VERSUS: Probot vs. Roadrunner United

Welcome to Versus. The series where we look at two albums in metal history, compare them to each other, and see which one was the better record.

In this edition of Versus, we are going for some star-studded releases with this week's edition. Both albums from these acts feature countless guest appearances on both vocals and in the band's themselves. One project, a dream of a popular and well-loved hard rock singer who just wanted to play with his favorite singers. The other, a collaborative project celebrating the legacy and the impact one record label had on the metal world. Though each project only released one album, these albums featured a who's who of classic and modern metal for the time. Grab your sunglasses cause the stars are shining with a matchup I'm calling "With A Little Help From My Friends".

In this corner, we have Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl's metal project Probot with their 2004 self-titled debut. While making a name for himself as the drummer for grunge icons Nirvana and later fronting Foo Fighters, Grohl wanted to express his love and admiration for his love of heavy metal. and thus Probot was born. Featuring legendary vocalists from bands like Venom, Motörhead, Sepultura and Celtic Frost, it was a huge project that Grohl took on. Let's dive into this passion project and see what Probot brings to the ring in this matchup.

The album opens with "Centuries of Sin" featuring Cronos of Venom. With eerie, throat singing, rising from the depths in the opening moments. The chanting drops out and we get gunshot like drum hits and a gritty opening guitar and bass combo. Cronos' vocals are layered and he sounds like he hasn't aged a single day with his rough vocals. Eerily, his vocals sometimes sound like Devin Townsend, but maybe that's just me. The riff has a groove metal sound to it during the chorus, while adding an heavy undertone with the gurgling bass beneath the guitar, peaking through at certain parts. The building drums and Cronos' panting into high-intensity drumming was a nice switch-up and amplifies the song's energy and aggression. "Red War" is next and features Max Cavalera of Soulfly. With an almost Chaos A.D.-esque opening percussion section, the song slowly builds with atmospheric bass. Guitar slowly adds to the intensifying drums as the beat drops. Rising up as a groove-metal heavy sound you would hear on early Soulfly records. Cavalera delivers his guttural vocals with the driving riff beneath him, and then into the song's title with the drums and guitars start/stop play style. The song is just ok to be honest, I like Max's vocals on the track, but I don't know if the music is just missing something or the song just sounds like an outtake from Soulfly.

The album's single "Shake Your Blood" features legendary Motörhead front man Lemmy Kilmister. With driving bass and a grimy guitar with it, the drums are also just heart pounding as Lemmy delivers his iconic vocals. The chorus is so catchy and definitely has that strip-club, sleazy heavy metal sound which I can understand why this was released as the lead single. I love the bass solo heading into the bridge with just the drums beneath it. Adding that classic Motörhead sound to the track, adds a bit of swagger. A really good and classic heavy metal sounding track that truly captured the bravado of Lemmy and Motörhead. The following track is "Access Babylon" and features Mike Dean of Corrosion of Conformity. High intensity guitars and distorted vocals, the song is already up-tempo and off to the races. Channeling a instant headbang along feeling to the groove. Dean belts his vocals out in mixes of shrieks, singing and crooning at certain points. The song flies by in it's pacing with an under minute thirty run time. "Silent Spring" is next and features Kurt Brecht of D.R.I. With an opening gurgling bass and pounding drums, the build is insanely heavy with light distortion feedback beneath it. I instantly started headbanging along when Brecht's vocals kicked in. The song has that aggressive, crossover sound to it, especially as it heads into the chorus. The opening build returns at the halfway mark in the bridge, with the drumming intensifying with cymbal strikes while the riff keeps pace. Brecht's vocals become darker as the song picks up even faster and fiercer near the close.

