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One of the things that made Nirvana so great was the varied influences that each member brought to the band. It's well known in certain circles that Kurt Cobain was a huge Jandek fan, for instance, and Grohl was an underground metal fan of long standing. It's these influences that Grohl explores with Probot. He plays almost all the instruments on the album (with some help from Kim Thayil of Soundgarden), but he doesn't sing at all. Instead he invited a wide range of metal idols to write the lyrics and perform the vocal duties over his backing music.
And what names! Here's the track listing including the guest vocalists:
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Centuries of Sin Red War Shake Your Blood Access Babylon Silent Spring Ice Cold Man The Emerald Law Big Sky Dictatosaurus My Tortured Soul Sweet Dreams |
Cronos (Venom) Max Cavalera (Sepultura, Soulfly) Lemmy (Motorhead) Mike Dean (Corrosion of Conformity) Kurt Brecht (DRI) Lee Dorrian (Napalm Death, Cathedral) Wino (Saint Vitus, The Obsessed) Tom G Warrior (Celtic Frost) Snake (Voivod) Eric Wagner (Trouble) King Diamond (Mercyful Fate, King Diamond) |
There's also a hidden track sung by actor Jack Black who performs as Tenacious D, but that's hardly important in the scheme of things. Most of the songs are killers, with few down points. Sadly, given his consistent output over a few decades, it's Lemmy's track that is the least of the bunch.
Apparently other names were involved at points. Chuck Schuldiner of Death was approached as a potential name but he was fighting brain cancer and died before he could take part. The obvious game here (at least for me) is to come up with other names who weren't involved but could always be included on a sequel. Given the trouble that Grohl had to go through to get the Probot album released and the fact that it didn't rack up huge sales, it's unfortunately unlikely that a second volume could be made. However if it did, who would be on it?
Here at least are some of my suggestions, ignoring such obvious names as Halford, Dio or Gillan, and I'd love to hear any of the following baker's dozen of vocalists perform on Probot II. They were all major names in the metal underground with very recognisably distinct voices and they represent a similar cross section of the genre to that demonstrated in the first Probot. I'd also be interested to see what Dave Grohl would have to say about them.
Quorthon (Bathory)
Blaine (The Accused)
Glenn Danzig (The Misfits, Samhain, Danzig)
Ann Boleyn (Hellion)
Udo Dirkschneider (Accept)
Schmier (Destruction)
Midnight (Crimson Glory)
Messiah Marcolin (Candlemass)
HR (Bad Brains)
Billy Milano (SOD, MOD)
Chuck Billy (Testament)
Martin Walkyier (Sabbat, Skyclad)
John Cyriis (Agent Steel)
Inevitably there are other now deceased names who couldn't possibly be involved, such as Paul Baloff (Exodus) and Wendy O Williams (The Plasmatics) but I enjoy imagining their potential contributions too.
So, what about it? Probot II, Mr Grohl?
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