I have played a lot of shows and one flaw I see a lot of guitarist make in Heavy Metal is their stage tone. I often hear the guitarist amps sounding muddy and not cutting through the bass and drums. The biggest factor in that mud is cutting out the guitars mid equalization. The most common misconception most guitarist have is : "If I scoop the mid range I will sound heavier!" The reality is if a guitarist scoops their mid range on the guitar amp they will be in the space of the bass guitar and kick drum. Another misconception is the more distortion/ gain I put on my guitar amp the better. Not true! The guitar is a mid range instrument so turning down the mids on a guitar amp will kill most of your tone and cutting through the bass and kick drum power. Less distortion/gain is better than more. So my setting in a live or recording session is the same. I start with my gain knob at around the 12 o'clock position. My bass equalizer knob at around 1 or 2 o'clock position. My mid knob is around the 3 o'clock position. My treble knob is around 3 o'clock position. I then dial in my contour or presence knob to taste darker or brighter. I posted a picture below on a amp sim to simulate what I might do in a live or recording situation.