John Myung was officially voted the worst bass player of all time in the metal genre. It was close, Myung battled runners up Jason Newstead of Flotsam and Jetsam and Voivod and Ian Hill of Judas Priest for the coveted spot. Newsted and Hill’s bass lines are unmemorable at best but Myung takes unmemorable to a new level by making his parts inaudible.
Yes, there are times when Myung’s bass shines through, these times are when Petrucci stops playing. Even when Petrucci isn’t playing, it is hard to discern what Myung is doing. Listen to the tapping solo on Metropolis, although it sounds cool and he uses an eight finger technique that is hard to master, it is difficult to hear all of the notes he is playing. On stage his fingers are flying all over the strings and there is no doubt that he is a well schooled/rehearsed musician. The only problem is that musicians must be heard! Why play all of those notes if you can’t hear them? He might as well put the bass down and crochet Petrucci a new muscle shirt on stage instead of wasting energy plucking a non existent bass sound. Who knows, maybe the problem was Portnoy and now that he is gone Myung will be able to actually plug in his electric bass instead of playing it "unplugged".
Congratulations John!
