Probot is Dave Grohl’s tribute to the music and bands he loves — the metal of the early 80’s. It’s like a tribute album, except with new songs instead of covers. So it’s kind of like a tribute album of cover tunes of eleven different bands that hadn’t been recorded yet, using the original singers of those bands to make new songs in old styles. Confused? If Probot’s Dave Grohl set out to make an album impossible to classify or stereotype, he succeeded.

The only thing tying the eleven tracks together is Grohl himself, who wrote each tune and performed most of the musical duties himself. For an album with eleven singers and various other guest musicians, the disc is surprisingly cohesive. Despite the rotating vocalists, the instruments maintain their voice throughout the album, preventing the album from sounding like eleven different bands instead of one. But don’t expect the songs to sound alike — each one sounds taylor made for each chosen vocalist.

“Centuries of Sin” with Cronos (of Venom) kicks off the disc with fire and intensity, preparing the listener for what lies ahead. Following is “Red War”, a track with Max Cavalera performing vocal duties which could have just as easily appeared on Sepultura’s Chaos A.D. The next track, “Shake Your Blood”, puts Motorhead’s Lemmy up front for both bass and vocal duties on a song that rival’s “Ace of Spades”. I’m not just gushing here — the tracks are that good. “The Emerald Law”, featuring Wino (St. Vitus, Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, Place of Skulls), sums up the feel of the whole project to me with its muddy riffs and straight forward rocking.

Browsing the track list is like a walk down memory lane from the early 80’s metal scene. Mike Dean (COC), Kurt Brecht (DRI), and Tom G. Warrior (Celtic Frost) all make appearances and keep the album moving forwards. Even the slower tracks, like “Ice Cold Man” (with Lee Dorrian of Cathedral and Napalm Death) and “Sweet Dreams” with King Diamond on vocals don’t derail the disc’s momentum. The music was fleshed out with a few guest appearances as well; Bubba Dupree (Void) and Kim Thayill (Soundgarden) both lay down some killer guitar work.

But the real genius here is Grohl himself. Somehow he’s managed to put together an eclectic mixture of artists and end up with tenacious results. If the Foo Fighters helped Grohl emerge from Nirvana’s shadow, Probot will put the final nail in the coffin.

The Foo Fighters proved that Dave Grohl has a mind for pop. Probot proves he’s got a heart of metal.

Tracks:
01. Centuries Of Sin w/ Cronos (Venom)
02. Red War w/ Max Cavalera (Soulfly, Sepultura)
03. Shake Your Blood w/ Lemmy (Motorhead)
04. Access Babylon w/ Mike Dean (Corrosion of Conformity)
05. Silent Spring w/ Kurt Brecht (DRI)
06. Ice Cold Man w/ Lee Dorrian (Cathedral, Napalm Death)
07. The Emerald Law w/ Wino (St. Vitus, Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, Place of Skulls)
08. Big Sky w/Tom G. Warrior(Celtic Frost /Apollyon Sun)
09. Dictatorsaurus w/ Snake (Voivod)
10. My Tortured Soul w/ Eric Wagner (Trouble)
11. Sweet Dreams w/ King Diamond (Mercyful Fate)

After listening to this CD for about the tenth time this week, I just have one question – “Why isn’t Pro-Pain the biggest band in metal today?”

Round 6 is Pro-Pain’s sixth studio album, and to tell you the truth, I don’t own the other five. I heard part of one many years ago, and to tell you the truth it just sounded like generic, New York hardcore. Not any more, my friends – not any more.

I was a little turned off by the album cover, which shows cartoon versions of the band members playing live. Unfortunately they are all end up looking like versions of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Once I got the disc in the player, I forgot any distaste I had for the cover. Cover? What cover?

