here is a message from adam anderson, product specialist at meinl usa.
feel free to let him know which products you want to see at our booth at the upcoming pasic in indianapolis. it lasts from november 10th until 13th.
- norbert

Well it is getting to be that time of the year again. School's starting, and a new wave of inspiration and gear lust is about to come crashing down.  This is the time of the year that I always loved as a young percussionist; the time leading up to PASIC. For those of you who don't know what PASIC is, it stands for the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. This is the place to check out and buy all the cool gear that you have been wanting since you first laid your eyes on it in a catalog, or online, or saw someone play at a concert. I remember, back in college, saving all year so that I could go on a percussion shopping spree at PASIC every year. Those were some great times.
The past couple of years I have been deciding what to bring to PASIC and where it was going to fit in the booth. With the percussion world the way it is, it is hard to know what people want to see. So,  I just tried thinking what would I want to see if I were still just attending the show. That worked out pretty well but, inevitably, someone would come up and ask if we had something at the booth that I decided not to bring, either due to space, or that I thought no one would want to see, or I would bring the wrong model of an item, or I didn't bring enough of some specific item and we would sell out long before most of the attendees even got a chance to see them.
My goal this year is to bring items to PASIC that you, the players of the world who are attending PASIC, want to see and/or purchase. So over the next few weeks if you hear, or find an item that you want to check out and hopefully purchase while at PASIC, let me know and I will do my best to make sure that I bring it and that I have enough there to meet all the demand. You can either post a comment on this post, or shoot me an email at aanderson@meinlusa.com.

Adam

It's an annual pilgrimage.

Each summer, one of the most awesome photographers I know - Rick Malkin, and I head out to capture pictures and video of Meinl Cymbal artists on the US summer festival circuit. So far we've hit the Summer Slaughter tour (which I've already reported on in another blog).

We just recently returned from the VANS Warped Tour and the Rockstar Mayhem Festival. Ozzfest is next week.

VANS is probably the longest running annual festival in the US. It's a collection of Alternative Press Magazine style bands mixed with some crossover groups, mainly from the metal community. The Mayhem Festival is new to the US summer festival scene, but it has quickly become the US metal festival to be on. 

VANS found us taking pics of:

Marc "Meggers" Eggers of the street punk band The Casualties. Socially conscious and blissfully in love with the music they make, Meggers and The Casualties are today's answer to the classic London/NYC punk rock of the late 70's/early 80's. These guys love what they do and they take no prisoners live.

Alex Lopez of Suicide Silence. Alex is a powerhouse on the drums. A raging combination of Dave Grohl-style pounding and modern deathcore blastbeat mania. Alex truly grooves and his love for four on the floor rock and roll really shines through in Suicide Silence's potent blend of modern extreme metal.

Gavin Parsons - touring drummer of Whitechapel. Meinl Cymbal artist Kevin Lane is Whitechapel's drummer, but due to a sports related injury, Kevin has been on the sidelines healing while Gavin has been filling in. Whitechapel's management called up and asked if Gavin could get a set of the world's best cymbals for his work with the band, and of course we said "yes." Family is family. Gavin did a great job. Intense studious concentration with great technique. Rick thought that Gavin reminded him of Billy Cobham. A real compliment for sure!

Here's where it gets funny...

Chris Pollock and Versa Emerge weren't able to play that day because VE's guitar player had a terrible flu with a fever and all of the accompanying rotten symptoms. Still, Chris wanted to get some photos and was a real sport about it as Rick snapped some great shots of him hanging with his kit. Nice guy.

Rain. Lots of it. This kept Ryan Leger and Every Time I Die and Andrew Wetzel and Attack Attack! from playing.

Ryan Leger of Every Time I Die. We were able to get some pics of Ryan on stage after parking lot stages were called off. Great, great dude. Totally hospitable, and every drummer on the tour was telling me how awesome they think "Legs" is as a drummer and as an all around guy. Cool tats on his knuckles too.

Andrew Wetzel and Attack Attack! were also rained out. Couldn't get any pics of Andrew either...These guys are one of the biggest draws of the tour right now. A hot band with a rabid following. I was really bummed I didn't get to catch their set. So were a lot of people. Oh well...next time.

Mayhem found us taking pics of:

Jeff Fabb of In This Moment. One of the nicest guys I can think of and one of the best rock feels around. Jeff Fabb got my vote for "coolest looking dude on the Mayhem tour." No disrespect to the other guys, but Jeff's look screamed rock star 24/7. Made it real easy for Rick to take great pics of him. Jeff combines all of the best elements of todays' modern metal drumming and does it with the vibe and style of Tommy Lee from the Shout At the Devil days.

Jason Bittner of Shadows Fall. The real deal pro and totally dedicated to his craft. Jason's entire day revolves around the time he gets to spend on stage, and it shows when he plays. Not many drummers are as athletic as Jason is behind the kit, and not many drummers have paid as much attention to detail to their parts in the songs as Jason has.

