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Music Dorkery

SERGEANT D., PhD: THE WORLD’S FOREMOST EXPERT IN WIGGER SLAM, AND NOW BASS DROPS

 Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 2:30pm by

Over at his other blog, Stuff You Will Hate, Sergeant D. has started to really break his primary area of expertise – namely slam metal, which I only just recently feel like I’ve started to understand* – down to its core elements (no pun intended), I’m assuming so as to better explicate why we should all care. First up is the “bass drop,” which the Sarge describes thusly:

Most commonly associated with slam metal and deathcore, bass drops are a giant explosion of bass inserted into a song at key moments. For example, check out the sick fucking drop in this Vomit The Soul song [Bass drops starts around the 1:00 mark. - Ed.]:

I agree that bass drops are pretty awesome, although I wish they were discussed in conjunction with a style of metal for which I had a greater appreciation. For example, the bass drop around the 3:05 mark (and then repeated several times thereafter) in Pantera’s “Revolution is My Name” is less exaggerated than the in the above track, but I still think it’s pretty kick-ass:




Here’s your turn, boys and ghouls… what are you favorite bass drops in metal?

-AR

*And by “understand,” I mean I think I get the difference now between slam metal and deathcore. I don’t mean “understand” to be synonymous with “like.” For every ten slam songs I’ve heard, I’ve really only dug about 1/2 of one of them.

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  • http://jordanmunson.wordpress.com Jordan Munson

    Still love the drops in JFAC’s “Entombment of a Machine”

    • Bicro

      THIS is why I still love DOOM above any of their later work.

      • http://jordanmunson.wordpress.com Jordan Munson

        Combine that with the rawness of Doom – such a visceral album. The shriek before the first real bass drop in “Entombment of a Machine” gives me goosebumps every time. Every song on Doom is just as raw, and just as awesome. Easily the best of the “generic deathcore bands” out there people whine about so much.

    • Geekbeater

      AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Followed by tons of 12 year old kids spin kicking each other to death. I do love the song though.

  • SHOCKTROOP

    aw man. I love that bass drop shit. I never knew what to call it. and this is the first time I’ve ever seen anything discussed about it. but I’ve always loved that. It needs to be used sparingly though. If it’s overdone it’ll lose its effect. Lamb of God uses lots of that badass bass drop shit in their albums.

  • msv81

    Revocation “Existence Is Futile”

    • msv81

      shit….it’s either that song or in “Deathonomics”, I haven’t listened to the album in about a month. Either way, there’s a really powerful bass drop towards the beginning of the song, before the lyrics start. It crushes!

    • SHOCKTROOP

      it’s definitely existence is futile. it definitely crushes too.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Guzmn/570745539 Daniel Guzmán

    Anaal Nathrakh “Castigation and Betrayal”: 0:47, 1:17, 1:48 and 2:19 o_O

    • http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/46e389eb8b79606050d3d447431ff6ac?s=80 Nate

      OH MY FUCK. AN rule!

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Bullard-Jr/500191336 Tony Bullard Jr

      Damn…why not just have it on the first beat of every measure?

  • justin

    my favorite bass drops are in cephalic carnage’s “exploiting dysfunction” and devourment’s “molesting the decapitated.”

    • John

      Cephalic Carnage FTW

  • http://schenkeltown.blogspot.com SchenkelTown

    metalsucks sponsored a tour featuring emmure…

  • matt

    best use of bass drops: syl

    • g

      Came to post this. Check out the drops in “Shitstorm” off of Alien

      • Strapping Young Lad

        yuppp… beat me to it…

    • http://www.last.fm/user/groverXIII groverXIII

      I was going to say this, although the ones that Devin uses on various songs on ‘The New Black’ it instead causes the rest of the song to get quiet for a moment.

      • Deaner

        Most of the songs on Alien have this in them. Also, there’s one at the end of One Gun by LOG.

    • cosk!

      +1 for syl

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bobby-Tims/1313713879 Bobby Tims

    lamb of god live, when i saw them back in april oh my godddd ooohhhh my godd they were unbelievable it hit you so hard. especially in black label. so good.

  • SHOCKTROOP

    I would also like to nominate Crowbar seeing as you could probably call every second of every song they’ve ever made as one big bass drop.

    heavest. band. ever.

  • Kye

    Cryptopsy – Carrionshine

    Around 1:45. By far my favorite.

    • SourDeez

      I thought of that song immediately upon seeing the words “bass drop”, but you beat me to it. I don’t think it gets much better than that. The first time I heard it, I thought my speakers blew.

  • fasshole

    Origin – Reciprocal possibly the best use of a bass drop in metal. Ever. Check it out after the break down at 2:08. AMAZING.

    Also “Most commonly associated with slam metal and deathcore”

    Should be “Most commonly associated with DUBSTEP”

    • fasshole

      woops, forgot to put the link in.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDf1zDfW1vg

    • cosk!

      actually, shouuld be “Most comonly associated with DRUM AND BASS”

      • http://stuffyouwillhate.com Sergeant D

        As I noted in the post on Stuff You Will Hate, electro used bass drops before DnB existed. Dunno who was first, Afrika Bambata or some shit mb??