Round 6 opens with “Fed Up,” a track that attacks hard and fast right off the bat – so fast, in fact, that I thought I had started the CD in the middle of a track. Pro-Pain never looks back, offering 13 tracks and 38 minutes of hard core metal. While Pro-Pain’s musical roots obviously lie in the NYC hardcore scene, they seem to combine equal parts of punk, metal, and old school thrash in their songs. If I were going to simply describe the band’s sound to someone, I would simply say, “Crowbar, sped up.” The double bass in “Fed Up” alone was enough to impress me. The drums throughout the album gallop, rock, and roll. The guitars are heavy, fast, synched, palm-muted power chords. The vocals are almost an exact copy of Crowbar’s emotion filled growls, but again, sped up. My wife’s comment in the car – “at least you can understand him.” And understand him I can, on several levels. Sticking true to their hardcore roots, Pro-Pain tackles several issues, political, social, and personal. In “Fuck It,” Gary Meskil throws it all out on the line, and you find out exactly where he stands.

According to the band’s website, over the past 10 years the band has sold “over 600,000 copies.” Make that 600,001, after this one. In fact, make that 600,006, as I’m going to have to pick up their other 5 releases. Pro-Pain has built a fan base without MTV, without videos, and without radio airplay – and that’s something to be commended for these days. I can’t help but to think that this is what Metallica might have sounded like had they not sold out. Somewhere between Crowbar and Pantera lies Pro-Pain.

Personally, I can’t wait for Round 7.

Tracks:
01. Fed Up
02. Desensitize
03. Substance
04. All Or None
05. Status Quo
06. Fuck It
07. Psywar
08. Take It Personal
09. Make Some Noise
10. Let Live
11. Thou Shall Not
12. Draw Blood
13. Down In Flames

Powerman 5000 has had almost as many styles as they’ve had albums. Their 1997 debut Mega! Kung Fu Radio drew strong comparisons to White Zombie (which made sense; lead singer Spider is Rob Zombie’s younger brother). In 1999 the band dropped their Zombiesque sound and hopped on the electronica bandwagon with Tonight the Stars Revolt. In 2001 they recorded Anyone for Doomsday? which contained music of both styles, but the lack of a theme kept the album from ever being released. Instead, fans got 2003’s Transform, where Powerman 5000 once again reinvented themselves, this time as a straight up rock and roll band.

Material on Destroy What You Enjoy, the band’s fourth studio album, falls somewhere between rock and punk. Not Green Day/Offspring/Blink 182 punk, but older, 70’s punk. The influence is unmistakable, from the sloppy three-chord changes to the vocals where Spider appears to channel Johnny Rotten. When not punking up the place, the remaining tracks sound like bad versions of Motley Crue Theater of Pain b-sides.

My first exposure to Powerman 5000 was through the song When Worlds Collide off their debut CD (and the Tony Hawk videogame). I thought the band sounded similar to White Zombie but still had its own identity, and I liked it. Hell, even if they sounded exactly like White Zombie it would have been okay with me. In fact, since White Zombie is now defunct and Rob Zombie doesn’t even sound like White Zombie anymore, the position is again available — they should take it! Instead, the band choses to bore us with deep lyrics such as “It’s a wild Wild world / It’s a wild Wild world / It’s a wild Wild world / It’s a wild Wild world” and “Come on, come on, Hey now that’s rockin’, Come on, come on, Hey now that’s rockin’, Come on, come on, Hey now that’s rockin’, Come on, come on, Hey now that’s Rock ‘n Roll.” The second song begins with a sample: “They write very pretty heavy lyrics and I, I agree with most of the stuff that they write.” Even leprechauns driving convertible Volkswagon Jettas with unicorn bumper stickers and rainbow air fresheners wouldn’t consider Destroy What You Enjoy heavy.

Destroy What You Enjoy isn’t completely awful, but it is uninspired and unoriginal. If you are looking for a slightly heavier version of The Offspring, you’ve found one. By trying to distance himself from his older brother’s image, it appears Spider has distanced himself from his fans along the way.

01. Construction Of The Masses Pt. 1
02. Destroy What You Enjoy
03. Return To The City Of The Dead
04. Wild World
05. Enemies
06. Murder
07. Now That’s Rock ‘N Roll
08. All My Friends Are Ghosts
09. Walking Disaster
10. Who Do You Think You Are?
11. Construction Of The Masses Pt. 2
12. Miss America
13. Heroes And Villians (Live)

I think I’m obsessed with the fact that Spider (the lead singer and founder of Powerman 5000) and Rob Zombie are brothers. Before slapping in PM5K’s Anyone For Doomsday? I swore that no matter what the disc sounded like, I absolutely and positively would NOT under any circumstances take the easy road out like every other lazy reviewer and compare Powerman 5000’s sound to White Zombie.

