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Nu-Metal?!?!

W

Waster

Nov 24, 2011
148
3
Scotland
#1
Hey TB,

A guitarist friend has asked me to join his nu-metal band as the bass player. I'm thinking that I'll at least give it a go, but I am posting here as I have no idea what the bass does in nu-metal! I'm a serious bass player- I've done grade 8, am working on a diploma and hope to attend a conservatory next year to study jazz with a view to playing professionally. I am well versed in many genres and have a background in praise and worship music, but I would say that any kind of metal is the only genre I don't have at least an intermediate grounding in. Can any of you metal-heads give me advice on bands/players in this genre that I should listen to or any tips to help me out?

Thanks a lot!
Connor
 
#3
All that sort of stuff is fairly guitar dominated, so you can probably play whatever you like and most won't notice or care :) I'd expect music revolving around minor pentatonics, with added dorian, phrygian and natural minor stuff thrown in. The flat 5 is a useful addition in that context. My standard advice to anybody starting out in any kind of metal bass playing is to give the first couple of sabbath albums a listen. Like Julie Andrews said, the begining is a very good place to start...
 
#9
It's just like real metal but with less musicianship and creativity.... (sorry, I couldn't resist) Just hit your open B-string on the downbeat and the rest will follow... Fieldy is kinda creative but the world only needs one person playing Fieldy style. A tribal sleeve shirt and dogtags will also help quite a bit, and you may have to "frost your tips". ( I really can't resist)
 
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#11
I will try to give some real advice, we will see how well it works.

I would say "new Metal" is August Burns Red, Dillinger Escape Plan, The Faceless (evan brewer is a personal fav of mine) it all seems to be rooted in the "newish" Djent style. So basically anything that sounds remotely close to Messuggah is a good place to start for new metal.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

Keep in mind I am a "old metal" guy at this stage of the game. I do love the New Metal though.

One last thing, anyone who says just play root notes should check out Evan Brewer of the Faceless he dose more than just root notes. Just my opinion. Rock on!
 
#12
SoLongJake said:
This is a bit of a stretch considering they are both downtuned nu-metal with annoying vocals. I would say they sound very much alike.
Click to expand...

Well... Disturbed was drop D, whereas Korn was Drop A. Disturbed's singer could actually sing when he wanted to... There was no Rapping... Guitarist wasn't trying to make DJ noises... and the bass wasn't an indistinguishable clicky mess. You may dislike both bands equally, but to say they sound alike is really oversimplifying things.

The overriding similarity is that both of their careers are over.
 
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#13
Ahh, it's the new generation. Personally, I get sick of the downtuned songs, scramings songs. Give me AC/DC, old Metallica, Black Sabbath anyday. If you can't play a song to E and make it any good, then blahhhh. The only downtuned songs I like are Slipknot, Lamb Of God and Korn perhaps. Slipknot, because the drummer is so awesome. But, who has a drummer that good? Nobody. It seems, from my age of wisdom. That all songs used to have at least, a root E. Then, Korn came along with a root A downtuned and it was cool. But, what sucked was everybody thought they could just downtune and sell songs. Then, music started to suck in general. All you hear is thumpa thumpa thumpa with no real musicianship.
 
#14
I would pose this question to your prospective new band. There's so many genre names anymore that I really don't know what is what anymore.

I would ask them which nu-metal bands they feel influenced by and which bassists are their favorite. Give double-weight to the drummers opinion if he has one. Hopefully, for your sake, they have opinions and know what they want.
 
#16
DeadGoonz said:
I will try to give some real advice, we will see how well it works.

I would say "new Metal" is August Burns Red, Dillinger Escape Plan, The Faceless (evan brewer is a personal fav of mine) it all seems to be rooted in the "newish" Djent style. So basically anything that sounds remotely close to Messuggah is a good place to start for new metal.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

Keep in mind I am a "old metal" guy at this stage of the game. I do love the New Metal though.

One last thing, anyone who says just play root notes should check out Evan Brewer of the Faceless he dose more than just root notes. Just my opinion. Rock on!
Click to expand...

I always thought those bands were some form of "core" with nu-metal being bands like korn and deftones but also static-x, slipknot, coal chamber, disturbed, mudvayne, drowning pool, papa roach, and staind. "Djent" wasn't termed that until just recently and I wouldn't say one has roots in the other as they both evolved at about the same time in the early 90s.

Some consider it an inferior form of music because it seemingly takes less talent to play and you only have to play 010101-011011. While this may be true for korn though, take a listen to mudvayne. There are some very difficult yet still melodic bass lines in their songs.

So it's not so much defined by a lack of talent but by the overall sound - the destination is the same but there are different roads to get there. Some people just don't like certain forms of music. One guy mentioned ac/dc which I can't stand listening to but that's nothing against them or him.
 
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#17
NKUSigEp said:
I always thought those bands were some form of "core" with nu-metal being bands like korn and deftones but also static-x, slipknot, coal chamber, disturbed, mudvayne, drowning pool, papa roach, and staind. "Djent" wasn't termed that until just recently and I wouldn't say one has roots in the other as they both evolved at about the same time in the early 90s.

Some consider it an inferior form of music because it seemingly takes less talent to play and you only have to play 010101-011011. While this may be true for korn though, take a listen to mudvayne. There are some very difficult yet still melodic bass lines in their songs.

So it's not so much defined by a lack of talent but by the overall sound - the destination is the same but there are different roads to get there. Some people just don't like certain forms of music. One guy mentioned ac/dc which I can't stand listening to but that's nothing against them or him.
Click to expand...

this is pretty much what I think too
 
#18
I'm pretty amazed at the responses..lol. People typing 0-1-0-1??? wow.

If you want to know how to play the stuff get a copy of their music. Or ask the guitarist to record some riffs. Most of the time you will be doubling him. Just by doubling him you will learn a lot of the scales and notes that will work.

No one can really answer the question until the music is heard.
 

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