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 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'') was Burton C. Bell from Fear Factory, 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 to perform vocals. However, due to Townsend's recent stint with Steve Vai, 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 of Journey 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 tour of that year. The band opened for musicians like Bruce Dickinson 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 drummer with the same name).

Discography

*1995: '' Plastic Planet''
*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

*Geezer Butler – bass, keyboards
* Pedro Howse – guitars
*Deen Castronovo – drums (1995–1997)
* Burton C. Bell – 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 – 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