Unfortunately, following that rule left me very little to say. I don’t know if the brothers developed the same sound together or if one imitates the other or if they’ve spent so much time together that their music has melded together into one sound. Regardless of the reason, Powerman 5000’s Anyone For Doomsday? proves that the younger Zombie brother has not fallen far from the tree.

For me, this is a good thing. I love White Zombie. I love Rob Zombie. And after hearing this disc, I love Powerman 5000. I could give a shit who sounds like who, what the new term is for this kind of music, (“Action Rock” is the last one I heard,) or if people think it’s shallow, fake, or meaningless. It grooves, it rocks, and it holds my attention. The fact that this sounds just like a new Zombie album is good news for all of us that are tired of waiting around for, well, a new Zombie album.

I like when bands find their niche and stick to it. I’m not saying every band should record the same album over and over, but I think they make better music when they find their sound and not switch it up on me every album. For that matter, how many times have you bought an album for one song and found that it’s the only good song on an album? Anyone For Doomsday? follows closely in the footsteps of 1999’s Tonight The Stars Revolt!! and 1997’s Mega!!! Kung-Fu Radio. Edgy rock-based tunes with Spider’s voice at the head of this mix make up the 13 tracks on the disc. If I have any complaints about this disc at all, it’s that the album ends on a bit of a down note. Three rather downbeat electronicish songs in a row isn’t a good way to round out eight or nine fast rockin’ tunes! The upbeat songs are relentless, never backing off. Strong guitars and plenty of samples will probably only strengthen the Zombie comparisons.

PM5K have taken another hint from Rob Zombie and have begun infecting the world of video games. Tony Hawk 2 players have been listening to “When Worlds Collide” for a couple of years now, and the brand new Gran Turismo 3 for Playstation 2 contains “Supernova Goes Pop”. As long as it’s not “Dragula”, I’m happy.

“Bombshell” is set to be the first single from the new album, and it is representative of the entire record. Hard driving guitars, industrial sounding drumming, plenty of samples and keyboard work, with Spider One’s vocals layed over the whole thing. And yeah, it does sound just like White Zombie. I mean, JUST like them. If I had heard this single on the radio first, I’d be asking people when the next Zombie album was coming out. I guess all I can say is, there are worse things a band could do than sound like White Zombie.

According to their website, Spider One is also working on designing PM5K “collectibles, toys, backpacks, cd carrying cases” and more. Combine this new product push with their new album and the time seems right for Powerman 5000 to hit the spotlight and for Spider One to finally step out from behind his brother’s shadow.

Tracks:
01. Disease Of Machinery (Intro)
02. Danger Is Go
03. Bombshell
04. The Meaning Of Life
05. Tomorrow Is Yesterday
06. The End Of Everything
07. What The World Does
08. I’ll Try (Interlude)
09. The One And Only
10. Wake Up
11. Rise Alt. Mix
12. Megatronic
13. The Future That Never Was

(Editor’s Note: Despite receiving an advanced copy of the CD, this album was never officially released.)

Back in the day, Place of Skull’s album Nailed would have just filed under “heavy”. With now even sub-genres having labels, I suppose “doom” is a more appropriate tag — although “Sabbath-like” would probably suffice for most listeners. The band is often compared to Spirit Caravan and The Obsessed, so if that sounds like your bag-o-groove, you’re in the right place.

This three piece outfit headed by Victor Griffin (ex-Pentagram and Death Row) has put together one of the thickest sounding albums of the year. Even though the musical style sounds like it belongs in the 70’s, the production is very current and top notch — clear, clean, thick, and loud. The advantage of having a three piece is that, when properly mixed, each of the instruments have their own distinct range. That is evident here, as at most any given time each of the instruments can be heard seperately and independently of the others.

