Pitchfork

[Posted Tuesday, October 14th, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

It's possible-- barely, mind you, but possible-- that some of our devoted readers may have been laboring under the misapprehension that the Foo Fighters rock. Oh, they're nice boys, they know how to lay down the popular music in an ear-pleasing fashion and all, but I think that you know and I know that deep down inside, there are several of your vital organs that feel the truth: they don't really bring the R-O-C-K. Of course, you need the R-O-C-K, and Dave Grohl isn't the kind of uncaring soul who would leave you hanging, and when we say hanging, we're speaking metaphorically.

Enter Probot. Grohl's long-discussed but never (until now) consummated heavy metal side-project is finally going to see the light of day early next year, according to a report from Billboard. The self-titled album, populated with a who's-who of '80s thrash-metal luminaries including Sepultura's Max Cavalera, Napalm Death's Lee Dorrian, and Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead, is due in February 2004 from Southern Lord Recordings. But just in case you can't wait that long (your pancreas says no), two of the album's tracks will be released this month on a color vinyl seven-inch that will be limited to (we shit you not) 6,666 copies. The single will feature the songs "Centuries of Sin" (with Venom's Cronos) and "The Emerald Law" (with Obsessed's Scott "Wino" Weinrich) and will only be available to subscribers to Southern Lord's singles club.

As for the full-length, the basic tracks for the album have actually been around for some time, as Grohl recorded them prior to the sessions for both the most recent Foo Fighters album and his brief stint with Queens of the Stone Age. A "friend" explained to Billboard: "They're the most slamming, intense metal tunes, but [Grohl] never sung on any of them. He went around to all his favorite heavy metal singers-- some of whom are famous, but some of whom are the local dudes in his town growing up who he always looked up to-- and gave tracks out to all these different people." Here's the folks who said yes:

01 Intro
02 Centuries of Sin (featuring Cronos of Venom)
03 Red War (featuring Max Cavalera of Sepultura)
04 Shake Your Blood (featuring Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead)
05 Access Babylon (featuring Mike Dean of Corrosion of Conformity)
06 Silent Spring (featuring Kurt Brecht of D.R.I.)
07 Ice Cold Man (featuring Lee Dorrian of Napalm Death)
08 The Emerald Law (featuring Wino of Obsessed)
09 Big Sky (featuring Tom G. Warrior of Celtic Frost)
10 Dictatorsaurus (featuring Snake of Voivod)
11 My Tortured Soul (featuring Eric Wagner of Trouble)
12 Sweet Dreams (featuring King Diamond and Kim Thayil of Soundgarden)

And what goes with hardcore metal like a refrigerator magnet to my ball piercings? Why, naked (or nearly naked) ladies, of course! According to a press release from punk-porn resource Suicide Girls, several of the sites' fetching young ladies will be featured in the upcoming video for Probot's "Shake Your Blood," to be directed by Bill Yukich (Jay-Z, Defari). No word yet on the video's concept-- pierced and tattooed vixens wrestling with Lemmy in a pool of red Jell-O while wearing g-strings, stiletto heels, and nipple-clamp pasties? Well, maybe I'm getting a little carried away.