Top 10 Metal Songs with Fretless Bass
I love the distinctive sound of the fretless bass which adds something different to the songs.Fretless bass players are true masters because it's much harder to play bass with no frets.
Fretless bass is used in both extreme and non-extreme metal but I fully enjoy its sound in songs that have softer sections - slower or/and not very loud section. Even when fretless bass is played throughout, you really hear its unique sound in the softer parts of the songs. Progressive / technical compositions are very suitable for that and for this list I have selected songs that have softer parts. Most of them are progressive and technical death metal.
This song is certainly the pioneer of fretless bass in metal. An essential
Bassist - Steve DiGiorgio
One of the earlier uses of fretless bass in extreme metal (1993).There's an official music video to this song where you can see Steve DiGiorgio with his fretless bass.
*sigh*...Not many people explore Obscura, This song's great, Hear it folks!
Bassist - Jeroen Paul Thesseling
Part of it is on the song sample. This is a soft instrumental and is easy to hear the bass from the very beginning.
I am 99% sure that this sound comes from a fretless bass although Jason Newsted isn't known for using it. But Jason clearly slides between the notes which is possible on fretless bass, creating its specific smooth sound. Insiders claim that have seen Jason with fretless bass.
I am not 100% sure because:
1) there is no credible info source about that
2) some guys fake the sound of fretless on fretted bass. But I personally think that Jason would rather use fretless than faking its sound. Also, the fake sound doesn't sound like that.
Bassist - Jeroen Paul Thesseling.
There's an Official music video to this song (by RelapseRecords) showing how the band plays this song and you can see the bassist with his 6-string fretless bass (he can play a 7-string, too).
Bassist - Steve Di Giorgio (you can hear it clearly twice on the song sample).