The guitars are fuzzy, bassy, and thick. The bass guitar does double duty, tying the drums and guitars together. The drums provide a rock steady backbeat, hold everything together nicely, and have a lot of little fills throughout to keep listeners interested. Nothing moves at a rabbit’s pace here — I’m more reminded of trying to run through a swimming pool. Slow, laborious, deliberate work.

Listeners should know whether or not they’ll like the album within the first 20 seconds or so, as the dirty opening riff of “The Fall” sets the pace for the entire album. Reminiscent of Corrosion of Conformity but slower, “The Fall” explores ideas about life and death: “(I long to understand/what the Creator has done for man/can our feeble minds comprehend?/we started to die when we began)”. The rest of the album covers equally deep ground. The album also contains a heavy cover of The Animals’ “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”.

Man’s Ruin Records was set to present this masterpiece to the world. Instead, they folded, and the band is now being distributed by Southern Lord. I don’t have much more to say other than if you like slowed down, fuzzed out rock, this is probably the best example I’ve heard of the genre to date. Place of Skulls are currently on tour with Spirit Caravan, a show not to be missed for fans of the genre.

Tracks:
01. The Fall
02. Never Die
03. Dead
04. Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
05. Feeling Of Dread
06. Untitled
07. Love She Gave
08. Return
09. Song Of Soloman

Turn to Stone is a compilation consisting of material from the band Pentagram, spanning the band’s ten year run with Peaceville Records from 1985 to 1994.

For those not familiar with Pentagram’s sound, they basically sound like early Sabbath. Well, not basically; exactly. Throw Ozzy’s voice over half of these tracks and they would fit perfectly on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or Paranoid — not that the singer doesn’t occasionally tip his voice in the Oz’s direction anyway.

Seemingly simple and fuzzed-out guitar riffs are chained together to create five minute slices of doom. The bass doesn’t stray far from its backbone duties, following the drums almost religiously. And if the instruments’ sounds make up half of the band’s comparisons to Black Sabbath, the song structures themselves complete the circle. Riff, rock, palm mute, repeat. Doom 101 here, and while the recording quality between songs varies, the formula rarely does.

Completing the classic doom-vibe are the lyrics. “On endless nights my need to roam/I’ve come to desecrate your bones/As maggots crawl amongst your flesh/You’re soon to meet the truth of death…” Uh-huh. Songs like “The Ghoul”, “Bride of Evil” and “Vampire Love” keep the band’s horror roots in check, while “Wartime” and “Burning Saviour” tackle other mandatory doomish topics such as war and religion.

Production values differ depending on the era the songs were pulled from. The older tracks sound like they may have actually used bathroom reverb on the vocals (“Go sing in the shower dude, it’ll sound groovy!”). “Re-released” doesn’t mean “re-mastered” here, kids. But then again, my guess is the average Pentagram fan is still wearing a jean jacket with a big patch on the back with big big 70’s moustache to match, and won’t hear the difference between the tracks over the bubbling of his bong water. “Live Free & Burn”, the last track on the disc, is one of the best sounding — by turning the fuzz and the echo slightly down, the up-tempo track receives a crisper (and more professional) sound.

If you were planning on selling your soul to the Devil for some undiscovered mid-seventies Black Sabbath tracks to be discovered and released, save yourself an eternity in hell and pick up Turn To Stone instead.

Tracks:
01. Petrified
02. Wartime
03. All Your Sins
04. Frustration
05. Burning Saviour
06. Sinister
07. Bride Of Evil
08. When The Screams Come
09. Relentless
10. Vampire Love
11. Evil Seed
12. The Ghoul
13. Wolf’s Blood
14. Madman
15. 20 Buck Spin
16. Death Row
17. Live Free & Burn

Remember when bands used to just break up and go away? Not anymore my friend, thanks to the Internet. Now every time a band breaks up the band members end up running to the internet, running their mouths and looking like high school girls in the back locker room. “Oh my GOD did you hear what Phil said?” “Dimebag is like TOTALLY wasting his time with Pantera.” “Is Pantera still together? Please check yes or no.”

