Meinl Cymbals is pleased to welcome Ben Harclerode to its family of cymbal artists. Ben slams the skins for East Tennessee extreme metal titans Whitechapel. 

Check out Ben's artist page and set-up information by clicking here.

Ben and Whitechapel can be seen on tour this summer in the US on the highly acclaimed Summer Slaughter Tour.

Congratulations to the Meinl Cymbal artists that won and placed in the 2011 Modern Drummer Readers Poll. Here are the results:

Metal

Winner - Chris Adler

#5 Runner-Up - Brann Dailor

R&B

#3 Runner-Up - Chris Coleman

Studio

#3 Runner-Up - Ben Sesar

Country

#2 Runner-Up - Ben Sesar

Clinician/Educator

#3 Runner-Up - Mike Johnston

#4 Runner-Up - Benny Greb

Educational DVD

#4 Runner-Up - Blast Beats Evolved by Derek Roddy

Check out Matt Halpern of Periphery throwing it down online at drumchannel.com.

Meinl artist Hannes Grossmann has recently released his first instructional DVD "Progressive Concepts For The Modern Metal Drummer". It is available online at hannesgrossmann.com or at OBSCURA live shows. The price is € 29.99.

Here are some more information about the DVD taken from Hannes' own Press Release:

"Progressive Concepts for the modern metal drummer"  is a 2-disc set DVD and features almost 4 hours of material. It was written, produced, edited, cutted and filmed all by Hannes Grossmann himself, so the whole product is 100 % handmade.

DVD 1 features chapters on hand technique, foot technique, speed & endurance. There are certain practise methods Hannes shows that will drastically increase your speed and endurance. Hannes used and developed those methods himself during the prepartions for Necrophagist's 'Epitaph' album, for which he was able to increase his hand speed for single strokes from 200 bpm to 240 bpm within 5 months.
Disc 2 features prasings and groove concepts that can be used for all kinds of music. The concepts are about the musical use of blast beats and how to use phrasings and accents from different genres, i.e. latin music, that can be integrated in blasts. Hannes deeply explains how to get started with odd-time signatures and how to modulate odd time phrasings, but also gives a precise insight into advanced double bass grooves and how to phrase metal fills.
Both Discs feature a lot of music performances from Obscura, Ron Jarzombek and others, as well as drum solos (they appear from time to time within several chapters - there's also one main 15 minutes drum solo that will hopefully entertain a lot of other drummers).

The lessons on this DVD are mostly basic methods and general conceps, which makes the DVD become helpful for beginners, intermediate and advanced drummers - the exercises are highly practical but also very general, so on whatever stage you're at, it will help you to increase your drum skills...but also entertain you!

OBSCURA’s recently released sophomore album Omnivium has entered in at #14 on the official German Newcomers Chart as determined by Media Control. This is OBSCURA’s first time appearing in the nationally monitored entertainment charts for their native Germany and follows the band’s recent debut at #11 in the Billboard Top New Artists or ‘Heatseekers’ chart in the U.S. Omnivium was released internationally on April 4th on CD, double LP, and digitally.

Check out the new video from Luke Holland. Youtube drummer meets Youtube rapper Anthony Melo. 

Meinl Cymbal artist Luke Holland has a new youtube.com video posted. Check out his sick cover of Texas in July's "Magnolia." Except for the filter china, every cymbal played is from the Classics Custom series.

Heads up! A new Chris Coleman clinic date has been announced.

Just Drums in Midlothian, VA will host a Chris Coleman clinic on Friday, May 20 at 8pm at Midlothian High School.

Meinl Cymbals is introducing a 16” and 18” Trash Crash in their Byzance Vintage Series.

Completely hand made in the company’s own Turkish cymbal smithy from the finest B20 bronze, differently sized and shaped cut-outs give these cymbals a unique look as well as a wide spread and very trashy, white-noise like sound. The sandblasted surface, which is applied in Meinl’s German factory, adds to the overall dark and trashy sound character.

The new Byzance Vintage Series 16” and 18” are recommended for quick accents and punctuations in medium to low volume settings. They are also suitable for percussionists since they are very thin, respond quickly and can be easily played by hand.

Check out the company’s website meinlcymbals.com for an mp3 sound file of the new Byzance Vintage Trash Crashes.

Meinl Artist Benny Greb is announcing his Master Session ("...his ultimate vision of what a Drum Camp should be."). It is 6-day long lasting drumcamp and it will take place from August 1 - 6 in Hamburg, Germany. The classes will be held by Benny himself for a limited amount of students. According to Benny, you will spend the time entirely dedicated to music, listening, playing, and recording in a small group setting.

For more information, check out bennygreb.de/mastersession