A recent article from Chris Stankee at Sabian.com describes the evolution of the steampunk-themed cymbals from Neil Peart's new Time Machine Tour kit. The article describes all the various design incarnations for the cymbals along with several pictures, and how they evolved into the final product which is currently incorporated into Neil's new kit on the Time Machine Tour. From the article:

... Sitting in Neil Peart’s kitchen, over a Scotch, he shared with me his elaborate concept for Rush’s new album Clockwork Angels. There was so much to the story, and the concept was so visual. He explained the steampunk style to me, citing examples from H.G. Wells and Jules Verne’s tales, including bizarre mechanical inventions powered by steam, elaborate clockworks, and alchemy, in an alternate timeline — “the future as it ought to have been.” Neil could see that he was over my head, as usual, so he said think of the movies The Time Machine and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. That’s steampunk! He showed me the alchemical symbols that he was using as chapter markers in the story and lyrics he had written. Gold, Copper, Winter, Annealing, Combine, Neptune, Essence, Dissolve and Mixture. This was the recipe for a visual concept that would mark his new drum set. What if we made the cymbals look like gears? What if we copper plated them? What if we painted, powder coated, engraved them? What if we incorporated those alchemical symbols? Yeah, yeah, yeah! All of that! And that’s the gist of the e-mail that Mark got from us. ...

You can read the whole thing and check out the photos at this link. Thanks to Mark R for the heads up.

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