Probot

Rock drummers who step out from behind the drum kit to become a success in their own right are few and far between. Dave Grohl has managed it and, as yet, hasn’t resorted to lightweight pop and Disney soundtracks to become popular.

After the death of Kurt Cobain and the demise of Nirvana it would have been easy for Grohl to keep himself busy with session work and guest appearances on any underground rock record he chose. Instead he recorded a bunch of tracks, released them under the Foo Fighters moniker and took his first tentative steps towards global superstardom. Now, eight years later, Grohl is a household name and the Foos are one of the biggest rock bands in the world. Barely anyone remembers that Dave was in Nirvana, he’s his own man now, a full on rock god.

Probot is Grohl’s side-project. His attempt to reconnect with the roots of his passion for music with a little help from the cream of metal and hard rock. The self-titled debut album of this supergroup features eleven tracks played almost exclusively by Grohl (the odd guest appears to add additional bass and guitar) with a different vocalist on each. The music ranges from the thrash metal of ‘Centuries Of Sin’ (Cronos supplies vocals), through the doom-dirge of ‘Ice Cold Man’ (featuring Lee Dorrian) to the fist pounding rocker ‘Shake Your Blood’ (with the genius of Motorhead’s Lemmy on bass and vocals). Each track is a perfect match for the vocalist, a testament to the genius of Grohl’s instrumentation and his willingness to allow each guest to stamp their individual melodic traits to their song.

Standouts are album opener ‘Centuries Of Sin’, the magnificent, haunting ‘Sweet Dreams’, the old school-meets-punk-meets-hardcore ‘Access Babylon’ and the mighty melodic thump of ‘Big Sky’. A secret twelfth bonus track is also well worth sticking around for, but to tell you who features would ruin the surprise…

Grohl has come up trumps with this album. ‘Probot’ is accessible enough for Foo Fighters fans yet retains enough metal credibility to keep the hardcore fans satisfied as well. Probot are no superstar indulgence, this is the real deal and it RAWKS!!!!!