Ryan's Gig Guide - July 2018

make a great addition to anyone's set- up. I highly recommend this Ride. The second, new range I'm focusing on is the Xist ION Dark Series, pic- tured right. These come in a variety of types, currently 15" Hi Hats, 19" ION Dark Trash, 17" & 19" Crashes & a 21" Ride. For this review I'm looking at the 17" Crash. Firstly the look of this cymbal is awesome! It's dark & hand hammered, with a matt finish that looks almost like black metal, with the signature ION laser cut, crop circle holes, which are so dis- tinctive in this range. When playing the top surface of this cymbal it almost sounds like a small, dark, Jazz Ride, which I like. The Crash sound for me however is al- most too dry & has echos of a Tai- wanese Tam Tam, which doesn't quite work for me, these are very dry, short sustain cymbals which leaves me won- dering whether it would have limited application. Having said that, these types of Cym- bals are very on-trend in the Industry at the moment & I think if I was going to go for one of these two Crash types, I would probably go for the 19" which seems a lot more versatile. I have a 16" Xist ION Crash, from the original Series in my set-up which I www.ryansgigguide.com rgg July 2018 21 use all the time & features extensively in my YouTube Videos. I adore this range, so the new Dark Series just may not be to my taste. So there you have it! I hope you find this review useful & thanks for reading. Simon Greenhill Daddy Funk Drums