Unless Mike Mangini spent all the time with the producer in the control room from tracking through the final mix down, there is a possibility that there was some sample replacement done or there was extreme limiting done that gave the same aural effect that many of us are hearing. My critique was not of the fills or the actual patterns or musicianship of your friend, which are neat, but of the drum sounds themselves which sound un-human.
Drummers will always have a 3-5% velocity variation when playing a song and the most disciplined drummers, especially when playing fast, will have a 1/2" or 1" radius variance on hitting the drum in the exact same spot, which slightly varies the sound. You can even look at the drum heads of Neal Peart or Stewart Copeland or Steve Gadd or Danny Carey and see that kind of hit radius variance on their drum heads when they play.
For example, just to illustrate what I am talking about:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/i21J1BUAyBk/hqdefault.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZSiuK4Mt9gs/maxresdefault.jpg
https://200mghercianos.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/copeland-kit-3.jpg
http://dannycarey.org/wp-content/uploads/4.jpg
I have listened to a lot of serious players in the control room in my day and the best drummers will have those kinds of variances in sound, which is nothing to be ashamed about, as that is incredible precision. I am not hearing those slight variances on this album.
I have been on sessions where the producer did sample replacement and/or limiting without a drummer's knowledge and the drummer was none the wiser and the aural effect was similar to what I am hearing on this album. I am not saying this is exactly what happened here, but the drum tracks sound extremely produced, for want of a better term.