Probot  - S/T (Southern Lord)
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Foo Fightin’, part time Stoneage Queen Dave Grohl takes a cue from Sabman Tony Iommi and pens a batch of instro-metal tunes, and then invites a buncha superstar throats to warble over ‘em. But unlike the devil’s own, who filled up his dance card with either old pals or quivering young bucks, Grohl actually got all his heroes from his teenage metal dirtbag days to growl along to the superhits. On the one hand, this strikes me as arrogant beyond all redemption- the high falutin’ rock star throwing a bone to his creaky old forebears for his own amusement- but on the other, I am apparently the only one who feels this way, so let the good times Grohl, daddy-o.

Cronos kicks things off sounding about a million times better than he did back in the Venom days, which can only mean he was Pro-tooled into the abyss. No matter, as the song, a double-speed thrasher called “Centuries of Sin”, is a dead-ringer for a “Manitou” b-side, and Cronos adds his distinctive wounded-beast bass rumble to the fray. Sepultura’s Max Cavalera does, well, a Sepultura song, really. Lemmy sings on “Shake Your Blood” (which also serves as the much-publicized single- stay tuned for the Suicide Girls-laden video), a very “Orgasmatron” sounding Motorheadbanger. Original COC singer Mike Dean contributes a very raw, 4-track sounding performance on the dirt-fuzz blast of “Access Babylon”, DRI’s Kurt Brecht shouts his way through the vintage sounding “Silent Spring”, Cathedral’s Lee Dorrian howls and growls through a loping doom track, and, well…you get the picture, right? Grohl appears to have written tracks specifically for each singer, based on exactly the sound their respective bands were playing when Davey was rockin’ out in wood paneled basements in the early 80’s. As such, Eric Wagner’s track sounds like Skull-era Trouble, King Diamond’s track sounds like “Melissa” era Mercyful Fate, etc. Doom daddy Wino, Voivod freakout man Snake (Voivod drummer and visionary Away also provides the artwork), and Hellhammer/Celtic Frost growler Tom Warrior are in on it, too. So there ya, go. Lap it up. I am quite happy that long-time all-doom label Southern Lord got to release this, as it oughta keep ‘em in the black for a while, and it sure is nice to hear both Wagner and Cronos for the first time in years, but ya know, I could get any of these fuckers drunk at the Irish Eyes on Karaoke night and get the same effect. And hell, maybe I’ll do it, just to prove my theory. Call it Drunkbot or something.
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