Black metal bass playing? (I know, I know, it's an oxymoron...:)

[7stringDemon]

Honestly dude, it's your metal. You can have the bass playing a major scale bassline in the wrong key and timing if you really want.

 

[Michael_Ten]

You're recording bass for a black metal album? Here's what you do:
1. plug bass in to Line 6 Spider amp
2. turn on "insane" channel and turn distortion up to 10
3. play low E string as fast as possible
4. release album

 

[DXL]

I would go for gallops or 8ths if playing 16th notes

 

[KailM]

Ah, a Winterfylleth fan I see!
.

Hellz yes! They are a huge inspiration for me in terms of their overall great production (yet still unarguably black metal) and songwriting. I'm really trying to get a production quality more on their end of the spectrum as opposed to the early 90s no-bass/treble cranked production. However, my songs are different from their style somewhat. I'm trying to blend a little bit of death metal style and tone into it as well. However, this first song I've recorded is pure black metal with ambient passages.

***

Overall, thanks to everyone for their input -- it's been very informative!

I am done laying down the bass tracks now. In the end, I went with straight-up 16th-note tremelo picking after all to match the guitar tracks. I recorded one clean take and then copied it and added distortion to the second track. This song is primarily composed of a simplistic Darkthrone-esque blast beat and tremelo picked riff progression. There is a section right at the end where it slows down and gets heavier, and there I actually played a groove on the bass which sounds great. But for the rest of the song, I didn't want to hear much of the attack on the bass or really any kind of a groove -- so I just filled in the bottom end a bit by playing along with the guitars.

But for some of my next songs that I intend to record, I will be visiting the information in this thread again.

Thanks again, everyone!

 

[Herrick]

Sometimes, playing half the notes the guitars play can give the bass more solidity, definition, and presence.

 

[tomcat ha]

the idea that bass isnt present in norwegian black metal is actually wrong. It just sounds very different from what a bass guitar typically would sound like.
Personally i do whatever what fits best with the riff in terms of playing. Sometimes i play in harmony sometimes i don't. Sometimes i play root notes sometimes i go do something very different.

 

[crg123]

Nvm

 

[The Omega Cluster]

I think most BM bass player play 8th notes when tremolo picking. That or you can get a bit inventive and play a cool groove, like Ne Obliviscaris.

 

[Bloodshredder]

Depends on what sounds best. With 16th, try around and start with 16th. You can try faster (lol) and slower.

I mostly use quarter notes, but then I play those with my fingers. It all tends to start to wobble when i use 16th fingerstyle.

 

[iron blast]

Mix it up play for the song I don't have a rule of thumb for if I tremolo pick or play quarter or half time I always try to play some kind of melody lines when the the riffs are just doing rythem lines to keep things interesting. As a bassist in a black metal band I try to keep things from getting monotonous the best I can. If you just follow the guitar lines to a t it will get boring very fast. Lock in with drums and rythem guitar following root notes of the chords feel free to do some melodic flourishes here and there. As far as bass tones go I like abit of grit and use a sansamp vt deluxe in front of my Eden navigator pre. I tend to find p style pups sound very good for this genre of music too