Metal Bassists

[wmhill]

I don't play much metal anymore, unfortunately it doesn't pay very well (or often) around my area. strictly a 4 string guy, picks& fingers depending on the song. Loved the music, but it wasn't even a break even thing anymore.I'm fortunate that I dig all kinds of music, so I can still gig every weekend, and still enjoy what I'm doing. I'd much rather rip into "for whom the bell tools" than "mustang Sally"........ but ca$h is king at the end of the week.

 

[metal_bass7]

I have been playing metal for over 10 years and like the post above, yes it doesn't pay very well. But it is in my soul and will never go away. I was never one to play another instrument and switch to bass, I chose to play bass way back when and never looked back. I currently play a Fernandez Tremor 4 as my main and also have a Epiphone 4 and Alvarez 5 string. People always ask me why I use my fingers instead of a pick with the speed of music we play and I just shrug my shoulders. I've never really considered using a pick, I've always worked on my technique that also increased my speed. After every gig we play I get usually a few people coming to me that they were amazed that I could go so fast with just two fingers and that is probably the third best feeling in the musical world (next to playing gigs and NBD).

Some of my influences are Justin Chancellor (for my chord and note progression), Cliff Burton (for my speed and soloing), Alex Webster (for my lofty goals), Geezer Butler (for my finger technique). Some people assume that I'm inspired by Steve Harris but I really only started listening to Iron Maiden in the last year or two and realized that I play a lot like he does less the galloping.

If you want, check out my bands:
Tomorrow Brings New Blood - Tomorrow Brings New Blood | Facebook
Infernal Deity - Infernal Deity | Facebook

 

[hintz]

Very cool thread!! I haven't played metal for 8 years now, but I really miss it and still listen to all the bands I did since I started playing.

I started on bass at age 11, my father was/is also a bassist, so I've been playing for 20 years....

my mother liked hair bands so my first cassette was g'n r's appetite, later I got countdown by megadeth, black album by Metallica ,pantera, and later death and black metal by the time I started playing.

I started with a pick but quickly switched to fingers, and have been doing the Sheehan 3 fingers technique since I was about 14, and I still use it all the time playing very commercial, non metal stuff, but some fusion and funk!!

For about 12 years I only played original tech/thrash and death metal, I didn't make a dime, but I got to play 4 metalfest's(Milwaukee and NJ), and play lots of cool gigs and make great memories I wouldn't trade for anything!!

I hate 5 strings though, I like a beefy necked 4 string, so I mostly use my 81 mockingbird bass or my Ironbird for the rock/pop group I play with, I drop tune for some songs, and if I needed a low b, id restring one of my basses BEAD....

I will return to playing metal in the next few years when I'm out of my contract with my current gig...

 

[brumebat]

I technically played guitar before I played bass. I was a young and ignorant fool. I wanted to play bass, but was really intrigued by the distortion/overdrive sound that seemingly inherently came with playing guitar. I thought that I could only get that sound out of guitar, so my first guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul. After basically trying to play bass on that instrument, I eventually was able to acquire a Squire Jazz bass.

For many years, I played mostly with fingers. But, eventually, I discovered that I just enjoyed playing with a pick more. The band that first got me into metal (or the gateway band, if you will) is Metallica. I grew up on Load… and eventually S&M is what really got me into seeking other metal bands. I became inspired by Tool, Alice in Chains, Opeth, Mastodon, Black Sabbath, and many others. Eventually, I was turned on to Megadeth and I have never turned back. I was first inspired to play bass when I heard Metallica (Cliff Burton AND Jason Newsted), but David Ellefson really breathed new life into my playing.

 

[*ToNeS*]

Toasting in epic bread! Now this is more my speed.

I came up listening to stuff like Candiria (Mike McIvor is one of my favourite players) and Death's The Sound of Perseverance, so it made total sense when I ended up in this band.

On the bass front, I've been playing a 5-string exclusively for ages. I swing a custom Sandberg TM5 now, but used to record with the kind of bizarre combo of a Spector NS2000/4 neck-thru and a G&L Tribby that I'd done all kinds of weird stuff to. Used to be fingers-only, too, but my wrists are really banged up nowadays so I play pretty much everything with a plectrum (and I love it. Nasty tones all over).

 

[Rugmaster]

I play in a Melodic Death Metal band, but I'm mostly a fan of old school stuff like Iron Maiden, (who doesn't like Iron Maiden?) Celtic Frost, Megadeth, Etc. The first band I ever got into was AC/DC when I was about 6. Didn't know a damn thing about music until I picked up the bass in grade 7 after listening to System of a Down, and from there I just became a total old school metalhead, still am, and as far as I can tell, always will be \m/.

