G//Z/R

G//Z/R

G//Z/R is a British heavy metal and industrial metal group led by Birmingham-born bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler, best known for his work with Black Sabbath. The project starts in 1995 and continues to the present. Over its releases it appears under three related names: G//Z/R, Geezer and GZR, but it remains the same act.

Line-up and recording history

The first album, Plastic Planet, features Burton C. Bell on vocals, Pedro Howse on guitar and Deen Castronovo on drums. Bell, known for his work with Fear Factory, brings a harder-edged vocal style to the recording. Howse is Geezer Butler’s nephew. Castronovo records the album but does not play the live shows that follow.

In 1996 the group contributes the track Outworld to the Mortal Kombat: More Kombat compilation, with Mario Frasca of Anger On Anger on vocals. For the second album, Black Science, released in 1997, Clark Brown of SYMATIC replaces Frasca as vocalist. The band plays a small number of live dates around that period, including appearances alongside the Ozzfest tour and support slots for artists such as Bruce Dickinson. Chad Smith takes over drums for those performances.

After that run, the project is largely inactive for a period while Butler is occupied with Black Sabbath-related work. He later returns with the same live line-up used in 1997 to record the third album, Ohmwork, which is released in 2005.

Name and identity

The band name comes from Terence “Geezer” Butler’s nickname. Butler himself refers to the project as “GEE-ZED-R”, while many listeners call it Geezer. It is distinct from the separate Geezer Butler Band he forms in the 1980s.

Style

G//Z/R is associated with heavy metal, industrial, industrial metal, sludge metal and metal. The music is described as having a harder edge than Butler’s work with Black Sabbath.