GZR was an American heavy metal band founded by and named after

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

bassist/lyricist

Geezer Butler Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler (born 17 July 1949) is a English musician and songwriter. He is best known as the bassist and primary lyricist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. He has also recorded and performed with Heaven & Hell ...

. The band has been marketed with three different names on different releases, g//z/r in 1995, geezer in 1997, and GZR in 2005. Most fans refer to the band as "geezer," although Butler himself refers to the band name as "gee-zed-R". This incarnation of the band is not to be confused with Butler's previous attempt in 1985 to form a solo band, then known as the Geezer Butler Band – the two outfits are largely unrelated.

Band history

The band's music is generally of a much harder edge than Butler is known for in Black Sabbath. This is not a surprise, as the vocalist on his first album (''

Plastic Planet ''Plastic Planet'' is the debut studio album by GZR (known at the time as g//z/r), a heavy metal band featuring Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath. The album also features Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell. Album information The song "Giving ...

'') was

Burton C. Bell Burton Christopher Bell (born February 19, 1969) is an American musician and vocalist. He is best known as the co-founder and former frontman of the metal band Fear Factory. Until 2021 he was the only member to perform on all of the band's album ...

from

Fear Factory Fear Factory is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1989. Throughout the band's career, they have released ten full-length albums and have evolved through a succession of sounds, all in their main style of industrial metal. ...

, who is known for more driving and harder edged vocals than ever was displayed in Black Sabbath. Before taking on Bell as vocalist for the debut album ''Plastic Planet'', Butler contacted

Devin Townsend Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...

to perform vocals. However, due to Townsend's recent stint with

Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist for ...

, where he had not been a lyricist, he was unwilling to enter into another band where he would have no lyrical input. ''Plastic Planet'' also featured Pedro Howse, Butler's nephew, on guitars, as well as

Deen Castronovo Deen J. Castronovo (born August 17, 1964) is an American drummer and singer, best known for being a member of classic rock band Journey and hard rock acts Bad English and Hardline. He currently plays drums and shares lead vocals for the bands Jo ...

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on drums. Bell did not stay with the band past the recording of ''Plastic Planet'', due to Fear Factory commitments. In 1996, the band re-emerged with an exclusive track for the '' Mortal Kombat: More Kombat'' compilation titled "Outworld", featuring Anger on Anger vocalist Mario Frasca. This proved to be a one-time collaboration as Frasca was replaced by Clark Brown from the band Symatic for GZR's second album, '' Black Science'', released in 1997. The GZR formation played a few live dates in 1997 behind the release of the album, however, this was not a full-fledged tour, as most of the gigs were played concurrent to the

Ozzfest Ozzfest is an annual music festival tour of the United States and sometimes Europe and later Japan, featuring performances by many heavy metal and hard rock musical groups. It was founded by Sharon Osbourne and her husband Ozzy Osbourne, both ...

tour of that year. The band opened for musicians like

Bruce Dickinson Paul Bruce Dickinson (born 7 August 1958) is an English singer who has been the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden from 1981 to 1993 and 1999–present. He is known for his wide-ranging operatic vocal style and energetic stage ...

who was playing some live gigs at the time. Castronovo recorded, but did not play any of the live gigs. He was replaced on drums by Chad Smith (not to be confused with the

Red Hot Chili Peppers Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983, comprising vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea (musician), Flea, drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist John Frusciante. Their music incorporates element ...

drummer with the same name).

Discography

*1995: ''

'' *1997: '' Black Science'' *2005: '' Ohmwork'' *2021: ''The Very Best Of'' *2021: ''Manipulations of the Mind (The Complete Collection)''

Appears on

*" Mortal Kombat: Motion Picture Soundtrack" (1995) – performing "The Invisible" *" Mortal Kombat: More Kombat" (1996) – performing "Outworld"

Band members

– bass, keyboards *

Pedro Howse GZR was an American heavy metal band founded by and named after Black Sabbath bassist/lyricist Geezer Butler. The band has been marketed with three different names on different releases, g//z/r in 1995, geezer in 1997, and GZR in 2005. Most fa ...

– guitars *

– drums (1995–1997) *

– vocals (1995) *Mario Frasca – vocals (1996) (credit only, "Outworld") *J.C. Stokes – vocals (1996) (uncredited, "Outworld") *Clark Brown – vocals (1997–2006) *Chad Smith – drums (1997–2006) *

Lisa Rieffel Lisa Rieffel (born January 12, 1975) is an American actress and singer. Life and career Rieffel was born in Denville, New Jersey. As a child, she starred on Broadway and at The Kennedy Center in '' Raggedy Ann: The Musical Adventure''. She is ...

– vocals (2005) (appearance only, "Pseudocide")

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:16 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:80 top:10 right:20 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1995 till:31/12/2006 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:2 start:1995 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:2 start:1996 Colors = id:vocals value:red legend:Lead_vocals id:guitar value:green legend:Guitars id:bass value:blue legend:Bass,_keyboards id:drums value:orange legend:Drums id:Lines value:black legend:Studio_albums id:live value:gray(0.5) legend:Live_recordings BarData = bar:Bell text:"Burton C. Bell" bar:Clark text:"Clark Brown" bar:Pedro text:"Pedro Howse" bar:Geezer text:"Geezer Butler" bar:Deen text:"Deen Castronovo" bar:Chad text:"Chad Smith" PlotData= width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(11,-4) bar:Bell from:01/01/1995 till:31/12/1995 color:vocals bar:Clark from:01/01/1997 till:end color:vocals bar:Geezer from:01/01/1995 till:end color:bass bar:Pedro from:01/01/1995 till:end color:guitar bar:Deen from:01/01/1995 till:30/06/1997 color:drums bar:Chad from:01/07/1997 till:end color:drums LineData = at:17/10/1995 color:black layer:back at:01/07/1997 color:black layer:back at:10/05/2005 color:black layer:back

References

External links

Geezer Butler's homepageGeezer at TVT Records
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gzr Heavy metal musical groups from Texas Musical groups established in 1995 Musical groups from Houston Musical groups from Texas Musical quartets TVT Records artists