Instrumental Heavy Metal Bass Music?
May 7, 2007 at 7:59 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 17
antiant

antiant

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are there any bands or artists out there, that play strictly bass music (or is some type of lead) in the genre of heavy metal/rock, death metal, black metal or whatever forms and or derivates of those and it's instrumental? There are times i hear some good bass in songs but it's so small i'd love to hear an album full of it, if that's possible...any reccomendations? thanks in advance
 
May 8, 2007 at 1:01 AM Post #2 of 17
I'm not aware of any metal albums that feature "only" bass (that wouldn't really be metal anyway), but here are some recommendations -

Spastic Ink. Their first album Ink Complete was purely instrumental. Their second, Ink Compatible has some vocals but also features a far more impressive bass lineup - Riot's Pete Perez, Cynic's Sean Malone, Attention Deficit's Michael Manring, and Watchtower's Doug Keyser. Both are highly recommended, and the latter especially has some absolutely eargasmic bass interplay.

Also not instrumental, but definitely get your hands on Furioso from Pavor... some of the most unbelievable bass work ever put on a metal record.

!T.O.O.H.!'s Order and Punishment has impressive basswork.

The self-titled Aghora album would be well worth your time to check out.

Cynic's Focus and Atheist's Unquestionable Presence. Musts for any metal collection (IMO) and godly bass work to boot.

Alarum's Eventuality - Cynic/Atheist worship band.

Coprofago's Unorthodox Creative Criteria - Cynic/Meshuggah worship band.

Intronaut's Void - sludgy metal with a very lush and organic bass presence.

Control Denied's The Fragile Art of Existence - a side project of Chuck Schuldiner with Steve DiGiorgio on bass, I believe.

Quo Vadis - Defiant Imagination - more DiGiorgio goodness.

Before somebody jumps all over me, I know that none of the above are instrumental. However, they will most definitely please anybody looking for prominent bass work in metal.

Here's some more stuff that is purely instrumental -

Behold... the Arctopus - Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning - seventeen minutes of absurdly technical insanity with the Warr Guitar as the centerpiece. Impossible bass heroics.

Gordian Knot - Gordian Knot and Emergent - project of Cynic's Sean Malone, so of course the bass work is great... but it isn't really metal.

At War With Self - Torn Between Dimensions - sort of like Gordian Knot, with Michael Manring on bass.

Dysrhythmia - Barriers and Passages and Pretest - again, I don't really consider these guys metal, but they're close enough and the bass work is great.

You can also check out drone/doom, I suppose. Really earthshaking stuff like Electric Wizard and whatnot. I'm not really into that as it's way too slow for me, but it could be what you're looking for?

I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch, but those should satisfy any bass freak for a while.
 
May 8, 2007 at 1:32 AM Post #3 of 17
thanks asmox, i will check those out, much appreciated
icon10.gif
 
May 8, 2007 at 1:45 AM Post #4 of 17
Forgot... check out The Scream That Tore the Sky from Stargazer. Some cool bass stuff going on there, and just cool music in general.

You can also get Spiral Architect's A Sceptic's Universe... but you should know that their music basically consists of the band wandering around like aimless sheep while the bassist performs advanced finger exercises for the entirety of a given song.
 
May 8, 2007 at 2:11 AM Post #6 of 17
Quote:

Originally Posted by asmox /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Gordian Knot - Gordian Knot and Emergent - project of Cynic's Sean Malone, so of course the bass work is great... but it isn't really metal.


I'll second this. Great stuff indeed, especially the second, Emergent. Instrumental prog metal at the best.
cool.gif


I would also add these awesome recordings:

- BOZZIO LEVIN STEVENS - Black Light Syndrome & Situation Dangerous
- VERTÚ - Vertú
- BRIAN BROMBERG - Metal
 
May 8, 2007 at 4:10 AM Post #8 of 17
Quote:

Originally Posted by asmox /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I'm not aware of any metal albums that feature "only" bass (that wouldn't really be metal anyway), but here are some recommendations -

Spastic Ink. Their first album Ink Complete was purely instrumental. Their second, Ink Compatible has some vocals but also features a far more impressive bass lineup - Riot's Pete Perez, Cynic's Sean Malone, Attention Deficit's Michael Manring, and Watchtower's Doug Keyser. Both are highly recommended, and the latter especially has some absolutely eargasmic bass interplay.

Also not instrumental, but definitely get your hands on Furioso from Pavor... some of the most unbelievable bass work ever put on a metal record.

!T.O.O.H.!'s Order and Punishment has impressive basswork.

The self-titled Aghora album would be well worth your time to check out.

Cynic's Focus and Atheist's Unquestionable Presence. Musts for any metal collection (IMO) and godly bass work to boot.

Alarum's Eventuality - Cynic/Atheist worship band.

Coprofago's Unorthodox Creative Criteria - Cynic/Meshuggah worship band.

Intronaut's Void - sludgy metal with a very lush and organic bass presence.

Control Denied's The Fragile Art of Existence - a side project of Chuck Schuldiner with Steve DiGiorgio on bass, I believe.

Quo Vadis - Defiant Imagination - more DiGiorgio goodness.

Before somebody jumps all over me, I know that none of the above are instrumental. However, they will most definitely please anybody looking for prominent bass work in metal.

Here's some more stuff that is purely instrumental -

Behold... the Arctopus - Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning - seventeen minutes of absurdly technical insanity with the Warr Guitar as the centerpiece. Impossible bass heroics.

Gordian Knot - Gordian Knot and Emergent - project of Cynic's Sean Malone, so of course the bass work is great... but it isn't really metal.

At War With Self - Torn Between Dimensions - sort of like Gordian Knot, with Michael Manring on bass.

Dysrhythmia - Barriers and Passages and Pretest - again, I don't really consider these guys metal, but they're close enough and the bass work is great.

You can also check out drone/doom, I suppose. Really earthshaking stuff like Electric Wizard and whatnot. I'm not really into that as it's way too slow for me, but it could be what you're looking for?

I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch, but those should satisfy any bass freak for a while.


i love you. Spastic ink, alarum, spiral architect and at war with are some of my favorite bands.

i went to the same school as charlie in behold the arctopus. Mfer is doing what i wanted to do...*sigh* in time.

ill make a small list when i have a chance.
 
May 8, 2007 at 1:36 PM Post #9 of 17
Agreeing with steel102:

x2 for Earth

Earth 2 is simply stupendous. Also good - Pentastar: In the Style of Demons (some vocals tho).
Their later work (Hex, Hibernaculum) relies less on distortion, but the heavyness & atmospherics is still there. Wonderful.

Also Sunn O))), Earth proteges, if you will....
smily_headphones1.gif
 
May 9, 2007 at 10:48 AM Post #11 of 17
yeah, i'm looking for instrumental only...i knew it would be nearly impossible, but still worth a shot, i never really understood why bass couldn't be used as a lead (if done right), there are some great bass grooves in the metal scene and it kinda sucks when it's only limited to a few seconds here and there and or within the song, i'd love to see the full talent exposed in some type of melodic way...
 
May 9, 2007 at 2:37 PM Post #12 of 17
You've heard Pelican - Mammoth - from their s/t ep? That's a fine pounder...
 
May 9, 2007 at 5:43 PM Post #13 of 17
This is going to sound completely off topic because it's neither metal nor always instrumental but '90's era King Crimson - Thrak, B'Boom, VROOM VROOM - has some great aggressive instrumental pieces with outstanding bass and chapman stick work by Tony Levin and Trey Gunn.
 
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