Exivious Bassist Robin Zielborst Vies for the Title “King of the Fretless”

Are bass playthroughs (live ones, mind you, not fake playthroughs wherein the musician simply pantomimes to the album audio) the most informative, when compared to the other options? It’s not like you can’t already hear every bit of the guitar and drum performances. But for our oft-neglected buddy at the bottom it’s nice to see the spotlight aimed into those nether reaches.

And few bassists are as deserving of that spotlight as Exivious’s Robin Zielhorst, who also has spent plenty of time holding down the sub frequencies for Cynic (alongside his bandmate, guitarist Tymon Kruidenier). Here he is utterly tearing it up on the fretless on a track from his band’s 2009 debut record, “Time and Its Changes.”