Art Cruz of Winds of Plague. Sick, sick drummer and great magician. Art is one of the happiest guys around and his band Winds of Plague got one of the best receptions at Mayhem, as they are truly melting people's minds with their intense brand of deathcore. Art's drumming is a study in putting the feel into blastbeat drumming.

Chris Adler of Lamb of God. Gets better every time I see him. Chris is always hitting harder, but with more technique every time I see LOG play. Playing on the main stage with more radio friendly metal bands, LOG had their work cut out for them in terms of winning over an audience, but they did it. Chris and LOG had them in the palm of their hands.

Check out some of Rick's great work that I've posted. Video is coming soon.

 - Chris Brewer

I remember when I was 13 years old and I learned to play the drum parts to the Slayer songs Angel of Death and Raining Blood. For me, and for many other kids, these were tunes that had to be mastered because it represented a certain level of technical proficiency. Dave Lombardo had set the bar with double bass drumming through those songs, and with all of the other songs on Slayer's masterpiece album Reign In Blood.

Fast forward to a few days ago. I'm at The Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia with uber-photographer Rick Malkin (whose photography can be seen all over Meinl's cymbal catalogs, magazine ads, and website) to catch the Summer Slaughter tour. Rick and I were there to get a lot of pictures, some live video footage, and to hang with the multitude of Meinl Cymbal artists who were on the tour. In fact, six out of ten drummers on the tour are Meinl Cymbal artists.

Here's who's playing Meinl on the tour - 

• Navene Koperweis - Animals As Leaders
• Mike Justian - The Red Chord
• John Merryman - Cephalic Carnage
• Sam Applebaum - Veil of Maya
• Lyle Cooper - The Faceless
• Kerim Lechner - Decapitated

Watching these guys, I found myself thinking back to those Slayer songs I learned as a kid. Needless to say, my technical accomplishments from that time now seemed like nothing in comparison. A new level has been achieved, and these guys are at the forefront of a new frontier in drumming. It really does have to be seen to be believed. 

Navene with his progressive fusion mastery, in a band that is so good that Steve Vai made it a point to hit the House of Blues LA tour stop just to see Animals As Leaders. Mike Justian, one of the most physical and precise drummers out there. He slams - HARD - and he grooves as well. John Merryman, a metal beast who has a jazzer's touch. He makes it look effortless. Sam Applebaum, a flurry of staccato drumming that gets more and more intense throughout Veil of Maya's set. Lyle Cooper, in my mind one of the new masters of extreme drumming. His ability to retain all of the information that goes into just one of The Faceless' tunes is unbelievable. Kerim Lechner, a brutal drummer that displays all of the hallmarks of this generation's sick drumming. All of these Meinl Cymbal artists truly deserve their spot on the most celebrated extreme metal tour on the planet.

To say that the only accomplishment of these drummers is that of a technical nature would be a disservice. From band to fans, there is more heart and soul put into extreme metal, and subsequently its drumming, than one could find most anywhere else. From 3pm until close to midnight, The Masquerade was packed to the back of the venue with sweaty fans who wanted to celebrate this unique form of music. 

I took a lot of video, but as you can see from Norbert's prior blog, Meinl Germany will be closed for its summer holidays for the next few weeks. Thus our webmaster will be out. That being said, the video that I took will have to wait to be posted. In the meantime however, check out some of the sample pics that Rick Malkin shot.

 - Chris

here is thomas lang playing the meinl song. he wrote that tune on his computer while on the plane from los angeles to germany on his way to our festival. it's a really special song which has never been played or published before. thank you thomas for that special gesture.

this is the last clip of our festival series for now. we are going to be closed for summer holidays now until end august. i hope you have enjoyed all the clips from our festival series over the last four weeks and on behalf of the entire meinl cymbal team, i wish you a great summer. cu in a few weeks.

- norbert

here's another great solo by prince's drummer chris coleman. it's 13min long and has got everything that makes chris stand out in the drumszene worldwide right now. enjoy this wonderful piece of music and stay tuned for more.
- norbert

here's damien schmitt again with an inimitable tribute to michael jackson. enjoy! and stay tuned for more.
- norbert

here's gergo again playing a song which he wrote and dedicated to bassplayer "matthew garrison".
have fun watching it and stay tuned for more.
- norbert

here's the second video of our festival headliner thomas lang featuring a four minute snippet of his drum solo that he has played. in the first half of the video thomas only plays on his cymbals demonstrating the wide variety of cymbal sounds that he has combined in his set up.
have fun watching it and stay tuned for more.
- norbert

this clip features a 5 minute long drum solo by chris coleman. during his performance at our festival chris assumed that his time was up after 30 minutes already. however, he had a total of 45 minutes available. luckily chris was cool about it and played two totally improvised drum solos. one of them you can see here now.
chris can also be heard on prince's new record 20TEN which is released worldwide one of these days now.
enjoy this clip and stay tuned for more.
- norbert

here's damien schmitt again featured in another incredible clip. like with his previous clip, again this one blew me totally away. i really dig this guys drumming. especially his fills and splash work is outstanding.
stay tuned for more damien schmitt clips here from meinl cymbals.
- norbert