Probot
S/T
(Southern Lord Records)
For the entirety of the 21st millennium, rumors have been circulating about Dave Grohl putting together some sort of "death metal band" called Probot. The name became an instant flashpoint of interest for music fans the world over and now, the secret sleeps no longer. The divine metallic inspiration and bloody roots of Dave Grohl will be unleashed upon the world!
An epic compilation of monumental proportions and one of the most anticipated metal albums in history, Probot has arrived. Probot is the result of Grohl's home recordings of an album's worth of instrumental tracks of bone crushing metal. Dave's recordings were then sent to his favorite metal vocalists who are from an extremely formative period in Grohl's past (specifically 1983-1990), in order for their vocals to be added.
Each song features it's own throat, with lyrics and vocal melodies written by each of the respective vokillists. All collaborators were given absolute freedom to put their own metallic stamp on the compositions. Grohl usually didn't hear what was happening to the tracks once they left his studio and remembers the return of the tapes with the new vocal additions as being, "like Christmas morning over and over again." Asked about the recording process, Grohl enthusiastically proclaims, "It isn't about me, I'm just having the time of my life in a metal fantasy camp, being able to create something with these people I listened to when I was young."
With the help of Matt Sweeny (Zwan/Chavez), Grohl was able to hunt down most of his favorite singers, covering a lot of metal ground in the process. "There are some fast tracks, the Cronos (Venom) track "Centuries Of Sin" is old school, fast, thrash metal," says Grohl. "The Lee Dorrian (Napalm Death/Cathedral) track, "Ice Cold Man," is slow with a certain funeral dirge to it. The Snake (Voivod) track, "Dictatosaurus," is reminiscent of old Voivod and the Mike Dean (COC) track, "Access Babylon," is sort of like an old school metal/hardcore crossover thing."
Indeed, many of the songs come off as a perfect match for the vocalist in mind. Although the songs were not intentionally written in this manner, the combination of Grohl's instinctive song writing ability along with possibly the best performance from each singer makes for a definitive result. King Diamond's track, "Sweet Dreams," contains everything you could possibly want from the King, the trademark falsetto highs, haunting melody and ghostly low vibrato. The same can be echoed about Lemmy's (Motorhead) track, "Shake Your Blood," which is a fist pounding rocker with (in addition to the vocals, of course) a special performance from the Icon Of Filth himself on bass. The result is a jaw dropping fusion of Dave's hard rock/pop sensibilities and Lemmy's undeniable iconic metal charm.
As with Lemmy's track, the Cronos and Wino (The Obsessed/Spirit Caravan) songs also feature additional instrumentation from the singers. Cronos adds his trademark bass from hell tone throughout "Centuries Of Sin" and Wino adds a blistering, intense lead guitar to "The Emerald Law." Additionally, Grohl enlisted a few extra non-vocal contributors, including a shredding guitar solo by Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) on the King Diamond track and a contribution by Bubba Dupree (Void) on "Access Babylon."
The first grim taste of Probot was a two track, seven inch, limited to a single run of 6,666 copies, featuring Centuries Of Sin" with Cronos and "The Emerald Law" with Wino. It was rabidly devoured by a ravenous horde and SOLD OUT IMMEDIATELY!
