[Mattayus]

I have to agree with.. well.. everyone. This very argument is the reason i can't get into a band with my friend. We've been mates since we were 12, our musical tastes developed in a very similar direction until we were about 20, when we branched off completely. He's more into bass-orientated 70's dynamic style rock i.e zepplin, chillis, wishbone ash, G n R, where-as i remained more straight metal like pantera, machine head and the like. We've tried countless times to work on something, he's joined my bands, i've written for his etc etc, but we always have to end up parting ways after a while because there's no chemistry. He's so stuck in his ways that bass has to have it's spotlight that it sabotages the guitar parts.

But the most annoying thing is that i actually WANT a creative bassist, i want one who knows when to compliment and when to be flashy. Yes, there are times to play what the guitar is playing like in heavy drops and fiddley riffs, then there's a time to make the music more interesting by going off on a tangent to the guitar. But finding a bassist that can do both seems to be an impossible task. To be honest, i dont care what my next bassist does so long as it sounds good in context to the music.

And yeah, it is a shame about Newstead's bass parts on ajfa, he did record quite a lot that were seperate to the guitar, especially for 'One' but they were more or less completely mixed out because of the band's mourning for Cliff. True story.