      • fasshole

        Dubstep is basically mad up of Bass drops. Way way more than in Drum and Bass. But whatever, its a derivative of d’n'b.

        For clarification I’m not an expert but 99% of my friends only listen to dubstep.

        • http://stuffyouwillhate.com Sergeant D

          Yeah dude, dubstep is sick, I’m def into it- but Def Bass Crew, Miami Bass Wars, etc were way earlier, not to mention early 80s electro. But it’s not a pissing contest over who did it first, the point is that bass drops are fucking sweet!

          • fasshole

            Oh yeah, i don’t really listen to it anymore, but its fucking heavy. My reply was actually aimed towards Cosk.

  • I’m not racst, but I hate Oceano

    This is my LEAST favorite bass drop in a song: Hanni Kohl – Chuck Norris http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlSR9H9E2nM

    bass drops stop being cool when its bring done throughout the entire song.

    • Io

      Jesus Christ that’s fucking awful.

    • Some Random Dude

      I clicked the link and I sorta liked that song. should i kill myself or masturbate?

  • The_MF_Beard

    Some rancid bass drops on Prosthetic Cunt’s record. Also Skesis by SYL has nearly ruptured my speakers on a few occasions. Depending on your age Korn’s ‘Ball Tongue’ has some great ones.

    • justin

      definitely!! pxcx has tons of awesome drops on “fucking your daughter…”

  • The_MF_Beard

    Also War from Devin Townsend’s Infinity record. I actually love bass drops.

  • The_MF_Beard

    Shock by Fear Factory also has some great bass drops… When I first heard that at UK ozzfest in 1997 it tore my little face off.

  • Insomnia

    The new Chimaira album has lotsa bass drops too!

  • Geekbeater

    Am I missing something here? Wouldnt these just be called BREAKDOWNS? I am no musician by any means so forgive me if I am wrong I just dont really know. Can anyone explain the difference?

    • http://stuffyouwillhate.com Sergeant D

      The bass drop is the BOOOM at the beginning of the breakdown

    • fasshole

      You won’t be able to hear it unless your speakers/headphones can handle really low frequencies.

  • http://www.concatenationrecords.com Kodiak

    Suffocation’s “Brood of Hatred” from Pierced from Within – those bass drops are just sick and they crush every time.

    • http://www.myspace.com/dystrophy1 Devin Townsend’s Lost Skullet

      i was surprised that you were the first one to mention Suffocation. Also title track on Pierced from Within has a SICK bass drop right around the 2:25-2:30 mark.

  • http://www.myspace.com/monotheistmetal Shiv

    Hour of Penance uses 808s so much, but so cleverly

  • Alex_P

    Protest the Hero’s “Heretics and Killers”. Yes, it’s from their emo years, but dammit I love Kezia. Also, it concludes the intro nicely.

    • sebascrub

      This, and, more prominently, the bass drop at the end of “Bloodmeat.” So fucking awesome. I love watching Arif play it.

      • DustintheWind

        You guys beat me to it.. Yeah the drop on Heretics and Killers is sweet, my favorite song on that album…PTH definitely uses bass drops alot, but they do it well

  • metalguy

    the one before the second breakdown on chimairas salvation. some sampl-y static then BOOM

  • shawn mccoy

    At the beginning of The Remnant by The Analyst.
    total brutal.

    • Masonic Wehrmacht

      O, I have friends in that band. You from South Bend or something?

  • Malacoda

    I didn’t know that that sound actually had a term. Badass though. As long as it doesn’t become generic, popular, and overused like everything else that started out as a good idea.

  • john

    in dead seeds by log there is one.

  • Samot

    Correct me if I’m wrong (and forgive my bad english) but Master Of Puppets has a bass drop around 0:53 hasn’t it?

    • Jack

      Meh not really. It’s timed like a lot of bass drops would be – all the other instruments sort of cut out, and it comes right before a new riff – but there’s something missing, a certain “ooomph,” that keeps it from being a true bass drop. Most bass drops are felt rather than heard, and only if you have a good subwoofer/good headphones… the MOP bass note at 0:53 is too high-frequency for that.

      That was pretty nerdy for a post about Master of Puppets… fuck

      • Samot

        OK… so, Caught In A Mosh has a kind of bass drop? If it doesn’t, I’ll quit deciphering what a bass drop is

  • Meekal

    Zimmers Hole uses bass drops in almost every song on While You Were Shouting At The Devil.

  • BlakMetallistKrieg

    It sounds like slipknot with growling to me, pass.

  • Digger Nick

    Boring.

  • http://www.shittinhdicknipples.com reggin

    HAha lmao, ITT retards.

  • Avoid The Light

    Impending Doom definitely used bass drops when I saw them live… the power from the live equipment was incredible.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE31-7lA5NI