Is there such a thing as 'too much bass'?

[Morgan C]

Assuming your mix is balanced enough to get it 'radio loud', is there such a thing as too much bass? I found this multitracked cover of Nickelback on the Slate forums and decided to do the drums, and found I could get MASSIVE low-end on the kick without compromising volume (ignore the first fill, there's other drums in the guitars messing it up).

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/324723/NickelBack.mp3

Any reason why this could be a bad thing? Is there distortion that I'm not hearing on my system?


NB: I'm not talking about having so much bass that making it loud just results in pumping and clipping, but albums like STD and Clayman are praised a lot, partly for their massive low-end (albeit mostly from the bass guitar not kick).

 

[Nebulous]

I'd say it all comes down to context and balance. In that clip the kick sounds nice but loud, rather than having "too much bass". If you were to beef up the bass in a similar way then it would probably be fine because the kick would then have more sub information to cut through to be heard.