Bass heroes in Christian Metal

Chuck King from Sardonyx. He put a clinic in bass work on their Majestic Serenity album.

Sevenoneself wrote:I don't think anyone's mentioned Randy George from The Neal Morse Band. I'm not sure if he's a Christian, but it's a Christian band. He's a monster; He's so laid back that he almost blends into the background in the concerts, and then once or twice he comes up into the spotlight and absolutely nails a killer solo!

He is, started a Christian prog band called Ajalon in the 90s

Greg Chaisson from Die Happy and Red Sea!  His playing has influenced me more than anyone!

alldatndensum wrote:Although I am far from being the best, I do occasionally come off with a decent bass riff myself.

These 2 videos are unavailable to me; Youtube says, "This video is private". Can you fix this?

Guy from Dighayzoose is pretty damn funky and the basslines on Stugglefish are melodic memorable and groove like nobody's business. Oh yeah, and Dug Pinnick from King's x, His tone just Snarls at you. Always reminds me of a wild boar going on a rampage on some of their heavier tunes.

Always thought Steve Rowe had a great bass sound, even on all those albums I don't particularly like. Though not outstanding in the way of technical ability, his tone and playing definitely had his own signature in it. And that is more important to me than technic stuff. A memorable bassline that has a hook or groove tops Bass wankery in my book anyday- Billy Sheenan gets real boring, real fast like.

Frozen Fire wrote:I really enjoy Ronnie Konig from Signum Regis. You can tell that he is the main writer in the band in their songwriting, something I love to hear.

100 percent agreed. Him being the band leader has the positive effect of the bass being audible, and that in euro power metal.

Constantine wrote:Can't forget Warren Harris of Tempest (not the Rowe brothers band, the thrash band) - he was the Billy Sheehan of Christian metal when the "Annihilation Of The Wicked" demo came out:

This is a very underappreciated gem!

I personally feel very blessed to have worked with Garth Lovvorn all these years.

I thought he was awesome when I first heard him playing with our local death metal band Fleshtized.  It was clear he was really influenced by Steve Digorgio, and I was a huge Death fan at that time.  I had to twist his arm to join the band at first but I knew he was the best bassist for this band.  He is a very "busy" player and plays fingerstyle which I think fits our wild sound really well.

He wrote an instrumental that is coming out on our album that I think people will like, and I personally love his Fates Warning-ish playing on our new power metal song "Exalted".

All the above mentioned bass guitarists…plus I’ll add Gary Mann from Barnabas…he was a beast on bass!

Temple of Blood wrote:

This is a very underappreciated gem!

I'm glad someone noticed!   I was beginning to think that no one knew of these guys.

Forgot to mention the bassplayers from Whiteheart. Doesn't matter which, they do everything within their song structures, on every album. Amazing bassists.

eatbugs wrote:How dare we forget Michael Bloodgood.

RIP Mr. Bloodgood. You are missed.

How about Steve Watkins from Sacred Warrior?  He drove those prog metal songs. Co-writer too.

I like David Bach because of his distortion sound, mistaken by some for guitar in Guardian songs.  You need that to carry songs live especially during solos.

Perry Richardson has added a new dimension to Stryper IMO

Roger Dale Martin can bring it and does bring it.

The guy from Fearscape seems to be extremely talented.

It was tough (at least for people like me) to hear in the mix, but Luke from Crimson Thorn (and I guess now Taking the Head of Goliath) really got after it.

Honestly not sure how they would exactly compare to anybody else or an average/typical death metal bass because it's just tough to pick out on most records.

Ammocas wrote:Roger Dale Martin can bring it and does bring it.

I like his attack!

Ammocas wrote:Roger Dale Martin can bring it and does bring it.

I especially love his sound on VR's Once Dead.

Jeff Lain from Betrayal was good. Too bad that band didn't last long.