Metal bass and blast beats?

[Dorado Pulido]

I'm recording bass to some metal which has a lot of sustained blast beats, 170bpm. Guitars are fast tremolo 16th notes. I'm mostly holding down the root notes.
Playing 16th notes to match the guitar just seems to get lost in the mix, mostly sounds like "flick flick flick" but seems more "correct".
Playing 8th notes to match the kick drums (half time) sounds heavier but feels lazy.
Thoughts?

 

[Rimantas B.]

I used to have the same issue.
Go for the 8ths. I've yet to hear 16th notes in the low register at these tempos be anything else than rumbling noise with some clicks here and there.
I'm 95% sure that in the mix, no one will be able to tell whether you're playing 16ths or 8ths. But if you're playing 8ths, at least you will not be adding unneccessary chaos.

Note:
my experience is mostly fingerstyle. Perhaps 16ths @ 170bpm can be made to sound (somewhat) more intelligible with a pick.

 

[Schonbrun]

It's hard to say for certain without knowing the phrase in question, but if you think 8th notes sound better, then go with 8th notes. Slower doesn't mean lazy. Try hitting power chords in 8th notes. That might sound heavy enough to convince you 8ths are the way to go.

 

[Trilobita]

Just to add to the previous comments, while listening attentively in order to learn songs by ear I have found out that, depending on the band, many times the bass is actually playing notes as slow as quarter notes of even half notes that are simply felt to be faster because everything going on is way faster. If you are into metal and would like to check some slow bass lines that accompany very fast drum parts then by all means check out Limbonic Art's "In Abhorrence Dementia". I cannot know which approach is most suited to your particular problem, but I can tell you that I consider that album a masterpiece, slow bass lines and all.