I am a huge fan of these bands I also learned the hard lesson. I put a set of EMG eighty ones in my Jackson V. It sounded awful what I done I replaced these with a set of Carvin M-22. Which sounds great alot of the bands you named use amps other than marshall. I almost wander if that has something to due with the sound. Slipknot uses Carvin Amps,With Mesa Boogie heads.Myself I also switched amps recently from Marshall to Crate. Pantra uses Randall amps.
Re: EMG pickups
I am a huge fan of these bands I also learned the hard lesson. I put a set of EMG eighty ones in my Jackson V. It sounded awful what I done I replaced these with a set of Carvin M-22. Which sounds great alot of the bands you named use amps other than marshall. I almost wander if that has something to due with the sound. Slipknot uses Carvin Amps,With Mesa Boogie heads.Myself I also switched amps recently from Marshall to Crate. Pantra uses Randall amps.