"Ice Cold Man" features Lee Dorian of Cathedral & Kim Thayll of Soundgarden on guitar. Instantly opening with that heavy, funeral doom-esque element that Dorian's band Cathedral made their sound known for. A very Sabbath sounding guitar tone and play style. Dorian's wailing vocals rise with the guitars throughout the almost six-minute dirge of doom and darkness. Next is "The Emerald Law" and features Wino of Saint Vitus on vocals. The opening bass and drums sets a nice anticipation as the music begins to rise and build. Wino's talk/singing vocal style matches the grittiness of the guitar tone and driving pace. The chorus has an earworm-like hook to it with Wino's vocals, rising in peaks and valleys, along with the main guitar melody. The pace slows back down to a crawl around the halfway mark, with the atmosphere and drone/doom elements showing back up. Except when Wino's soft-spoken vocals begin to rise with an awesome sounding guitar solo beneath him as it distorts through a quarter of the song until the main riff returns as it heads to the close of the track. "Big Sky" is next and features Tom G. Warrior of Celtic Frost. Opening with pounding bass and distorted industrial effects, the opening guitar riff and drum combo instantly makes me want to pump my fist along with it. Warrior's vocals have snarl and grit in the delivery, almost Mustaine-sounding at certain points, but with a bass-heavy led track, it channels an industrial metal sounding song, which I was not expecting from this collaboration and I unfortunately am not a fan of this choice.

"Dictatosaurus" is next and has Denis "Snake" Bélanger of Voivod on the song. A pummeling, opening thrash intro with all over the place drum strikes and a chugging, but intricate guitar section. I like the pacing of the song, and the riff is catchy and head-bob inducing. The chorus is upbeat and Bélanger's vocals are on point. Dabbling in a modern rock/metal tone for the time, the song is still a good song and definitely makes up for the previous track with more high energy playing and fitting of the vocalist. On "My Tortured Soul", featuring Eric Wagner of Trouble, we get a chuggy, stoner metal-like opening riff with elements of blues in the playing. Definitely getting an Orange Goblin feel to the song and digging it. A slow-groove classic heavy metal track. Wagner's voice is well-mixed, and the band gels with him so well, showing how well the song sounds in the playing. The album closes with the song "Sweet Dreams". Featuring falsetto master King Diamond & Kim Thayll again, the song builds with ominous studio effects before a clean guitar begins to play softly amidst the ambience. The riff chugs into Diamond's iconic laugh and the song's pacing hits the ground running. Musically, it has a slow, brooding and swaying feel to the music as Diamond delivers his storytelling spoken word, clean singing and glass shattering highs all over the track. His vocal theatrics are always such a joy to listen to, and with a modern metal tone of chugging guitar and modern production, it really shows Diamond gels well with this sound and shows in later Diamond-era albums. I will admit, there is some parts of the song where his high vocals or backing harmonies almost get drowned out by the guitars, which does hurt the song since Diamond's voice is so iconic and recognizable. To minimize or hide that should be a crime against metal. There is a bonus hidden track at about the nine minute mark called "I Am A Warlock" and features Jack Black on vocals. Black delivers an aggressive, deep, commanding voice in only Black can deliver over a sludgy, stoner metal riff. I like this song A LOT and I think should have actually been a standalone track instead of a hidden track. Black sounds evil and the darkest I have ever heard him sing and it fits the song SO GOOD with the motif of the darker, edgier riff.

Their opponents, is the project known as Roadrunner United, with the 2005 album The All-Star Sessions. In celebration of Roadrunner Record's 25th anniversary, four "team captains" were chosen to create eighteen tracks that featured and chronicled artists and acts from Roadrunner's past. The captains were Trivium's Matt Heafy, Machine Head's Robb Flynn, Slipknot's Joey Jordison and Fear Factory's Dino Cazares. Produced by Colin Richardson and Andy Sneap, the album was a complex and diverse album of songs running the gambit of all different types of heavy metal. What does this star-studded behemoth of a record bring against Grohl and company's album?

*NOTE: Every single song on the track has a different band lineup, for the sake of time and length of article, I will just be listing the lead vocalists on each track. If you'd like to see the full line-up per track, you can check out the lineup for each track HERE.

