Geezer Butler
Manipulations Of The Mind
(BMG)
8/10

The Very Best Of

(BMG)

8/10

By Decibel Report

As bass solo’s go, this round-up of Black Sabbath’s four-string maestro Geezer Butler’s stand-alone releases is a heavy off-beat reminder of his intriguing musical adventures away from the dark rumblings of the Brummie metal mothership. Collected together, Plastic Planet, Black Science, and Ohmwork provide a bird of prey’s gimlet eye view of the rocky and the out of bounds terrain Butler investigated on his quest for a sound far away from Sabbath’s.

With this in mind, Plastic Planet is 100% proof of Geezer’s singular vision to move away from anything reminding of Sabbath’s sonic-sphere and, by recruiting Fear Factory’s Burton C Bell on lead vocals and previous Geezer Butler Band collaborator Peter Howse, he ensured this with a 20/20 recalibrated viewpoint. It’s an industrial clanging and banging metal furnace period piece of techno, sci-fi themed topics especially evident on Drive Boy and The Invisible, forcefully propelled forward by Dean Castronovo’s panel beating barrage of drums. Returning a few years later with the same line-up, but with unknown singer Clark Brown, Black Science ditched the experimental for a heavier groove powered machine of songs that rang a loud bell with fans and the general opinion was very favourable that upholds well on this redux.

On the third release, after an eight-year hiatus due to main job duties, Ohmwork found both Howse and Clark joined by Red Hot Chilli Pepper drummer Chad E Smith taking over the drum stool on a varied album with wide-ranging Power Metal/Psych influences at play. Accompanying this compendium is an extra disc of bonus treats including demos, live versions, different mixes and versions. There are enough metal musings within this clamshell box set to sate the heavy palate of any Sabbath fan. However, the one caveat being the absence of liner notes in the booklet and interviews sharing the inside story of the making of this trilogy of recordings. Nevertheless, there’s also an excellent Very Best Of compilation. It contains songs culled from this trio of releases offering a concise pruning for those only wishing to dip a metal-tipped toe into this slightly surreal body of work.