Bass Teacher REACTS | Alex Webster RIPPING Tech Death Riffs! Conquering Dystopia "Kufra at Dusk"

foreign [Music] that went to 10 fast [Music] what's up guys welcome back to loan University today I'm getting to Alex Webster from Cannibal Corpse we'll be checking out a side project he did in 2014 called conquering dystopia featuring an amazing panel of technical players Keith marrow and Jeff Loomis on Guitar Alex Webster on bass and Alex rudinger on drums they are all fantastically skilled technical metal players I remember when this album came out I did not listen to it at all and I was not aware there was even a bass playthrough for it so we'll be checking out kufra at dusk one of the tracks from this self-titled album from 2014. I love Alex I've been following him a very long time so let's get into it player from what I remember [Music] see more Duncan paddle of course the dark glass [Applause] [Music] it's like we're in D and E flat foreign [Music] gets going because I'm sure it's getting there I want you to notice that he's playing in that classical position where instead of holding the bass like this if you look down on this camera I'm placing it in between my legs which allows a very correct uh arm placement it minimizes wrist Bend and wrist fatigue and this is kind of the position of classical guitarist would use to play and it's just a really unhindered and very ergonomic way of playing so I'm not sure if he always plays that way sitting down I've really seen him playing live or standing up but you'll notice how healthy that wrist angle is and he can really have unhindered access to the strings just a little point there let's keep going [Music] thank you drum and bass interplay real tight foreign [Music] so weird how he does that I mentioned this in the Steve de Giorgio video from a couple weeks ago when Alex plays you'll notice down here in the second camera or I guess up there he he turns it it's like he's he's digging in kind of this way him and Steve de Giorgio the two have seen do that and it's like the faster and more Technical and more heavy they get in terms of digging in they seem to have this angle you can kind of see him jump right into that right here really interesting to me drop a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] that signature Specter growl [Music] great shot of the EMG pickups I've been playing EMG exclusively for 11 years now and you can hear that signature Specter growl you know if you know a lot about Specter and different bass Brands you know some Brands tend to have just a certain tonality and emphasis on certain voicings and I just something about the Specter bass I haven't been able to describe it very well but it has that kind of clicky but smooth growl that's kind of throaty um and it I can hear it on full display here so just a little shout out to those two Brands who I'm a huge fan of he's kind of doing a lot of drum and bass interplay here really locking in with Alex rudinger's kick drums and in doing that he's kind of creating his own bass line that's very independent of that guitar part you know earlier in the song we had this guitar part come in that was kind of like again again just kind of arpeggio pick thing Alex uh Alex Webbs I was going to say Alex cannibal Alex Webster is staying away from that so far and locking in with that Alex rudinger's drumming man these two Alex's are killing me for this video so I'm just anytime I say Alex I'm referring to Alex Webster let's keep going foreign drop a as well I can hear that [Music] under that low a that gurgle that it's like Gall that that's that Specter sound it always kind of is to me just has that that's that Timbre it's very recognizable [Music] last beats uh-oh [Music] going up a half step it's dark [Music] all right [Music] really interesting kind of Darker harmonic minor-ish sort of Riff notes there [Music] foreign bass drum and bass guitar [Music] [Music] that went to 10 fast there's that hand turn thing it's just such a signature thing I've always seen him do I remember seeing the old video a long time ago super pixelated frantic disembowelment from Cannibal Corpse I remember that's the first time I ever saw Alex Webster play I was like does he even know what Freddie's on it's so fast it's so it's so many stretches and so many string skips it that this section here kind of reminded me of that [Music] look at that hand turn love it [Music] jeez and I I can't see exactly how he's plucking it with the plucking hand if he's doing all three finger sorry I'm going to catch this part again that's a crazy little run there [Music] one more time because that's just I just want to really study this part [Music] I'm not sure if he's really using the floating thumb technique that may be why his hands turning because his thumb is kind of placed here on the string and he's just kind of reaching to grab it that's kind of my theory now I don't see the thumb really moving sort of like if you watch my thumb [Music] follows along to mute the strings I'm not sure if he's really doing that so as far as the three finger technique it kind of seems like he's sticking to One Direction it's very hard to tell because there's some raking and descending so I can't really see just a steady pluck there hasn't really been any fast notes on one note so I can really see but something I've always noticed is that these players who use three finger technique exclusively kind of boggled my mind because I've never been able to really do three finger in terms of ring middle index for every line it's