The album opens with "The Dagger" and features Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage, along with Robb Flynn on backing vocals. His opening screams with heavy double bass opens the track with a metallic hardcore guitar riff behind him. It definitely has a Machine Head vibe to the track, which makes it more obvious when Flynn's vocals kick in. On the bridge with Jones' clean vocals, his vocals hit like a brick house, showcasing he has one of the cleanest clean vocals in metal. With the call and response feel after that, with Flynn and Jones going at it into the guitar solo, is a heavy section and dig that part a lot. Good opening track, and the combo of Flynn and Jones on vocals fit the song really well. "The Enemy" has Mark Hunter of Chimaira on the song. Opening with a beautiful acoustic guitar intro and impressive guitar playing, the song does a complete 180 and shifts gears into a drum-pummeling aggressive metalcore section before the verses. Hunter's visceral growls accompany the riff so well, and the song is just heavy as all hell with the double bass just punishingly fast during the chorus. The breakdown section at the halfway mark with Hunter's gutturals hit SO HARD and the solo after it just instantly made me miss Chimaira. And to close out the track with a reprise of the opening acoustic section was a nice full-circle touch. Glen Benton of Deicide provides vocals on the next track "Annihilation By The Hands of God". Great old-school death metal vibes in the opening. Benton's high scream sounds so evil like it came straight off Deicide's self-titled album. Joey Jordison, who plays drums on the track, is INSANELY fast and technical, especially on the chorus. The song adds the elements of old-school death metal, but with the modern-era of Deicide and some nice melodic death metal dual guitar harmonies, which I dug A LOT. "In The Fire" features King Diamond, and features an opening guitar piece that could come straight off of Abigail with nice accented double bass on it. Diamond, I swear, has not aged a day in their vocal skills. Him and Rob Halford must have the "fountain of youth" on their voices. Diamond shines on the track and delivers his unique, theatrical and impressive vocal delivery. Over a nice, thrashy, classic heavy metal sound as he hits his highs. The guitar solo, done by Matt Heafy of Trivium, shreds so hard and would rival any Andy LaRocque guitar solo on any King Diamond album.

Next was the lead single for the album "The End" and features Matt Heafy of Trivium on vocals. Very 2000's, modern-metal sounding intro and production in the opening. The chorus hits hard when that kicks in and definitely has that radio single vibe to it. With a Breaking Benjamin sound to the music and Heafy's vocal performance. The bridge has a nice, up-tempo chugging guitar section with a nice lead guitar underneath the vocals. Heavy and catchy song, and love Heafy's vocals. "Tired 'n Lonely" features Mina Caputo of Life of Agony (who went by Keith Caputo at time of recording and the album's release). Opening with a nice, post-grunge opening riff, that instantly channels the Life of Agony sound from their debut album. The bluesy riff and grimy/gritty vocals adds that almost swagger and sleaze to the song. I dig the song a lot, with its alternative metal/hard rock sound to it. Instantly reminding me of Life of Agony, along with elements of Stone Temple Pilots vocally at some parts and Alice in Chains on the guitar. "Independent (Voice of The Voiceless)" starts off heavy, groovy and thrashy in its opening moments. The build instantly psyches the listener up until Max Cavalera of Soulfly counts the song in and is just thrash metal at its core and heavy as hell. Cavalera's vocals are heavy and has his accented snarl all over it with a catchy, headbang inducing riff running through the track. Nice, thrash-heavy guitar solo by Jeff Waters of Annihilator on the song too.

"Dawn of A Golden Age" features Dani Filth of Cradle of Filth. Opening with pummeling blast beats and Filth's trademark vocals shrieking and screams. The song is black metal 101 in its aggressive drumming, tremolo guitars and evil aesthetics. The drums are all over the place in play style, technicality and speed. Guitars have moments of solos, interspersed with manic vocals by Filth and a nice piano section. Great Cradle of Filth-esque song that could have easily come off their album Nymphetamine. Corey Taylor of Slipknot appears on the next track "The Rich Man", starts with an ominous and heavy bass gurgle in the opening moments. The song has that Slipknot song "Iowa" energy to it. With its feeling of hopelessness in its dynamics and musical direction. Especially with the drums and orchestra sections, before Taylor becomes unhinged in his vocals as the song turns on a dime to a heavy and chugging groove metal turn. Upbeat and positive sounding guitars opens "No Way Out". Featuring Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw, the song has some of that emo/post-hardcore attitude in the vocals and music. I'm not a fan of this genre to be perfectly honest, only cause the vocals can be a little annoying or worth parodying, but I surprisingly like this song. Palumbo's vocals are clean and delivers a good performance and the music is a nice change of pace from the album so far, but I do picture metal fans potentially skipping the song since it kind of is the odd man out compared to what's been on the album so far. "Baptized in The Redemption" starts with commanding, war drum like drums and a chugging riff, then joined by Dez Fafara of DevilDriver classic bark/snarl vocals. I was headbanging along to the riff as it instantly has that spontaneous headbob effect to it, especially as it heads into the chorus. Good song, and would appease any fans of DevilDriver or Coal Chamber, since the song had elements of both bands in the song. "Roads" features Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth and even though is a short song, Åkerfeldt's vocals are so peaceful in tranquil. Especially with the accompaniment of acoustic guitars, keyboards and strings. A tranquil and relaxing piece of music and the vocal harmonies gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

