by Sebastian Kluth
Par kluseba
The project of the famous Dave Grohl seemed rather intriguing to me. I have always known that he is musically diversified and knows a lot about metal music as he tells us for example on the bonus material of the "Tatsumaki" DVD of Voivod. It's their drummer Away that created the brilliant logo and cover for this project and their singer Snake performs on one of the album's highlights which is "Dictatosaurus" that could have fit on an album of the "Dimension Hatröss" era of that band. "The Emerald Law" with Wino from Saint Vitus and The Obsessed is a second highlight and great atmospheric doom metal track while "Sweet Dreams" with King Diamond resumes all the skills and styles of this singer in one coherent and interesting song.
All in all, there are twelve singers that Grohl invited which are mostly idols from his childhood. From hardcore to doom metal singer, we get pretty much delivered everything. The positive thing is that we don't only get the big names and famous musicians but also some rather unknown artists. All of this speaks volumes for Grohl's diversity, authenticity and passion. I have discovered a couple of new singers on this album and especially the hardcore performances are way better than I expected as I usually don't like this genre.
But Grohl even managed to perform one song with Motörhead's legendary singer and bass guitar player Lemmy Kilmister. His participation on "Shake Your Blood" is a perfect example for the main problem I have with this project. The song is completely assimilated to Motörhead standards and sounds as a filler that could have been included on any album of the band. The track is solid and rocks but it delivers nothing we haven't already heard in a similar and better way before.
This project is only a homage to twelve different singers but it sadly has no own soul, no particular style and nothing outstanding that might attract us to give more than one or two tries to the record and purchase it. Some tracks like the slow "Big Sky" featuring the singer of Celtic Frost and Hellhammer have interesting introductions but show no addicting evolution in almost six minutes of running time and ultimately sound rather monotonous. The hidden bonus track "I Am The Warlock" with Jack Black is another mediocre track and a slow hypnotizing rocker with the weakest vocal performance on the record.
In the end, some tracks have interesting parts and may please us as they remind us of the original bands of the invited singers. There is a lot of hit and miss on the record as many styles are united and it's almost impossible that all or just most of them may please us. You might pick your three or four favourite tracks while the other ones simply won't touch or impress you. This is one of the rare exceptions where I would recommend to purchase or download your highlights and skip the rest. As the songs are completely assimilated to the invited idols, there is no coherent style, guiding line or heart piece on the record. It's a compilation of a metal fan that has made his dreams come true with those twelve collaborations but for anybody else this record is not an outstanding experience. The flame is slowly burning down after a while even if the best tracks of the record can be found at its end in my humble opinion. I still congratulate Grohl for his integrity and the courage to make his dreams come true. He is the little piece of soul that still keeps the record at an acceptable level for me in the end and justifies my final verdict.
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