Question to you guys who play a lot live. How do you approach the "wall of sound" tone with your band? That slow riffage that hit's you constantly in the chest in the audience? Think bands like Monolord, Conan, Primitive Man, Bongripper. I actually talked to Ron at one his gig and if I remember correctly they had some sort of low frequency crossover going on for the whole mix.
Would agree with @bobomatic on the importance of frequency slotting. Remember that everyone boosting or sitting in a certain frequency range does not equate to more power. You can get weird canceling/filtering if you have multiple guitars & bass and a kick drum all stepping into the same space. (Quick example: My band has a song where me and the guitarist start with a unison, fuzzy riff in similar, mid/low-mid territory. Then I go to a lower register and he goes to a higher register, and you get the immediate effect of things sounding huge in comparison to when we're reinforcing the same sonic space.)
Our band isn't wall of sound, but we play with a fair amount of dirt/distortion and it's very riff-based. So power is needed, especially in the 'big' sections. We're only a 3-piece, but it's still super important for me and the guitarist to workout our frequency 'Venn diagram' to ensure that everything is working together.
For example, I'm using an HPF to keep myself from overwhelming the kick-drum territory while still sounding full in the lows. Our guitarist plays a lot of baritone, which means he has to be mindful of keeping his lows in check to not step on my lows. He occupies a lot of midrange, but I have some extra gunk in my high-mids that helps me cut through and compliment what he's doing. Then he occupies the high end without overemphasizing the really high/harsh stuff, and that keeps him from getting into the weird 'cymbals eat guitars' territory.
There's no specific formula, but just using rehearsals to notice and work stuff out will definitely translate live and make you easier to mix (and easier to make sound good/big/clear) in a live setting.
Also, more bass is not always better. Sure, it's fun to have a wall of subby lows behind you, but it's hard to make that actually sound good/defined live. Pay attention to the bands you play with too, and try to identify the bands that sounds good versus the bands that sound like mush, are way too loud on stage, have terrible mixes, etc. Look at their rigs/EQ, listen to the space they're occupying, and try to figure out why you like their overall sound.
Edited to add: Check out some of the better sounding youtube vids of bongripper and monolord live. You're not hearing the bass in the mix because of the low end levels. They're using some mids/upper mids (and the accented harmonics distortion/fuzz adds) to give the bass definition and detail. Those two bassist also have a lot of attack audible in the mix. Last I saw, Ron is using an EGC bass and a darkglass solid state head. So he's definitely got some teeth in his signal.
Conan is a bit different, because they downtune to the depths of hell. The bass in a lot of their stuff is just a fuzzed out, swampy blanket that adds a huge pad of low end. It's way warmer with way less clank/attack in the mix. I always felt like the Conan bass is way more supportive of guitar compared to BR and Monolord utilizing bass for more lead/melodic sounds - at least in some songs.
Man...my post is long AF. Sorry.
