Fieldy - Bassically

It’s not that Fieldy’s bass playing is poor on this project or anything, but his sort-of bassy new solo album’s attempt to bring the funk is so uneventful and unenergetic that it hardly qualifies for background music. It’s unfortunate because it’s not Fieldy playing weighing down his album, rather its the low-volume, blasé electronic supplementation and samples that, with unsweet and unsavory flavor, over-ice the top of the bass guitar cupcake this album was supposed to be. These stock-photo equivalents of backing instrumentation that suffocate rather than accentuate Fieldy’s playing (which is quite enjoyable when it’s audible), along with the strange mixing choices being made cripple the album’s groove and its ability to infect with it. For such a bass-centric album, the truly low end on the album is quite high, often making Fieldy sound like he’s dropping a couple of rusty nails on a floppy handsaw. A few familiar techniques and playing tendencies from his work with Korn show up occasionally, only to be quickly snuffed out by awkward, unappealingly eccentric instrumentals.

I think if the album focused on what makes Fieldy’s bass-playing semi-unique and often mimicked in the metal world, something heavier and a bolder statement of musical technicality and style, rather than unfunky and already-done funk, we’d probably have something more invigorating on our hands and something with more identity for Fieldy. I mean I would not have guessed this was Fieldy if I hadn’t already known; I probably wouldn’t even want to keep trying to guess until I arrived at him.