My band:

 

[brumebat]

I came up listening to stuff like Candiria (Mike McIvor is one of my favourite players) and Death's The Sound of Perseverance, so it made total sense when I ended up in this band.

I know this probably flies in the face of many Death fans, but Individual Thought Patterns, Symbolic, and The Sound of Perseverance are some of my favorite metal albums. IMO, Chuck Schuldiner became better with age.

 

[*ToNeS*]

I know this probably flies in the face of many Death fans, but Individual Thought Patterns, Symbolic, and The Sound of Perseverance are some of my favorite metal albums. IMO, Chuck Schuldiner became better with age.

Super 100% agreed. I would really dig Control Denied if I could turn off the vocals, too

 

[*ToNeS*]

Oh and some kind soul has utterly destroyed the massive profit margins inherent in creating schizophrenic jazzcore by uploading my band's first EP to the 'Tube, if anyone's keen:

 

[VinnyIuspa]

I've been listening to metal my entire life, and have been hooked since I first heard it. Started out with maiden and sabbath and branched out from there. Those two bands were probably what inspired me most to play bass. I love all different kinds of metal though: thrash, death, black, stoner, progressive you name it. Everything except the "cores", you know what I mean haha. Heavy music is what speaks to me most, its what gets my blood flowing. I know I wouldn't be happy playing anything else, I've tried it and it just doesn't do it for me.

I started playing bass when I was thirteen, and haven't picked up any additional instruments earnestly. There's barely enough time on this earth to get pretty decent at one instrument, let alone many haha. My main bass is a musicman bongo, though i also have a mexi jazz bass and a nice acoustic bass thats excellent for practicing and writing. I don't like five or six strings, the tight string spacing screws up my right hand technique. Plus I haven't ever really felt the need for extra strings. I also play fingerstyle exclusively, using three fingers in order to keep up.

Right now I'm in two bands. One is a thrash band, very traditional but fast and fun! Lots of room for me as a bassist to solo and improvise. We're called apathy and we played with overkill and municipal waste a few months back.

The other band is my main project. Its a band that I started myself with a guitar player that I love playing with. The sound is interesting, as it combines a variety of different influences. We do ALOT of jamming and improvsing, very old school bluesy zeppliny sabbathy type riffs. But we mix it up with technical, almost proggy sections. Due to the nature of the material, there are many time and melody changes that keep things fresh. For example, we will have a very doomy, slow, droning riff but then transition into a fast metallic gallop, and then follow that up with a mid tempo atmospheric section. I write the majority of the material and then as a group we assemble it together. I'm always open to input and ideas from the other members, collaboration is where the magic happens.
Really right now I couldn't imagine being happier in a band. Musically and creatively I feel completely free. There is inherent flexibility within each song that allows for improvisation. Together we sound great, with each member serving as a puzzle piece for the complete whole. Equally important are each of our personalities; no drama queens, control freaks or anything of the like. It really is a great situation. The only problem is we haven't found a satisfactory vocalist as of yet. But I'm not worried, and I'm willing to wait as long as it takes for the right person since every other aspect is so strong. We are going to gig anyway without a vocalist until we find one, as we think the music is good enough to stand on its own. Haha, maybe I got a little off topic, but I really like the band, can you tell?

 

[Hamlet7768]

I wasn't sure whether to put bass first or not, because I technically started on guitar, but that was after several months of wanting to play bass and finding out the guy I wanted to start a band with was better on bass, so I said "hey we need a guitarist might as well step up and not be That Guitarist". After about three or four months I switched to bass.

My main bass right now is my first, a Squier Affinity P, though I also own an Ibanez 6-string that I don't use with my current project.

EDIT: A word about my current project: It's planning to be a US-style Power/Prog/Trad metal band. Take some of the best parts of Iron Maiden, old In Flames, Trivium, Symphony X, Blind Guardian, and Fates Warning, put it all together. We're still looking for a better singer than me and a second guitarist, though we have a few hits on that.

 

[VinnyIuspa]

I know this probably flies in the face of many Death fans, but Individual Thought Patterns, Symbolic, and The Sound of Perseverance are some of my favorite metal albums. IMO, Chuck Schuldiner became better with age.

