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Metal bass, I really don't understand the fun.

#101
The way you play bass in one metal band can be completely different in another. Some bands go for the unison sound, which if done right can sound incredibly tight, and heavy. Other bands use a lot of counterpoint with the bass. As a jazz player, you are expected to play jazz bass, and a funk bass line is not appropriate. In a funk band, a jazz line sounds silly. Some metal bands are funky, some are jazzy, some are both. Ever hear atheist? Geezer butler would play plenty of unison bass, but would also play independently where appropriate. If your not into playing unison bass lines like Judas Priest, or fear factory, then you may be in the wrong metal band. I'm sure that your funky jazzy metal band is out there waiting for you. I know that I found mine.
 
#102
InternetAlias said:
Imagine this scenario:
There's a vanilla ice cream on the table, your friend asks you to try it and tell him what you think. If you like it he can get you more. You try it and decide you don't like it. What do you say?

1. Gah! This is the most terrible ice cream ever, how do people like this? This sucks!!!
2. Not my cup of ice cream.
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just like my old man always use to say "that's why there's chocolate and vanilla"


he also used to tell me it took a big dog to weigh a ton, im still trying to figure that one out.:confused:
 
#103
For the OP: does the band *really* know how you can play? They've told you that your non-metal influences will be good, but do they really know what this could mean?

I've recently joined a good covers band and I am a good friend of the drummer - at our day jobs we work at the same place. Musically the drummer and I get along brilliantly; we listen to each other to good effect.
However, the drummer pointed out to me that both guitarists have probably only played in bands with a bass player who does root notes and can't sing (crazy, given that this band charges top dollar for corporate gigs and weddings!)
My drummer has pointed out that the guitarists are having to modify their approach a bit to accommodate me.

Is your band willing to change a bit to accommodate you (if you want to stay)? Have you asked them?
 
#104
Also interesting is many people's perception of the bass in many 'metal' bands being the poor cousin to the guitar and drums.
Are there (m)any famous metal bands with boring drum or guitar parts? (I can't think of any off the top of my head)

At the school where I teach I've noticed the guitarists and drummers who like and are good at metal(core) are really struggling to find bass players or singers.
Many of the songs they want to do appear to have basslines that are really guitar lines down an octave (at best).
 
#105
Many can say the same thing about playing blues, country ,roots... blah blah blah. Its music some is simple some is not. If you feel its not challenging you move on. Nobody needs a player who's heart is not in it or feels the are musically handcuffed.
 
#106
I will say it again. There isn't some sort of rule book that says "you must play the same line as the guitars an octave down." If you don't want to do that, then don't. Write a bass line that's different from what the guitars are playing. I often do, just because I think it adds to the song and is fun. It's up to you. You're the bassist, you figure out a part that sounds good and is fun to play.

If you can't, then maybe you're just not very good.
 
#109
InternetAlias said:
Sartori, it's true that some bands suck so much (mostly metalcore) that you can't improve songs by playing something else on a bass, they're too free of any musicality.
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Metalcore isn't the only kind of metal. Most metal bands seem to be originals bands, and so the OP is presumably free to write his own parts.

If his bandmates won't "let" him play something different, then the problem isn't the genre, it's who he's playing with. That kind of douche can be found in every genre.
 
#111
Sartori said:
I will say it again. There isn't some sort of rule book that says "you must play the same line as the guitars an octave down." If you don't want to do that, then don't. Write a bass line that's different from what the guitars are playing. I often do, just because I think it adds to the song and is fun. It's up to you. You're the bassist, you figure out a part that sounds good and is fun to play.

If you can't, then maybe you're just not very good.
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That was a decent post until the last sentence where you revealed yourself to be a dork.
 
#113
samtastic said:
Another stereotype. Not all stand around.
Go see Dillinger Escape Plan. Pleanty more do not stand around. I have seen more jazz bassists stand around then technical metal players.

Metal is like a lot of genres, you need to take time and listen. Sometimes it sounds like a buch of distorted noise but if fact could be realy interesting music, on speed.
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Stereotype? I've been to tons of technical death metal shows. I'm just saying a lot of the guys aren't very active. DEP is known for their crazy a$$ shows. Probably stems from the hardcore :D
I do need to see them though. But they were here this weekend and I was busy :bawl:
 
#114
''its the most bass line dry genre I've heard''

Sure! Metallica, Rammstein, Slipknot, In Flames, Meshuggah, Animals As Leaders, Static-X, Pantera, Anthrax, Marilyn Manson, Megadeth, Symphony X, Adagio, Slayer, Dream Theater, Disturbed, System Of A Down, Machine Head, Mudvayne, Motörhead, Rage Against The Machine (just to name a few) are bands that are ''bass line dry'' ;)

I can only say that everybody has his / her own prefernce when it comes to music. Metal is in my heart for about 11 years now! I just love the lowness, the fast playing and of course the lyrics!!
 
#116
Could be that as well. I am not 'just' the bass player in my band so I could be biased towards the position of a 'typical' chug-along metal bassist. I write majority of the material and write majority of lyrics in my band. My decisions are mostly taken into an account, but I always like taking creative input from other band members and often ask for it when I can't continue the writing process.

If, on the other hand, you're just asked to keep it low and chug along the guitar, then it's a real problem. Personally, I probably wouldn't play in a band like that unless it was a cover band that earns a lot of $$, otherwise just no.
 
#117
richntiff said:
That was a decent post until the last sentence where you revealed yourself to be a dork.
Click to expand...

I call myself a dork all the time. Not going to deny being one. Yet, I haven't been called one by someone else since I was in elementary school.

Maybe it's just hard for me to imagine being competent at playing funk and jazz, and somehow struggling to write a decent bass line in a metal band.

If the OP can't, maybe he should work on his own bass-line writing abilities rather than blame the genre for his bass lines being boring. He's the one writing them, after all. From his opening post, it seems that he regards himself as being very good. If he is entirely unable to write any bass lines in a metal band that he does not find boring, perhaps he isn't as good as he thinks he is, or isn't good at everything.

I'm not very good myself. Pretty mediocre, really. Yet I have no trouble writing bass parts in metal bands that differ from the guitar parts, no more trouble than I'd have in my folk/rock band. It's really not that hard.

If you're playing a bass line that you wrote, and you're bored, the problem isn't the genre. Write a better one, or improve the one you're playing. If you can't, then why are you bored, since apparently doing something more interesting than what you're already playing is too hard?

Figurative "you," obviously, since you're not the OP.

Am I being a bit harsh? Yes, but so was the OP.
 
#118
Sartori, some metal bands are so uncreative that it's incredibly hard to write a bassline and to still fit it into the terrible context you're in. Having trouble writing a decent bassline is something that often happens when you aren't given anything to work with.
 
#120
Exactly, the first band I played in played terrible cookie cutter metalcore with terrible screamo vocals. The band was very tight even though I didn't play very well at the time but even then I could tell that so called music we produce simply isn't good for me, there's no way to run away from chugging with guitars when the whole genres is based on having a nonexistant bass that copies guitar completely. Since then, I've moved onto more experimental kinds of metal (-wankery) and got actually creative people to work with, it's incredible how you can get completely different emotional/musical response from playing in different bands even if they are branded as practically the same genre (metal). So I can tell the OP that you can't judge the genre by worst examples, that way I could find terrible cookie cutter jazz and funk too :)
 

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