Hi there everyone - heres the deal: Im a great fan of fretless bass, and bands with fretless bass, so anyone who knows such band, or some album or song with good fretless tracks or solos, whatever recommend it here, or anything on this topic...
I know few bads with fretless bass on at least 1 album, and those are Death, Sadus, Control Denied, Quo Vadis, Sceptic, Cynic, Iced Earth (on Horror Show)...
IMO my favorites are those by Steve DiGiorgio and bands where he played, but also some of Quo Vadis and others... So, what do you think??

I believe ARK has fretless bass on their albums. I am also a great fan: I love it on the albums of Cynic, Quo Vadis, and Death, so I will definitely check out those other bands...

Maybe you'll like Primus, or Tony Levin's work in King Crimson, and I think he uses one when he guested on Planet X. Also, Tool has a few songs with it.
And definitely check out Necrophagist live...

I wish more bands would use the Chapman stick in particular, anyone know any?

Written by Introspekrieg on 14.03.2008 at 22:36

I believe ARK has fretless bass on their albums. I am also a great fan: I love it on the albums of Cynic, Quo Vadis, and Death, so I will definitely check out those other bands...

Maybe you'll like Primus, or Tony Levin's work in King Crimson, and I think he uses one when he guested on Planet X. Also, Tool has a few songs with it.
And definitely check out Necrophagist live...

I wish more bands would use the Chapman stick in particular, anyone know any?

Oh, Ill check out those bands, especially Necrophagist, fretless fits sooo good in Technical Death!
And I know about Ark, but I cannot find any of their material, even on internet and P2P programs... I only know that they are progressive and that theuy have fretless bass.

I think The Monolith Deathcult also play with a fretless bass.

I think Mekong Delta also use fretless bass. I recommend "The Music of Erich Zann" or "Dances of Death" by them.

Primus. Not that metal, but still fretless.

Primus is insane. also Suicidal Tendencies' laterish albums had fretless bass too. thanks to now metallica's robert trujillo.

Nothing Else Matters is played with a fretless bass isn't? xD

Death is the only one that comes to mind for me...I love there video for The Philosopher where you see DiGiorgio just rockin out on the fretless...great stuff...

@Mulldarran: I don't think it is...

Written by Guest on 10.04.2008 at 19:05

Death is the only one that comes to mind for me...I love there video for The Philosopher where you see DiGiorgio just rockin out on the fretless...great stuff...

@Mulldarran: I don't think it is...

Yeah, well, thanks to that video, I got addicted both to Steve DiGiorgio and fretless bass sound

Obscura and Pestilence also have fretless basses in them (thanks to Jeroen Paul Thesseling). For my upcoming third album I will use a fretless bass (but with far less technique than other bands mentionned here )

If you're into Brutal Death\Grind, check out Grog. Fretless bass at its best.

Steve DiGiorgio also participated in the new "supergroup" Soen featuring Martin Lopez, ex-Opeth.
I believe he uses his fretless there also.

Also, the Ex-Emperor Ihsahn hired a fretless bassist on his latest album "After". For me, the best album of 2010.
He plays some kind of progressive black/death metal now in case you didn't know.

Obscura: any album by them has really good fretless bass work.

Pestilence - Spheres: I know Obscura and Pestilence have already been mentioned, but seriously check them both out if you're looking for fretless bass in metal.

Beyond Creation - The Aura: really amazing fretless bass work in this album.

Exivious - Exivious: Not a Cynic rip off, but the similarities are there and it has some nice fretless bass work by the guy who played bass in Cynic's Traced in Air.

Gordian Knot: Features the Focus era's Cynic bassist, Sean Reinhart, and Ron Jarzombak. Not all that metal, but if you know anything about the players in the band you can imagine they get some nice grooves going.

Opeth - Morningrise

Jaco Pastorious: Who the hell hasn't heard of Jaco? But, on the off chance you haven't since you didn't mention him...hes a legend, but not metal though.

And, check out this video of fretless bass in metal which has some of the bands I already mentioned and a bunch of stuff I need to check out as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbXTUcnfatY

Written by LusitanianTroll on 04.04.2012 at 19:35

If you're into Brutal Death\Grind, check out Grog. Fretless bass at its best.

Damn son, That's tasty!

Well, now that the thread has been bumped, Intronaut also uses fretless. Great band, just getting into it.

Written by Grody2themax on 05.04.2012 at 02:40

Opeth - Morningrise

Isn't it actually Still Life?

Written by Guest on 20.07.2012 at 22:35

Written by Grody2themax on 05.04.2012 at 02:40

Opeth - Morningrise

Isn't it actually Still Life?

I could be wrong, but I don't think Still Life has any fretless. I'm listening to it now, and I've listened to that album a lot and never recalled hearing a fretless bass. Morningrise on the other hand, definetely does have fretless bass in it.

Written by Grody2themax on 21.07.2012 at 02:40

I could be wrong, but I don't think Still Life has any fretless. I'm listening to it now, and I've listened to that album a lot and never recalled hearing a fretless bass. Morningrise on the other hand, definetely does have fretless bass in it.

Only on Face Of Melinda.

As a fretless bass player I've got plenty of favorites....
Steve DiGiorgio as almost everyone's already mentioned is pretty much one of the pioneers of fretless bass in metal.
Sean Malone from Cynic is up there for me some of his stuff is amazing especially in his project Gordian Knot.
Forest is bringing fretless bass to an entire new level with his work on the latest Augury and Beyond Creation albums.
Robin Zielhorst of Exivious is also amazing it's all instrumental and very jazz-esque if that's what you're into.
Erlend Caspersen has some amazing fretless bass parts on the Deeds Of Flesh album Of What's To Come and on Anatomize by Incinerate.
Vincent Savary is in a new death metal band from Montreal called First Fragment and has some pretty interesting fretless parts.
Les Claypool of Primus uses fretless on many of their songs.
Jeroen Paul Thesseling laid down some amazing fretless on both of the recent Obscura releases I'm curious to see how his replacement will do with such big shoes to fill.
Jeff Ament from Pearl Jam plays fretless on a lot their songs my favorite being Yellow Ledbetter.
The guy from Porcupine Tree who I'm to lazy to look up his name used to play fretless on all of their recordings.
Trevor Dunn of the Melvins played stand up bass on their new album Freak Puke which is essentially playing a really old school fretless and he did some amazing work on that album.
Evan Brewer is using fretless on the upcoming album from The Faceless and on a couple tracks off his new solo album "Alone"
Michael Manring plays a sick fretless bass solo on the Jeff Loomis track Cashmere Shiv.
Chris Squire from Yes did some fretless overdubs on plenty of their songs.
That's pretty much all the guys I can think of at the moment I'm sure there's more that'll come to be me but I think fretless bass is the most underutilized thing in music the warm tones it creates are far superior to that of the fretted.