Just what @Since88 pointed out. The drums were recorded in a separate studio, in fact it was the Studio 606, owned by Dave Grohl, and the guy has impressive recording stuff on those rooms, and better conditions for drums recording... although I think that taking in count the date of recording, Grohl still hadn't the legendary Neve board that he purchased from the Sound City Studios. So, I'm not sure Tom got access to that board yet. Anyway, that room in which they recorded drums had actual 'room'. Sure they processed the drum tracks, but the recording itself on that space had a natural vibe that got captured on the record. A proper setup on a 'big' room makes the difference for tracking drums.
I-Empire was a different story in terms of places of recording, but yeah, the people involved was pretty much the same. I guess they were reaching a different approach.
In my opinion, WDNTW and I-Empire are the best albums in general terms and under a vast perspective. I haven't listened to them since... woah, few years ago, but they're definitely their best works. It was that period in which Tom still lokked like a focused guy who had a purpose and a goal in terms of trying something concrete with music. Sure, he was saying stupid things and stuff that, later on, we all know it was too much for what it became reai in the end, but the music had still something. I still thing that there's a really decent record if you make a solid selection of songs out of those two.
Edit: with this last paragraph I was trying to say that, somehow, Tom entered a shitty kind of comfort zone, in which he produced the Love records. Then he, more or less, realized that, and specially with Critter death, and all the downhill he's been through, the music changed. The Dream Walker was a good attempt to rebirth the band and its sound (if you don't take in cout the Stomping The Phantom Brake Pedal), but in the end, it vanished into nothing. He did 0 shows for that record. I think it was the first time he didn't tour an album.
By the way, you can see Atom recording drums for The War here: