Planning on getting a Bass - need advice.

[|Nuno|]

Okay, as the title says, I'm planning on buying a bass for my birthday, but I don't have a good idea of what I should get (or avoid). And since the music stores over here aren't exacly the best, I thought having different opinions from different persons would be a good idea.

For now, I'll just buy the bass itself and the amplifier. I'm thinking of a distortion pedal too, but since I don't have the money now, I'll probably buy it in Christmas or so.

My budget is around 400 € (481 U.S. Dollars), but keep in mind that things over are more expensive (). I'll play mostly Metal (Metallica, Rammstein, Tool, System of a Down, etc...) and have preference for a 5 string.

If it's any help, I'd love something which would allowd me to get a similar tone (relatively speaking) to the 'Black Album', 'Load' or 'Herzeleid'.

On amplifiers, I don't want anything too fancy. But it can't be Lada's radio like quality either. Just something that won't let the bass down.

So yeah, any suggestions would be welcome.