Pantera, for all intents and purposes, is dead. And as we all know, the split-second a band is dead it’s time for the record label to rush out a greatest hits package to capitalize on the free publicity. And so, without even enough time for the corpse to get cool, Elektra presents to you one of the dumbest named albums ever, Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboys’ Vulgar Hits.

“While fans of the band have already heard this material, it’s a good compilation for those who want to get into the band.” I used that line in my Alice in Chains greatest hits review, I used it in my Nirvana greatest hits review, and instead of coming up with some big witty review, I’ll use it again here.

With a sixteen song album covering five studio albums and several soundtrack singles, Pantera does a decent job of covering most (but not all) of the bases here. Cowboys From Hell is represented by only two songs, for example — the title track, and “Cemetary Gates”, with “Domination” and “Psycho Holiday” conspicuously missing. Likewise, “Mouth for War”, “Walk”, and “This Love” make it to the disc via Vulgar Display of Power, but “Fucking Hostile”, the band’s theme song, didn’t make the cut. And so on and so forth. A couple of cover tunes (“Cat Scratch Fever”, “Hole In The Sky”) and a couple of soundtrack tracks round out the lineup.

Following Metallica’s trend, the Pantera greatest hits cd comes with a DVD, containing 10 Pantera videos. The good news is, hey, it’s a free DVD with 10 music videos on it. The bad news is all of these except one appear on Pantera’s 3 Vulgar Videos From Hell DVD, which also contains the video for “Planet Caravan” (not found here).

If you already own all the Pantera albums and the DVDs, move along. There’s nothing new to see here. If you’re looking for a Pantera best of CD and DON’T have a DVD player, I’d go with Pantera: 101 Live over this. If you’re a Pantera fan who doesn’t have the DVDs and is a completest, this is the disc for you.

Tracklist:
01. Cowboys From Hell
02. Cemetery Gates
03. Mouth For War
04. Walk
05. This Love
06. I’m Broken
07. Becoming
08. 5 Minutes Alone
09. Planet Caravan
10. Drag The Waters
11. Where You Come From (Live)
12. Cat Scratch Fever
13. Revolution Is My Name
14. I’ll Cast A Shadow
15. Goddamn Electric
16. Hole In The Sky

We’re looking to fill a new position here at Review-O-Matic. We’re looking for someone to just review new Ozzy Osbourne related material. With all the new stuff related to their new television show combined with a newly-found nationwide love for the Prince of Evil, it should be at least a part-time position that could work into something full time. The benifits suck and there’s no pay. Apply within.

In the meantime, I guess I’ll go ahead and review Ozzy’s latest offering, Live At Budokan.

You know, I consider myself a semi-Ozzy fan. I could take him or leave him. I respect him for his older work more than I enjoy his newer stuff. Respectively, I’ve purchased most of his earlier albums and downloaded most of the later ones. I respect the ol’ codger and like the rest of America, I’ve begun to feel sorry for him after watching the first season of “The Osbournes” on MTV.

Sorry, got sidetracked. Anyway, as a “casual” Ozzy fan, I’ve purchased the following Ozzy live albums over the years: Beast in the Darkness, Just Say Ozzy, Tribute (double live album), Speak of the Devil (double live album), and Live & Loud (double live album). That’s five live Ozzy albums, three of them doubles. That doesn’t even count the live Sabbath stuff I have.

You can probably see where all this is heading. Ozzy Osbourne’s Live At Budokan is yet another live Ozzy album. The show was recorded on February 5th of this year with Ozzy’s current lineup and set list. A little over a fourth of the songs (31%, Mr. Math!) are “newer” material. Songs like “Junkie” and “Gets Me Through” spice up the set list a bit — that is, if you like Ozzy’s newer material, which I don’t. The nine remaining tracks are Ozzy classics. “Crazy Train”, “Bark at the Moon”, and “Paranoid” all appear, along with other Ozzy staples.

Is the disc bad? No, but I just feel like I’ve heard it before. And before that. And before that. Live At Budokan is being released next Tuesday on CD, VHS, and DVD. If you’re wanting to see the head-biting mad man in concert, who knows, the DVD might turn out to be pretty good. As far as the CD goes however, there’s not much reason to rebuy another Ozzy live disc.

