Top 50 Hard Rock + Metal Bassists of All Time Read More: Top 50 Hard Rock + Met

[FrankieTbird]

Another list to argue about

http://loudwire.com/top-hard-rock-metal-bassists-of-all-time/

[4stringer77]

This reminded me how Gibson made Shavo Odadjian a custom T-bird that never went in to further production. So there is such a thing as a Gibson custom bass but only for established artists.
That's a nice looking EB2 JPJ has too!

[nofi]

see a 3 string bass at #17.

[Highlander]

We're listing to port, Captain...

[uwe]

It's an ok list, lots of usual suspects. I wouldn't rate Cronos as an exceptional bassist, but Venom had their 15 minutes of heavy metal fame and were a lasting influence in certain niche quarters.

I guess Steve Harris is there somewhere too? Not undeservedly, he is certainly among the loudest bassists in the mix of heavy metal recordings, always busily clattering along. 

[Pilgrim]

Another list to argue about

http://loudwire.com/top-hard-rock-metal-bassists-of-all-time/

I'm proud of myself.  I've actually heard of more than half of those bands!

[uwe]

Heavy Metal is a lifelong condition.

[Highlander]

... with a half-life, on occasion...



(bassist not on the list)

[nofi]

they put harris at number 1. don't know why, the placement seems kind of random. one of the few metal guys to use fingers.

[Highlander]

I prefer to use my fingers...

[Dave W]

Tom Araya of Slayer is only #11 despite this endorsement.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Tom Araya of Slayer is only #11 despite this endorsement.

He would be quite flattered if that were real. He is a supposedly devout Catholic. Sadly, Slayer has sucked for many, many years now and even before Jeff Hanneman's death, were trading on their name and nostalgia. Even if Lemmy and ACDC put out the same album every few years, at least those are interesting. Slayer has been self-parody since Metallica made it cool.

[slinkp]

I noticed a couple other finger players on there there: Butler of course... Frank Bello... and Entwistle who flip-flopped. More probably if I could make myself scroll through it again.

What I found funny was the number of times they said some variant of "he might not seem impressive but hey he's in an influential band so he must be awesome!"  Never seen so many disclaimers in a "greatest of all time" list.

[slinkp]

Procrastinating very badly instead of doing late-night work so it's time for bean fingerstyle-player counting ... I'm certainly not intimately familiar with all these guys' work but it's pretty easy to find photo/video evidence, so here goes:

Ament
Briggs
Anthony
Mendez?
Christian
Bello
Fieldy
Lester
Martinie
Commerford
Bruce
DiGiorgio
Jones
Webster
Trujillo
Claypool
Myung
Flea
Sheehan
Entwistle
Burton
Lee
Butler
Harris

24 of 50 across a pretty wide range of styles... Maybe the "rockers use picks" stereotype should be put to rest!

[uwe]

they put harris at number 1. don't know why, the placement seems kind of random. one of the few metal guys to use fingers.

He certainly has dexterity and endurance. I haven't heard anything new or surprising from him on bass since the Maiden debut came out in 1980, but then the same holds true for Angus Young too. Since 1975 or so.

I always find it slightly amusing that Harris professes to "hate slap bass", yet his own style is highly percussive (and mixed that way too by the Martin Birches and Kevin Shirleys of this world), he just doesn't play funky.



For me personally, that sound would be too noisy/clattery, but of course that is exactly the ingredient that gets him heard with Iron Maiden's three lead guitar army. I think he does what he does well.