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Metallic Shock
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:01 pm
Posts: 757
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 3:20 am 
 

I've been on a big lead bass kick lately. From fusion greats like Gary Willis to a tech death god like Dominic Lapointe or the unsung prog metal hero that is Andreas Blomqvist of Seventh Wonder, I've really been loving the instrument these days. It occurred to me though - do any metal albums exist where the bass guitar gets as many (or close to as many) actual solos as the lead guitarist gets? Most metal bands that happen to have virtuoso bassists usually only give them a proper lead section maybe twice an album at most.

So yeah, I'm looking for recommendations of metal bands/albums with generally heroic bassists who get as many opportunities as possible to shine. I'm open to any subgenre but my general preference would be for something fairly precise and "modern" sounding I guess. Anything prog or death metal related is usually an easy win for me but feel free to recommend outside of those as well. A few examples of bands who's bass playing I dig (besides the ones I mentioned last paragraph) are as follows: Martyr, Cynic, Atheist, Alarum, Cryptopsy, Watchtower, Cannibal Corpse (especially on The Bleeding) Suffocation, anything with Steve DiGiorgio, Gorguts, Faith No More, Timi Hansen era Mercyful Fate, Iron Maiden ofc, Obscura etc.
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~Guest 334273
Veteran

Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2014 2:19 am
Posts: 2513
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 3:46 am 
 

Not my usual cup of tea (not a big fan of tech death) but in Pavor's second album Furioso the bass player is shredding all over the place and the lead spots are fairly frequent: you may be interested!

If i remember well the bass was super frontal and fairly crazy also in the only Spiral Architect album

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joppek
Veteran

Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:36 am
Posts: 2547
Location: Suomi Finland Perkele
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 7:53 am 
 



of course if it doesn't necessarily have to be metal, you could always just go for some primus
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Metallic Shock
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:01 pm
Posts: 757
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 9:51 pm 
 

Wow that Pavor album was nuts! Definitely the kind of thing I'm looking for, that's gotta be some of the most acrobatic bass playing I've heard recently. Most of the actual solos were a bit on the short side but still made a strong impression. The album as a whole was really good too, even if some of the songs felt a bit long.

I've only heard the first song from that Gotsu Totsu Kotsu album so far but it sounds close to what I'm thinking of as well. From that song alone the bass gets a BIT buried at times but those slap bits were cool. I'll be checking out Spiral Architect soon too since I've now put off listening to them for close to a decade. Thanks for the recs guys! :)
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jaykeisstrange
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed May 31, 2006 9:36 pm
Posts: 66
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 10:18 pm 
 

StarGazer comes to mind. Damon Good from Mournful Congregation lays down some sick fretless bass lines with StarGazer.

https://youtu.be/dQBicrqRKvk

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TheWaltzer
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:07 am
Posts: 651
Location: Slowfuck Republic
PostPosted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 7:04 am 
 

Try out Sadist, from Italy. They have a lot of prominent bass parts - check out their latest, "Hyaena", or "Season In Silence", but most of their stuff is good (except "Lego").
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Damballah
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:12 pm
Posts: 176
PostPosted: Sat Feb 17, 2018 7:26 pm 
 

Necromantia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd3_kbY5LwY

They use 8-String Bass.
Not many Black Metal Bands do this.

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jaykeisstrange
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed May 31, 2006 9:36 pm
Posts: 66
PostPosted: Sat Feb 17, 2018 9:22 pm 
 

Damballah wrote:
Necromantia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd3_kbY5LwY

They use 8-String Bass.
Not many Black Metal Bands do this.


Scarlet Evil Witching Black is one of the best black metal albums ever. Good call.

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Temple Of Blood
Old Man Yells at Cloud

Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:16 am
Posts: 3118
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 11:03 am 
 

Sieges Even - Life Cycle
Tempest - Annihilation of the Wicked
Joey Tafolla - Infra-Blue
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Crescent_Moon
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri May 27, 2016 2:47 pm
Posts: 189
Location: Altai/Siberia
PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:05 am 
 

Recommend this song and this album as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAmzleslgxw

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Metallic Shock
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:01 pm
Posts: 757
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 4:21 am 
 

Some great recs so far guys. I'm still working through them but the Spiral Architect album definitely scratches the right itch, super creative playing on that one. The Sieges Even debut was pretty killer too, I wouldn't have guessed Oliver Holzwarth had that level of skills just from knowing him as the fill-in guy for Blind Guardian.

I'm already familiar with Sadist, but I've only heard the Tribe album so I'll have to check out the ones you suggested. I recall the bass playing on the Tribe album being pretty great but if I recall correctly most of their other albums have a different player. I'm listening to that Master tune atm too and this guy has tremendous bass tone as well. Quite a hidden gem discovery really.

So far most of these recs are more about busy sounding bass lines rather than full out solos in every song, but this is still filling out my knowledge of lead bass-centric bands so keep 'em coming.
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IamDBR
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2016 2:58 am
Posts: 1462
PostPosted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 1:25 pm 
 

Viraemia
First Fragment
Archspire
Intronaut

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aloof
avant-gardener

Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2008 1:18 pm
Posts: 3174
Location: never neverland, palm trees by the sea
PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2018 12:30 am 
 

obligatory mention: https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Ba ... ers/116964
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SpinRightRound
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2017 4:34 am
Posts: 13
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 4:16 am 
 

Have you listened to Manowar? (I see it's not mentioned hereā€¦)
Albums like https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/M ... mer/528690 and https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/M ... Steel/1133 have a good presence of bass, Joey DeMaio is really proficient with it and he is also the songwriter usually, and there are bass solos sometimes (and in particular, Thunderpick from Sign of the Hammer is 100% bass solo)

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suleiman
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:51 am
Posts: 553
Location: Pakistan
PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 8:05 am 
 

i second primus

also cliff burton, roger patterson (earlier atheist), the guy from death's individual thought patterns (ha), phil lynott (bass solos while the rest of the song goes on), or maybe some 70's prog/fusion jazz/rock like those mc laughlin albums with jacos pastorious

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~Guest 354281
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 07, 2015 1:01 pm
Posts: 287
PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 9:26 am 
 

Not the exact definition of metal by the MA standards but Jinjer has a kick ass bass player and he stands out far more than the guitar.

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mrbskywalker
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2016 12:18 pm
Posts: 21
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:16 am 
 

The new Havok record only has like 1 or 2 bass solos but he bass is fucking insane throughout the entire thing
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Rompestromper
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Jun 23, 2014 2:37 pm
Posts: 462
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 7:44 pm 
 

Continuo renacer is certainly one to check out

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RNG
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:30 pm
Posts: 282
Location: Seattle
PostPosted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 1:34 am 
 

Pretty much every song on Alhambra's debut has a bass solo. Munehisa Jinbo is an absolute madman.

Also, Unexpect have some of the most impressive basswork I've heard in metal, though I'm not sure if it'd be considered outright soloing due to the nature of the band.
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