Steve Di Giorgio

Steve Di Giorgio (born November 7, 1967) is an American bass guitarist. He is known for his work with numerous heavy metal bands such as Sadus (of which he was a co-founder), Death, Testament, Megadeth, Sebastian Bach, Iced Earth, Autopsy, Obituary, Control Denied, Dragonlord and Charred Walls of the Damned, and he has performed on over 50 albums as a guest, session or full-time band musician.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

Di Giorgio has played bass guitar in heavy metal and death metal bands such as Death,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Autopsy,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Control Denied,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ephel Duath,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Obscura,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Artension, Faust, Memorain, Painmuseum, Suicide Shift, Soen,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Vintersorg,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Dragonlord,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Iced Earth,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sebastian Bach,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Obituary,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Megadeth,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and is a founding member of Sadus.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He is a founding member of the jazz band Dark Hall and has played bass in other bands such as Testament,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Futures End,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Synesis Absorption, Mythodea, Charred Walls of the Damned,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Anatomy of I,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gone in April, and Spirits of Fire.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Along with his bass duties in Sadus, he also plays keyboards. In October 2019, he founded the fusion-world-metal group Quadvium with fellow fretless bass player Jeroen Paul Thesseling.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A year later, he formed the death metal supergroup Act of Denial.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Musical style and influences

Within his genre, Di Giorgio is respected for his highly technical playing skills.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He is also credited with being the first bassist to bring fretless bass playing into the heavy/extreme metal genre, and normally plays bass by using his fingers, although he has been seen using a pick on certain songs. Di Giorgio's influences include Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Geezer Butler, Steve Harris, Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, Billy Sheehan, Dave Pegg and Charles Meeks.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Di Giorgio explained the development of his playing style in 2017: "Working against what people consider comfortably normal, and swimming against the musical current from a young age has helped me stay out of the shadows as a bassist and as so many always still strive to keep it there. Fuck them."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Di Giorgio has been married for years,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and is the father of a daughter who was born in April 1994.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The family currently resides in Antioch, California.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Equipment

Di Giorgio endorses Ibanez Guitars and primarily plays a number of different fretted and fretless BTB basses. He previously played two custom Mjolnir basses by Thor Bass; a custom made 5-string fretless model which he has converted to a 3-string and a custom-built 6 string fretless. He's also played custom ESP basses, mostly a F-series fretless 5-string bass in a dark green finish, but also uses a very unusual double-neck construction with a fretted and a fretless neck in one body. He currently uses an EBS Fafner head as his main sound, but has also used Ampeg and Randall in the past.<ref name="GW">Guitar World's Bass Guitar Magazine (June 2007)</ref>

Di Giorgio's bass guitars

• 4001 Custom Rickenbacker (1981)
• Fully Custom Homemade Fender-Like Fretless (1991)<ref name="www.fretlessbass.com" />
• 4001 Rickenbacker (1975)
• Custom Carvin BB75F (1996)<ref name="www.fretlessbass.com">Template:Cite web</ref>
• Custom Carvin BB75 (1999)
• ESP – LTD F-205 (1999)
• ESP Custom Forest 5-string Fretless (1999)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• ESP Doubleneck Bass<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Thor Bass Mjolnir 5-string fretless (2008),<ref name="www.bassplayer.com">Template:Cite web</ref> since converted to be played with only 3 strings.
• Thor Bass Mjolnir 6-string Fretless (2010)<ref name="www.bassplayer.com" />
• Thor Bass Freyja 7-string Fretted (2013)
• 4003W Rickenbacker modified with a fretless ebony fretboard by Larry Davis (2014)
• Ibanez BTB1605E with a fretless neck (2016)
• Ibanez SDGB1 Steve DiGiorgio Signature Bass (2023)

Discography

• Sadus – Illusions (1988)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Autopsy – Severed Survival (1989, session)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Sadus – Swallowed in Black (1990)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Autopsy – Fiend for Blood (1991, session)
• Death – Human (1991)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Sadus – A Vision of Misery (1992)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Death – Individual Thought Patterns (1993)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Sadus – Elements of Anger (1997)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Testament – The Gathering (1999)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Control Denied – The Fragile Art of Existence (1999)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• James Murphy – Feeding the Machine (1999)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Testament – First Strike Still Deadly (2001)
• Dragonlord – Rapture (2001)
• Iced Earth – Horror Show (2001)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Vintersorg – Visions from the Spiral Generator (2002)
• Artension – Future World (2004)
• Lunaris – Cyclic (2004, guest)
• Quo Vadis – Defiant Imagination (2004, session)
• Takayoshi Ohmura – Nowhere to Go (2004)
• Vintersorg – The Focusing Blur (2004)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• PainmuseuM – Metal for Life (2005)<ref name="allmusic1">Template:Cite web</ref>
• Various artists – Roadrunner United (2005)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Rob van der Loo – Freak Neil inc. Characters (2005, guest)
• Sadus – Out for Blood (2006)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Scariot – Momentum Shift (2007, session)
• Sebastian Bach – Angel Down (2007)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Necro – Death Rap (2007)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Roger Staffelbach's Angel of Eden – The End of Never (2007, session)
• Futures End – Memoirs of a Broken Man (2009)<ref name="allmusic1" />
• Faust – From Glory To Infinity (2009)<ref name="allmusic1" />
• Charred Walls of the Damned – Charred Walls of the Damned (2010)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Heathen – The Evolution of Chaos (2010, guest)
• Christian Muenzner – Timewarp (2011, guest)
• Charred Walls of the Damned – Cold Winds on Timeless Days (2011)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Johnny Newman – More than Ever (2011)
• Anatomy of I – Substratum (2011)
• Sylencer – A Lethal Dose of Truth (2012, guest)
• Synesis Absorption – Forever Untouched (2012)
• Ephel Duath – On Death And Cosmos (2012)
• Soen – Cognitive (2012)
• Memorain – Evolution (2012)
• Mythodea – Mythodea (2013)
• Artlantica – Across the Seven Seas (2013, session)
• Jeff Hughell – Chaos Labyrinth (2013, guest on track 3)
• Gone in April – Threads of Existence (2016)
• Testament – Brotherhood of the Snake (2016)
• Counter-World Experience – Pulsar (2016, guest on track 7)
• Art X - The Redemption of Cain (2016)
• Spirits of Fire – Spirits of Fire (2019)
• Geoda – Here and Now (2019)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Testament – Titans of Creation (2020)
• Act of Denial – Negative (2021)
• Megadeth – The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead! (2022, session)
• Quadvium – Tetradōm (2025)
• Testament – Para Bellum (2025)