"Blood & Flames" opens with a heavy, slower metalcore/heavy metal hybrid of a riff. Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage comes into the track after the galloping-like guitar intro section. The vocals are actually unique, with Leach almost singing in a higher range on his cleans, while his vocal screams in the transitional sections, sound like classic Leach. Not a bad track, and I do like Leach singing out of his normal range to give the track something distinct compared to his normal work with Killswitch Engage. On "Constitution Down", we open with heavy, flying and complex guitar playing as the music rises into even faster pacing than the intro. Giving off an impressive technical death metal feel to it, before turning into a driving thrash metal riff. Kyle Thomas of Exhorder delivers his gritty vocals over the palm-mute heavy riff and double bass beneath him. I love the vocal harmony, and the main riff hanging back on the chorus to let the drumming kind of shine during that section.

Next is the punk heavy "I Don't Wanna Be (A Superhero)". Led by Michale Graves of Misfits, the song is Misfits 101. Driving punk drums, catchy power chord guitars, sci-fi lyrics and clean vocal harmonies. Plus, that chorus is so damn catchy, and is still one of my favorite tracks off the album. Granted, Graves-era Misfits doesn't get a lot of love compared to Danzig-era, but songs like this show that this era of the band was good and worth taking a second listen. "Army of The Sun" opens with distorted, reverb heavy guitars, into a nice nu-metal sounding opening riff that sounds like it came straight out of the 2000's. Tim Williams of Vision of Disorder comes in, with nice vocal harmonies throughout the song. The chorus instantly channels that 2000's-era of metal and the angst and aggression of that time in metal. Cristian Machado of Ill Niño takes the charge on vocals for "No Mas Control". With a Fear Factory-esque guitar riff, the song shifts to a similar vibe of the previous track. You can hear the grit and attitude in Machado's delivery, especially in the chorus. The half-English/half-Spanish lyrical delivery is a nice addition to the song, fitting the nostalgia that Ill Niño delivered at their peak in popularity. The album closes with "Enemy of The State" and features Peter Steele of Type O Negative. With a nice and peaceful opening piano, the song turns evil and gothic as the drums and guitar kick in. With Steele's iconic deep voice and vampire-like vocal accents, the song brings the feeling of the album to a chill-vibe with its gothic motif and performance. The addition of organ to the song adds a creepy and ominous atmosphere to the song, like Steele leading a green and black-clad congregation. With trippy vibes and Steele, at some points almost not taking the song seriously in his vocal delivery, it is a very unique track to close out this star-studded affair.

Listening to both of these all-star albums, which album stands on top of the mountain as today's winner? For me, the winner is Roadrunner United with their album. For me, the songs were just better and the songs were more catered to the vocalist performing the song than Probot did. Granted, listening to the Roadrunner United album, you can hear at certain points who was the "captain" or song writer for the songs (especially the Robb Flynn songs), but a lot of them worked to match or create a sound that fit the artist and was also good at the same time. With Probot, some of the songs they nailed that fit with the vocalist. "Shake Your Blood" & "My Tortured Soul" for example, but then again, there were some songs that were just a miss for me. Either with the vocals or the music or both ("Big Sky" is a great example). It is a shame that, per Grohl himself, that Probot has ended. He felt there was no need for a second album. But I disagree, I would have loved to see who else he would have gotten on future records. Maybe a second album would have won this matchup compared to Roadrunner United. If he got acts like Phil Anselmo of Pantera, Katon W De Pena of Hirax, Rob Halford of Judas Priest or Chuck Billy of Testament on a second album, it could have been a contender.

Do you agree with my decision? Who do you think should have won? Cast your vote on the poll below, leave your comments on our social media, and your suggestions who you think should step in the ring next. I’m Justin, your friendly neighborhood metalhead, for This Day in Metal and this has been Versus.