Probot - Probot
Line up for this album :
Dave grohl : all instruments
I'm not gonna list all the guest singers and artists, I'll mention the vocalists in the song reviews.
Released in : 2004
Dave grohl, we saw him as a drummer in Nirvana and as the frontman of The Foo Fighters, but no one would ever expected him to make Metal. Well now, Dave does like metal, so he made some songs and sent a song to his favourite metal singers. He did a great job at writing riffs suited for each vocalist's style. Doomy for Lee Dorrian, Thrashy for Cronos, ... Since none of us have ever heard Grohl write metal, we didn't know what to expect, well I'll review every song now :
1. Centuries of sin (w/Cronos (Venom) ) :
A very epic start of an album of which I didn't know what to expect, since I've never heard Dave Grohl Play Metal plus all the different vocalists on every track. The song starts off with some tribal warhorn, then an excellent riff breaks loose, very powerful drums, I can feel the Thrashy background of Venom here. Cronos sings here with what is probably one of the raspiest performance on the album.
Biting distortion and drums in a military Rhythm. The only complaint I could have is the fact that Grohl might have been too proud of the riff he invented as he uses it throughout the biggest part of the song.
2. Red War (w/Max Cavalera (Sepultura/Soulfly))
This song begins with some impressive drumming, slowly the song starts to build, pushed forward by the drums, then there's this riff that is simple, but there's a pause between the riffs, which kinda leaves you in anticipation of the climax that is bound to come. Then Cavalera does his vocals that are always difficult to describe, it's not really growling or screaming, but it's definitely not singing either. This song sounds very much like something that Max would write in Soulfly. At a certain moment he uses his infamous 'tribal blabbering' as I would like to describe it. "watchoobackwatchoobackwatchooback". He talks in an interlude and you have to listen twice before you realise it's Max, only on rare occasions you get to hear his clean voice. His Brasilian accent is always nice to hear as well. This is definitely a good song, if you appreciate Cavalera's style, which I do.
3. Shake Your Blood (w/Lemmy (Motörhead))
This is one of the happiest sounding, least heavy track on
'Probot'. It sounds more hard rock than anything. Lemmy does the bass on this one and he struggles a bit singing his lyrics, but in a charming way that only Lemmy could sing in. This song is rather catchy, Lemmy does an excellent job, this is probably the most accessible song on the album. Good song.
4. Access Babylon (w/Mike Dean (Corrosion of Conformity))
This is an excellent song, it's sounds sludgy and it goes like a train. It has elements of hardcore punk, it's sounds pretty underground, heavy production would destroy this song, so keep that in mind. Nevertheless Mike Dean has nice, clean vocals and this one just has me tapping my hand on the table and nodding my head. This thing is extremely catchy, but it's very short. Very good song.
5. Silent Spring (w/Kurt Brecht (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles ))
Song begins with some distorted bass, then slides into a heavy riff. Kurt Brecht sounds very angry and sing fairly accented. The highlight of the song is the interlude, which is almost headbangable (*note : depends on your criteria of headbanging)
6. Ice Cold Man (w/ Lee Dorrian (Cathedral))
A fitting title on this one, this slides along smoothly, albeit very slowly.This song is pure Doom Metal, something you could have expected coming from the Cathedral vocalist. Grohl wrote some great doomriffs on this one, and Dorrian's lyrics are very dark and almost apocalyptic. Despite it's slowness it is a fairly heavy song. Dorrian's vocals are amongst the best on the album; very strong performance. The song has a faster moment just before the end, but all in all this is a slow song. And a good one !
7. The Emerald Law (w/Wino (obsessed))
Some atmospheric sounds are released above a silent bass line. Then vocals and shortly after the guitars kick in. Wino has a nice voice, he's obviously a good singer. The song has some catchy moments and a solo, one that isn't bad at all, but it has a lot of 'interludes' and the song just bores me eventually.
8. Big Sky (w/Tom G. Warrior (Celtic Frost))
Switzerland's Tom Warrior from Celtic frost makes his appearance here. An industrial metallish intro here, and the song is built on a quite repetitive riff, the singing isn't too bad. But this song doesn't do much for me. The highlight of the song is definitely the solo, which might have saved the song from being totally generic, but still, one of the worst songs on the album.
9. Dictatosaurus (w/Snake (voivod))
This song also tends to be slightly repetitive, but it's better than the last song, the vocals are a bit nasal, but not in an annoying way, there's quite a lot of melody here. The singing reminds me of someone, but I can't actually put my finger on it. Decent song.
10. My Tortured Soul (w/Eric Wagner (Trouble))
An excellent riff introduces this one, sounds summery to me, don't ask me why. Eric Wagner seems to be a talented singer, as he sings with more melody than the previous singers, he actually goes fairly high in the chorus. The riffs just seem to rock the song back and forth, that's the impression I get. Maybe a tad too long, but good song.
11. Sweet Dreams (w/King Diamond)
Dreamy bells in the distance, silent panting and an excellent riff that has little distortion, I have been talking about talented vocalists before, but King Diamond proves his royalty here, he puts the others in his shadows. He touches those high and low notes, without any problems. The lyrics are about a demon that haunts you at night whilst you dream, and he does an awesome job representing that theme. Melody reigns in this song, after a while the distortion enters and it's just an awesome song. Soundgarden's Kim Thayil did a solo on this song and it's fits this song perfectly and it's just a fantastic solo, something that you would expect of Thayil, very technical. This is probably the best song on the album, great stuff.
Don't me misled by the time stating, as this song ends after 5 minutes and goes into a couple minutes of silence followed by a hidden track, supposedly performed by Jack Black. Check out the album if you want to hear it.
Conclusion :
This is a good metal album, Grohl did nothing very technical but there's decent songwriting, good guest appearances, which led to some excellent songs.