kind of like patting your head and rubbing your tummy for me I kind of have a problem going the opposite way on the plucking hand with the opposite way on the fretting hand so if I was going like this 9 10 12 and then trying to go ring middle index it's very weird because both hands are going in different directions so the three finger technique I've developed and I've sometimes taught when other players have you know dealt with this problem is to make the fingers go in whatever Direction your pluck or your fretting hand is going so if you're ascending a scale [Music] you're kind of going this way going up and you're kind of going this way going down so I change the direction of the three finger technique and it kind of has this continuity where the index fingers are matching the middle fingers are matching the ring fingers are matching and it's all just very uniform and has the continuity so that's one way to try it if you're kind of struggling with the fingers kind of having some synchronization [Laughter] [Music] just going in the same direction on both hands really helps not only have to think about it because I know exactly where every finger is going to land so if you're struggling with three finger technique that's something I would recommend that really worked for me let's keep going ah it's so earthy sounding a tone okay yeah three finger seems to only go ring to Middle and I love that little alternation between two and three finger uh really shows that he resets the patterns for what grouping he's using he's not just it's not just where it falls in a three finger technique like some players play that way Billy Sheen's a bit more like that where he's just kind of going three finger and it all just falls into place and assimilates it seems like Alex is actually resetting the groupings for each rhythmic pattern for this technical line I can kind of see that on display here right here next part sorry right here two three three [Applause] not something else he's doing this is a technique I see sometimes uh and then we'll round this thing out all right so you'll notice that when you pluck let me see if I can put this in slow motion to go with frame by frame so you'll notice when he plucks a string he's placing the next finger on the string but not plucking it yet so he's kind of holding it there let me see if I can get to where it kind of rests and you can see it better yeah he kind of pauses there so it's kind of a great way to mute you know sometimes when you play these fast passes kind of like [Music] you can kind of use your you know fretting hand to kind of stop that note or you can take the fretting hand completely away so if I were to play a line like [Music] I'm relying on the fretting hand to lay over the strings to mute those notes and make them short and staccato but if you want to take the fretting hand away you can do it like this it's a little harder to get it kind of clean [Music] you kind of get those harmonics you can kind of hear them in there [Music] so basically to stop the note I'm prematurely putting the next plucking finger on the string to stop it I kind of notice he's doing that here so we catch that little kind of bouncy Groove here you'll see what I'm talking about foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] well there you have it conquering dystopia my really true first time listen sounds like a really cool instrumental Tech desk sort of project with a lot of really surgical Precision on the riffs um I've been following Keith marrow's YouTube channel for a long time he's always got great product demos and he's got a six studio if you've ever seen uh some footage of that and of course Jeff Loomis uh Alex Webster of course Alex rudiger this is a fantastic panel of players who all are veterans in Death Metal Tech metal metal in general have insane chops all of them do but Alex is a guy I followed for a very long time on the early days of YouTube seeing that franning disembowelment video which I might cover on the channel but if there's any other videos of Alex Webster playing with some Cannibal Corpse songs that I am unaware of please let me know because there's not really too many playthroughs of individual members for that band it's mostly music videos and live stuff but you know YouTube's a big universe so please let me know if I'm missing something thank you guys for watching thanks for checking out Alex Webster with me he's a fantastic player that has a very unique way of playing very heavy-handed and is always just like brings a really bold intensity to anything he plays with and that's what drew me to him a long time ago please leave a comment for what else you would like to see me cover or any other bass players I should cover please make sure you are subscribed I really appreciate all of you guys support and engagement and I love chatting with you guys in the comments and until next time see you next week cheers

Channel: Low End University

Views: 49,030

Keywords: mark michell, low end university, mark mitchell, bass guitar, bass lessons, bass teacher reacts, bass player reacts, the daily doug, the charismatic voice, michael palmisano, key of geebz, andrew rooney drums, scotts bass lessons, bass buzz, scale the summit, tetrafusion, emg pickups, reaction video, bassist, rick beato, alex webster, cannibal corpse, conquering dystopia, kufra at dusk, keith merrow, jeff loomis, alex rudinger, alex webster bass, metal bass lesson

Id: CwZP9kSCreo

Length: 14min 26sec (866 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 20 2023