Review Summary: Don't be fooled by Grohl's presence, because this is an excellent metal album through and through.
"Probot" is, in many ways, what any fan of music would want to do: construct an album of songs with all of their favorite musicians. Dave Grohl (of Foo Fighters and Nirvana fame) managed to construct an album by sending tracks to his desired musicians to add their vocals and (occasionally) instruments to. The resulting album ends up as a thoroughly enjoyable listen, even if it is a bit scattershot in terms of styles.
The way the tracks are ordered, three of the album's best songs open up the album. "Centuries of Sin" (w/Cronos of Venom), "Red War" (w/Max Cavalera of Sepultura and Soulfly), and "Shake Your Blood" (w/Lemmy!) all sound like extremely good songs from the bands that they hail from. In particular, "Shake Your Blood" is phenomenal, sounding like it could have rolled off of a classic Motörhead album ("Ace of Spades", anyone?).
Beyond that, the next majorly enjoyable songs are "The Emerald Law" (w/Wino of St. Vitus), which has a very pleasing mix of speed and delicacy (for lack of a better term); "Big Sky" (w/Tom G. Warrior of Celtic Frost and Triptykon), with its pulverizing guitar and rough vocals; and "Sweet Dreams" (w/King Diamond), featuring the legendary screamer's trademark leaping wail in fine form. Even "I Am The Warlock" (w/Jack Black) is enjoyable in its own right, once you take away the novelty.
Of the rest of the songs, only "Silent Spring" (w/Kurt Brecht) is a clunker. It just never really gets together, and his vocals are poorly fit into the song. The others are interesting to listen to and certainly aren't bad, but they aren't as spectacular as the big songs off this album.
It's unlikely that Probot will ever see the light of day again, but this one-off collaboration is quite the fun trip into metal heaven. It may lack a cohesive sound, but that's half the fun of it. Any fan of the lesser metal bands should give this a whirl.