01. I Don’t Know
02. That I Ever Had
03. Believer
04. Junkie
05. Mr. Crowley
06. Gets Me Through
07. No More Tears
08. I Don’t Want To Change The World
09. Road To Nowhere
10. Crazy Train
11. Mama I’m Coming Home
12. Bark at the Moon
13. Paranoid

Review-o-Matic (and I assume the thousands of other websites like it) gets review submissions from all over the world, literally. Last week, a CD showed up in my mailbox. The return receipt was marked Italy. Inside the envelope was a mini CD with a hand drawn cover and the words “Ovo” and “Kknall” on it. Through the wonders of Google I was able to determine that this apparently came from an Italian label named “Bar La Muerte”, and is a 3 song split between the bands Ovo and KK Nall. Ovo described themselves as “improv noise freak travellers” on the label’s website, last updated in February of 2003.

I’m not sure who did which song and what is what on this three song split, but it really doesn’t matter. I’ve received a few other CDs from “Bar La Muerte” in the past and despite being based in Italy, this label has managed to circumvent all language barriers by releasing what equates to noise in any country.

Track number one sounds like someone hooked a microphone up to an Atari and took a piss on it. Honestly — the whole thing just sounds like computer equipment malfunctioning. It reminded me of when R2-D2 got shot by the Jawas in Star Wars, but less musical. At two minutes into the track it sounds like someone got the high score because things start going wild and for a minute I thought I was going to have to insert another quarter to continue.

Track two contains a drum sample that is so distorted you might think that your speakers are broken — and hey, don’t blame me if they are AFTER listening to this. Or maybe they’re not broken, maybe they committed suicide. Lucky them. This track sounds like someone learning to use a synthesiser for the first time and just turned the distortion up to 10 and turned on every single option at once.

Track three must be by the other band, because instead of annoying keyboards, this time we get annoying guitars. This “song” consists of two riffs that sound like someone just grabbed the neck of a guitar with their entire fist and strummed as fast as they could for a minute or two, and ends with a slower riff that is repeated for a minute and a half. The whole thing sounds like it was recorded from the room next to wherever the band was performing.

If you are a fax machine or a modem then you might like listening to the first band. If you like bands that sound like 12-year-olds with more distortion than talent, you might like the second. I didn’t like either.

2004 marks Overkill’s 20th year as a band together, and has released almost as many albums. Wrecking Everything is a live album that looks back on what was, what is, and what may never be again. Shortly after releasing Wrecking Everything, lead singer Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth suffered a stroke. Hopefully this won’t mean the end of the band, but if it does, you can rest assured that this album documents one of the best unsung metal acts of our time.

Despite never quite hitting the big time, Overkill attacks every song at every show like they’re number one — a fact that shows through on Wrecking Everything. “Thunderhead”, the second track on the disc, burns with more ferocity than anything I’ve heard recently. The energy continues right through to “Overkill”, the last track of the album.

The power of the band’s performance is equally conveyed through the disc’s brilliant production. I could not tell if there were overdubs or not, but if not, Overkill sounds damn good live. This CD does a good job of keeping that “live” sound without sacrificing quality. Songs like “I Hate” and “Deny the Cross” really come to live, and sound better here than they did on the band’s albums from the 80’s.

Wrecking Everything is a nice sampler dish, covering everything from very early to very recent Overkill. The only conspicuously missing track is “Hello From The Gutter”, the band’s big breakthrough single from 1988’s Under The Influence. Fans looking for that track (as well as nine additional ones) will want to check out the DVD version, of Wrecking Everything, which not only expands the show from 70 minutes to 120 minutes, but also contains a 90 minute documentary on the band as well. Great stuff from a great band.

01. Necroshine
02. Thunderhead
03. Evil Never Dies
04. Deny the Cross
05. I Hate
06. Shred
07. Bleed Me
08. Long Time Dyin’
09. It Lives
10. Battle
11. Years of Decay
12. In Union We Stand
13. Overkill