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Cliff Burton

Who thinks he's the best metal bassist ever
Cliffburtonfree.jpg
 
In metal I'd have to go with Alex Webster.

Agreed. But I do believe Cliff is one of Alex's influences.

I decided last week to (re-)learn Orion, and I must say, that reminded me of just how badass Cliff really was. The distorted solo after the interlude...I forgot all about that.

Cliff was my inspiration to first pick up the bass. I didn't even know what a bass guitar was until I heard MoP.

BTW, I'm pretty sure this thread has been done
 
Cliff Burton is the reason why I started playing bass.
He was one musical badass.

But over the years as a (metal) bassist the best bassist in metal to me is Markus Großkopf.
This German dude has chops I can only dream of.



Cliff Burton is not that memorable as a bassist (sure he was an awesome player), but to any (non-bassist) metalhead who knows their history he is the guy responsible for Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, and partly And Justice for All.
Those albums wouldn't have been so good (or existed) if it wasn't for Cliff telling the other guys how it's done.


Objectively, there are many bassists in metal that are better. But none of them has the charming impact that Cliff had in 80s speedmetal.
And Cliff died too young (in a stupid freak accident :(), he didn't even got the chance to do so much more as a bassist, musician, composer,... .

For all that, he truly is missed by many.
 
Cliff has been a great insipiration to me since im still a young bass player, but it was him that did metallica as good as it has been, and he knew how to play piano as well, so he new everything there is to know about music and did a great job aplying it to the bass, i dunno if he could be the best, but hes 1 of the tops

Great composer, great bassist, great musician
 
Agreed. But I do believe Cliff is one of Alex's influences.

I decided last week to (re-)learn Orion, and I must say, that reminded me of just how badass Cliff really was. The distorted solo after the interlude...I forgot all about that.

Cliff was my inspiration to first pick up the bass. I didn't even know what a bass guitar was until I heard MoP.

BTW, I'm pretty sure this thread has been done

ya i learned that solo a weak ago
 
(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth is a fantastic piece of music. The fact that it is soaked in distortion and wah effects and somehow manages to remain musical and interesting tells you that it was created by a very talented individual. There's more than enough there to keep the listener's interest (even non-bass fanatics), and I always thought it was a nice touch to have Lars join in at the end. A ballsy decision too, to record an extended bass solo on a debut metal album...