough to quadruple-bounce my strokes.
I didn't like the uniformity of each stroke. The one I played supposedly never produced the same sound twice, but there was nothing like the variability of an acoustic kit. I could forget about playing a rimshot or cross-stick. Having variable sounds from the pads in new electric kits is a step in the right direction though.
My opinion might be different had I played one more though.

Actually, I completely agree with you there. All of those are very good points, especially the limited variability of sound, inability to use more technique through the likes of rim shots, and the unresponsive, not-bouncy, too-small pads.

What's your stance on double-kick pedals and double-bass kits? Does the jazz in you hate it while the prog in you loves it? xD

I really like them, a lot, though I haven't invested in them yet. It can be hard to do much with the bass drum, hard to keep the muscle moving enough to keep the beat - therefore use of those is justified - however, it's sort of cheap to use that when a lot of drummers don't, because they actually learn how to use the original, single pedaled bass drum. My jazz sensibilities don't really come into the picture - I'm too open-minded to be limited by the standard views of whatever genre's musicians that I might ascribe to.