Metal Bassists

[Zodion]

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

Awesome man I sure will and Webster inspired me to just go for it even if it seems tough you can do it and I go faster with 2 fingers than 3 I just sped up lol and yeah metal is still fighting for equal recognition but it's one of those things that won't ever go away and is in you forever

 

[Zodion]

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...

Rock man I feel ya but some metal into the funk always do what feels best for you and metal always brings you back no matter what and memories are all we have at the end of the day man must of been a hell of a time

 

[Zodion]

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.

Metallica is what really did me in too Newsted as well I really think he's a cool dude check out his band "Newsted " very heavy bass in the mix I actually like load a lot many ppl don't but I love it Ellefson is definitely big for pick players no doubt and I think he's great too the stuff is precise and not easy like ppl would think. S&M was awesome for me which probably explains why I like metal and classic mixed

 

[Zodion]

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).

The pick definitely packs a..."Punch" I'm still discovering more death but lately I've been really into Mudvayne and Motograter and I can't have just one I use all the basses kinda a bass nerd here

 

[Zodion]

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:

I'm digging it man! Sounds like old school metal with Dethklok very cool! I've always been a metal head since I first heard metal

 

[Zodion]

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:

Very jazzy I'm digging the bass sounds great!

 

[Zodion]

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?

Hey man I'm right with you on that one I get carried away too and its great to hear a positive band story man keep kicking it sounds like you're having a great time changing things up is always nice for sure my band does that in one song it's slow and heavy into a really fast gallop part into a super heavy bridge and outdo

 

[Zodion]

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.

that sounds awesome my friend! Hope everything goes right for you guys and you blow the roof of off some venues

 

[Zodion]

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.

Dude beyond creation is amazing! I'm not yet able to play like that but I sure as hell want to meshuggah rules! Have you tried Vildjharta? Or bore worm? Also Dominic's band Augury is good as well

 

[Zodion]

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.

It's all about what you're cool with man all you need is four then awesome Idk those last two guys but I'm discovering more as I go and I agree a song that has good bass sounds intense! And one long song? I wonder how many ppl think there are several tracks

 

[Zodion]

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.

$10? Damn man and yeah stuff just happens some times. I played drums before I got to bass at 16 and I love the hell out of it. The end is always the same ppl love the bass but that's one hell of a way to get there

 

[Zodion]

There hopefully I answered you all man I didn't expect so many ppl to reply great to see all of my metal brothers! With out the metal bass, bands would sound wimpy and lame but we glue it all together really the band just plays around us am I right? Thank you all for responding I even got back to you and my food is waiting for me still

 

[*ToNeS*]

Loving your commitment to this thread, Zodion. Haha. Metaaal \m/

 

[Zodion]

Hey I figured if I'm gonna do it then I might as well really do it. I know I love when everyone is interactive and sharing their stories so I try to answer everyone

 

[hintz]

Metallica is what really did me in too Newsted as well I really think he's a cool dude check out his band "Newsted " very heavy bass in the mix I actually like load a lot many ppl don't but I love it Ellefson is definitely big for pick players no doubt and I think he's great too the stuff is precise and not easy like ppl would think. S&M was awesome for me which probably explains why I like metal and classic mixed

man, if you dig newsted check out flotsam and jetsam"doomsday for the deceiver" , its a damn shame he was barely audible on "...And Justice"....

his pre Metallica power thrash band!!

 

[Zodion]

man, if you dig newsted check out flotsam and jetsam"doomsday for the deceiver" , its a damn shame he was barely audible on "...And Justice"....

his pre Metallica power thrash band!!

If you play justice songs on guitar hero he is mixed in and he is intense dude thanks for the song I'll check them out and here's a bonus I'm listening to New Design by Motograter check them out they use a special instrument which they are named after which is used as bass. It's an octave below bass so it's really heavy

 

[hintz]

I'll check them out!!! Oh yeah, "doomsday" is the album(there is a title track though), the whole album is amazing start to finish "hammerhead", "iron tears" "she took an axe".... I first heard em on a compilation tape I got in middle school with suicidal tendencies, voivod and others.....

I'm lucky that where I grew up metal was huge, I guess I'm a product of my environment ....at my high school I remember jocks wearing pantera or cradle of filth shirts.....there at least WAS(big past tense!!!) a thriving scene there for a real long time until a few of the main figureheads of the scene died, i got to play with one of them for 3 years, Earl Root, I even helped him with his radio show "Root of all Evil"answering the phone and just helping out... Or passing out flyers in sub-zero temperatures for Don Dekker and the shows he put on....

Those 2 carried the scene BIG TIME, then when Station 4/The Lab closed down(I lived in the practice space above here), that really put the nail in the coffin...

it goes to show that it only really takes a dedicated few to keep an underground music scene alive and Earl and Dekker really kept things rolling!! I was glad to be there for some of it, I got to get into any metal show for free and got to open up for and meet some of my heros, i even had my own beer mug at the Lab....my early/mid 20's were truly awesome, and I say people should go with their heart, not the wallet, I learned this the hard way!!

peace out,
andy

 

[Zodion]

I'll check them out!!! Oh yeah, "doomsday" is the album(there is a title track though), the whole album is amazing start to finish "hammerhead", "iron tears" "she took an axe".... I first heard em on a compilation tape I got in middle school with suicidal tendencies, voivod and others.....

I'm lucky that where I grew up metal was huge, I guess I'm a product of my environment ....at my high school I remember jocks wearing pantera or cradle of filth shirts.....there at least WAS(big past tense!!!) a thriving scene there for a real long time until a few of the main figureheads of the scene died, i got to play with one of them for 3 years, Earl Root, I even helped him with his radio show "Root of all Evil"answering the phone and just helping out... Or passing out flyers in sub-zero temperatures for Don Dekker and the shows he put on....

Those 2 carried the scene BIG TIME, then when Station 4/The Lab closed down(I lived in the practice space above here), that really put the nail in the coffin...

it goes to show that it only really takes a dedicated few to keep an underground music scene alive and Earl and Dekker really kept things rolling!! I was glad to be there for some of it, I got to get into any metal show for free and got to open up for and meet some of my heros, i even had my own beer mug at the Lab....my early/mid 20's were truly awesome, and I say people should go with their heart, not the wallet, I learned this the hard way!!

peace out,
andy

No doubt man it only takes a few to effect many and that's awesome that you grew up in that scene the metal here is kinda dead but there's still a little bit going on but I mean a little. So my band hopefully can put out the EP and you know that if I can I'll Def share it with all of you awesome guys! Then it's on to more shows!

 

[Zodion]

Hintz my night owl friend I'm afraid I can't seem to sleep and its about 1:00 here I just listened to some great music though so I'm all amped up lol oops. Also all you super low enders, where you guys from? I'm from Utica, New York

 

[hintz]

I'm in Hawaii (stationed here), so its like 8:00 pm, LOL!!