Now this one could have gone either way couldn’t it? Rock superstar decides to indulge his heavy side in a project that, realistically, will have no bearing on his standing to the wider world. Let’s be clear about this, Dave Grohl doesn’t need to prove a thing, drummer in probably the most influential band of the nineties his career seemed to be all over when Kurt finally succumbed to his demons. The obvious way forward from this point is not to pick up the guitar, take on the lead vocals and create a band that may not be as influential or revered but is arguably as popular as Nirvana. For a lot of us we cannot help but stand back to applaud the man even if the Foo Fighters are, dare we say, a bit lightweight.
The long mooted Probot project sounded too good to be true. Dave rings up all the bands he listened to as a teenager, all those heavy as fuck, thrash metal maniacs and their hardcore cousins and get them to record vocals over songs he had written especially for them. The list of bands reads as pure nostalgia fest to those of us who spent our youths in the utterly unfashionable, never to be cool, who gives a shit world of thrash metal. The most testosterone fuelled, anti social genre of music to have ever graced this planet.
Opener ‘Centuries of Sin’ with Cronos from Venom pisses all over anything Venom managed on their own records. To be fair Venom albums were never held up for their production values and although comical in this day and age they were the trailblazers for all that followed. The opening riff is pure Slayer with Cronos’ trademark growl over the top adding to the sheer nastiness of the music. Ridiculous? Oh yeah! Utterly over the top? Just as we like it thank you very much.
Second song ‘Red War’ with Max Cavalera from Soulfly and Sepultura is the highlight of the record. Intense, stop start riffing under throat shredding vocals is better than anything Max has achieved since the glory days of Sepultura, one of the greatest thrash metal bands of them all. Lemmy’s appearance is one of the lighter moments (how often can you say that?) and is pure Motorhead even down to the unique sound of Lemmys driving bass.
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Other highlights include Tom G Warrior from Celtic Frost on ‘Big Sky’, a man who did as much as anyone to tear the genre away from the Hell and damnation merchants and into more experimental areas. Same for Snake from Voi Vod, legendry Canadian metallers and now home to Jason Newstead (ex Metallica). It is truly amazing that Grohl has managed to give each singer the musical backdrop each deserves, aping their bands but without exception turning in one of the finest examples of their work at the same time. So Lee Dorian (Napalm Death / Cathedral) gets a doom metal sludgeathon, Eric Wagner (Trouble) does the whole operatic epic and Kurt Brecht (DRI) and Mike Dean (Corrosion of Conformity) get to deliver a couple of fierce hardcore workouts. In particular and not very surprisingly, the drumming is awesome, Grohl proving as he did with Queens of the Stone Age and Killing Joke that there isn’t a better drummer in the world at this time.
The weak point is probably King Diamond, always a fairly laughable character with his voice lurching from deathly growl to operatic high, he is as crap as I remember.
All in all then this is a labour of love. What could have been ruined with ironic nods and arched eyebrows is executed with palpable enthusiasm and joy, a tribute to music that never troubled the mainstream, never wanted to trouble the mainstream and retains a place in the hearts of many. Just one thing, to all those celebrities in Exodus t-shirts (that means you Beckham), to Top Shop with it’s Motorhead t-shirts and all the other idiots walking the streets with their ‘ironic’ metal adornments, can you please fuck off so we can have them back. Thanks.
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