On Sunday, October 19, 2025, yet another edition of the Silesia Drum Festival was held. It was organized, as in the previous years, by the Silesia Drum Store at the Chorzów Culture Center. This time round, drum maniacs were attracted by Mark Guiliana, Thomas Lang, Sebastian Lanser, Riccardo Merlini and Oskar Podolski.
Mark Guiliana
decided to go for ethereal sound creation, performing several compositions from his solo album, “Mark,” on which he played all the instruments. Not only did he play rhythmic figures, but also melodic motifs, for which he used drum hoops or a snare drum with disengaged snares. In the second piece, he used a small kit set up on the side of the drum riser: a bass drum, a snare drum, a floor tom, a pair of micro hats and two splashes placed face down on the floor tom and the snare drum. It was enough to leave everyone present in awe. In the next number, he put the emphasis on percussion instruments: the aforementioned splashes on the snare and the drums stool, various kinds of bells on strings, and the rustle of cymbals. Only before the last song did he speak to an almost mesmerized audience, handing out the aforementioned rope bells and chimes (he had dozens of these) to the listeners with a request for creating accompaniment. He showed that it is possible to capture an audience’s attention and enchant with musicianship without being flashy. The long queue of people eager to get an autograph or have their picture taken together after this performance (Mark was in a hurry to catch a plane and couldn’t wait until the evening signing session) proves that we were not alone in this opinion.
Oskar Podolski
started off by addressing the attendees right away. He was able to connect with the audience easily, and conducted the meeting the way he conducts his video lessons, which can be found on the Internet (highly recommended!), i.e. lightly, casually, with natural humor. First, he demonstrated the sound of his Gretsch kit without any backing tracks, showing the full dynamic range – from pianissimo to bashes that make fortissimo a child’s play. He then proceeded to perform several classic numbers by Agnieszka Chylińska and the band O.N.A. (widely popular 90s Polish rock artist) to live backing tracks. He displayed a great sound, beautiful groove and respect for the originals, but without a slavish approach to Zbigniew Kraszewski’s original parts. At the end, the only representative of our country that day presented an improvised solo, which did not fail to please, and was rewarded with thunderous applause.
Although Sebastian Lanser
is best known to metal audiences for playing in bands such as Necrophagist and Obscura, he decided to showcase a different side of his musical personality during his performance at the Chorzow Cultural Center. Playing to fusion-style backing tracks, he showed his ability to utilize a wide variety of odd meters, laced with many interesting fills. The solo was varied – it included not only meter changes and cascading fills, but also gooves, some of them performed with the open-handed technique. Sebastian is an experienced studio and live drummer, which could be seen and heard.
During the interlude, all the attendees could visit an exhibition of drum and percussion equipment and try it out for themselves. The brands and companies exhibited were: Meinl, Tama, Zildjian, Pearl, Istanbul Agop, Gretsch, Paiste, Vic Firth, Evans, Promark, Dixon, Sabian, Rogers, Camtronome, Shure, Caban Drummer Fest, as well as the hosts, Silesia Drum, who set up a gadget shop at the venue. We can’t help but mention the booth for our brand new project, which is an online educational platform for drummers edu.beatit.tv, which features video files with lessons taught by such drummers as Tomasz Łosowski, Mariusz Mocarski, Przemek “Benbeneq” Kuczyński, Tomasz Nawrocki, Paweł “Pawcio” Świderski, Jeremiasz Baum, Radek Jaszczyszak, and the co-founder of our website, Maciej Głuchowski. Naturally, more material and more educators are to come.
Riccardo Merlini
is already a real star in the world of drums. It was clear that he was one of the main attractions of the event and that the audience was looking forward to seeing him perform. He kicked off with Bomfunk MC’s “Freestyler”, which was a hit 26 years ago, and he certainly didn’t put off going into overdrive – there were elements of jungle beats, break beats and even blast beats. The next backing track was pure metal, so Riccardo fired off even more blast beats played with both hands leading (the Italian maestro’s ambidexterity is a well-known fact among fans) and explosive fills across the kit and back, and there was also some precise double-kick playing. In the improvised section of the performance, the artist added a great moment of open-handed playing and another excellent display of double bass drum work. Worthy of separate note was Riccardo’s excellent presentation of his hand technique in response to a question about how he arrived at such a pace of playing. He clearly and coherently described and showed what it is based on – no beating around the bush to make it look more “mystical”. After all, everyone has to do their proverbial 10,000 hours anyway 😉
Thomas Lang
is already an institution among freelance drummers. His performance was a real geyser of energy (the guy is pushing 60) – inventive rhythms that are compositions in themselves, ambidexterity both as far as his hands and feet are concerned (we counted six pedals on which his feet “danced” without a moment’s rest) facilitating polyrhythms, creative use of rata toms (a kind of wooden octobans from DW), and to top it off, groove and punch. The Austrian maestro began his solo with, being one of his trademarks, what he calls Stix Trix (Buddy Rich-style stick tricks). First, on the hi-hat, then on the remaining cymbals and drum hoops, then the pedal-operated cymbals came into play (on this occasion a great Latino-style rhythm was played with the feet on four pedals on the left and two on the right). A standing ovation showed emphatically who was the star of the evening. The last song featured a much simpler drum part, which gave more room for a cool groove and was an excellently refreshing on the home stretch. A performance perfectly planned from the dramatic standpoint combined with flawless execution.
The Silesia Drum team, led by Wojtek Węglarczyk, as well as the venue team, organized the entire event in an exemplary manner. The drum kits set up on the revolving stage rolled in like clockwork, and the sound system was impeccable. The stars of this year’s festival couldn’t praise the organizers enough, time and time again comparing the Chorzów event to various events of this type organized around the world. It was also a box office success once again as all tickets were sold out.
Anyone who has not yet visited the Chorzów Culture Center during the Silesia Drum Festival this year or during previous editions, really ought to do so next year. This festival is already a permanent and significant point on the map of drum events in Europe. We will definitely attend it again!