Death is one of my favorite bands. I love everything he did, but my favorite albums are spiritual healing and individual thought patterns

 

[Nesch]

Started playing bass after playing drums for about a year. I had picked up an electric guitar before and it just did not seem very fun to me. Later on when I started listening to more metal, I always heard the bass in songs and it interested me more so than the guitar. My brother (a guitarist) gave me a bass he had but never used and I fell in love with it right away. Been playing for about 10 years, I started on 4 strings then moved up to 5, went back to 4 for a bit, and am now playing exclusively 6 string basses. I play an Ibanez BTB676m. I listen to a lot of technical death metal and progressive metal. (Beyond Creation, The faceless, Meshuggah, Between the Buried and Me, Scale the Summit, Rivers of Nihil) Some of my bass heroes would have to be: Dominic Forest Lapointe from beyond creation for sure, Steve Digiorgio from Death, Alex Webster of cannibal corpse, and Justin Chancellor of Tool. I play only with my fingers and I utilize a lot of tapping and slap in my playing as well.

 

[hintz]

I know this probably flies in the face of many Death fans, but Individual Thought Patterns, Symbolic, and The Sound of Perseverance are some of my favorite metal albums. IMO, Chuck Schuldiner became better with age.

I like his vocals best on sound of perseverance, I also got to see them on that tour at Milwaukee metalfest, emperor, Sodom and king diamond were there as well

 

[Korladis]

Bay area, here. Been playing metal for... oh man, about fourteen years now. Generally I feel that the bass needs to be louder on metal records. Including my own band's, ha ha.

We play doom metal. I guess. It's slow and tuned low, so it's doom. The first album is just one 38 minute long song.

Lots of different bassists influenced me over the years. Geezer Butler, Cliff Burton, John Entwistle, Steve Harris, Paul McCartney are probably the main ones. Lately Dave Edwardson and Aaron Reiseburg have influenced how I do things, both in playing and in sound. I get different ideas from lots of bassists, though. And even guitarists, though I started on bass.

I don't really use basses with more than four strings. Just not comfortable for me, or really necessary.

 

[Dojix]

I guess I'm relatively new in contrast to all you Metal veterans here. drool
I've always liked Metal. I mean, I've always liked everything, Metal is one of the genres that sticks out to me though. But none of that was really the reason for playing it.

During my childhood, I went through a few instruments, piano, violin, guitar, none of which ever lasted more than a few months. Then at some point, my friend mentioned wanting a keyboardist for his Industrial Metal band, just to give the synth parts to it, and so I bought a keyboard and stuck at that for a while. Again, didn't pan out after a few months, and I quit it. But then about a year after that, a local music store was having a sale, selling a $700 bass for $10. It was a first-come, first-serve deal since they'd only sell one at such a discount, and it was their 10th anniversary sale. On the day, the line was 3 hours long, and I didn't get it, of course, but I figured I better buy something since I waited so long, and I spied a secondhand Cort EVL-Z6B in the corner, and it called out to me with its pentagram inlays and coffin-shaped metal truss rod cover. The shopkeepers said its retail price was $1600, and with it being secondhand, plus a dramatic sale, I got it for $350.

And so, of course, I had to learn to play it, and I really got into it then. But yeah, I basically don't have any inspiration for it, it was just an impulse buy for a great deal, and I happened to love it.

 

[Zodion]

If you love bass and you love metal then you should honesty check out Tool! The bassist is insane and I would say he plays a bigger role than the guitarist. The basslines are unreal dude. Also the basslines are playing separate melodies to the guitar and are not mixed down and hidden, you can actually hear them. Listen to Tool - The Pot

I actually got into bass a lot due to tool

 

[Zodion]

I play in a totally trve kvlt black metal band from Greenland. We suck.

Hey man you'll do better or if you're super awesome maybe join another band and bass it up I bet you guys rock though

 

[Zodion]

Oops left out.
I play 4 string basses the majority of the time but will use others if I just have to.
I'm a Spector Bass artist. Go spector!!!
I use both euro and USA spector basses.
And I love a good all tube amp for my tone.
I also do lead vocals for the Power Metal band Crimson Thirst where I also play bass on the recordings.

That's awesome man I have yet to conquer the crazy tapping and sweeping as I've only been playing for 2 years but I'm definitely going there I like when the bass really booms but I also like stuff like bore worm that play in drop Octave E but their melodies fit so tight

 

[Zodion]

I don't play much metal anymore, unfortunately it doesn't pay very well (or often) around my area. strictly a 4 string guy, picks& fingers depending on the song. Loved the music, but it wasn't even a break even thing anymore.I'm fortunate that I dig all kinds of music, so I can still gig every weekend, and still enjoy what I'm doing. I'd much rather rip into "for whom the bell tools" than "mustang Sally"........ but ca$h is king at the end of the week.View attachment 564359

Sometimes things like that happen but keep on rockin man and you'll get the metal rolling my band is still just getting off the ground