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Helmet
Helmet

EMERGING IN 1989 at a time when the heavy music scene was split neatly into two camps - glam rockers on one side, thrashers on the other - Helmet fit into neither. Short-haired and favouring sweaters and baseball caps over Spandex and leather, along with Jane's Addiction, Nirvana and Soundgarden they were responsible for changing the musical landscape of the early '90s. The band were founded after Oregon-born vocalist/guitarist Page Hamilton moved to New York in 1985 to study jazz and ditched his beret upon falling in love with the Lower East Side noise-rock scene. He recruited bassist Henry Bogdan, guitarist Pete Mengede and drummer John Stanier, and set about creating a noise influenced as much by Sonic Youth and Big Black as it was Black Sabbath; a sound that merged precision riffing and drop-D turning with intelligent dynamics and a minimalist approach to songwriting. Future members of everyone from System Of A Down to Korn and Mastodon were paying close attention. And so should you.

Meantime
Name: Meantime Label: INTERSCOPE Year: 1992
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Review: SUCH WAS the major label feeding frenzy surrounding alternative bands in the early '90s that Helmet - an act almost completely bereft of melody and image - signed with Interscope for more than a million dollars. Mainstream weekly 'Newsweek' accused the music industry of losing its mind, but the label's faith was justified when the band's second album went Gold in the US.

Strap It On
Name: Strap It On Label: AMPHETAMINE REPTILE Year: 1990
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Review: GRANTED, HELMET have made better albums than this. Rarely, however, have they sounded as raw, angry and genuinely pissed off. Delivering a scissor-kick to the head of the New York underground scene, the ferocious mix of Henry Bogdan's growling bass, John Stanier's propulsive drumming and Page Hamilton's squealing guitar make it one of the most important relics of the entire aggro-rock movement.

Aftertaste
Name: Aftertaste Label: INTERSCOPE Year: 1997
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Review: THOUGH CRITICS were divided about 'Aftertaste', nine years on it remains one of the band's most consistent albums. Admittedly short on the venom of earlier releases, by now Helmet had truly refined their art. Ironically, it came at a time when internal problems were clawing away at the band's stability, and 'Aftertaste' would mark the last time Hamilton, Stanier and Bogdan would record together.

Betty
Name: Betty Label: INTERSCOPE Year: 1994
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Review: RECRUITING HIP-HOP producer T-Ray, 'Betty' was the work of a band throwing a few curveballs into the mix - witness the banjo pisstake 'Sam Hell' and the crushing cover of jazz standard 'Beautiful Love'. The result is one of the band's more inconsistent albums, yet one rescued by the fact that when it's good - as on 'Wilma's Rainbow' and 'Milquetoast' - it's fucking great.

Monochrome
Name: Monochrome Label: WARCON Year: 2006
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Review: IN TRUTH, there's no such thing as a bad Helmet album; some are just better than others. With Hamilton the only remaining original member, the main problem with 'Monochrome' is that you'll not find anything amid its myriad grooves and riffs that you can't get from any of Helmet's earlier albums, which were executed with more passion and creativity.

    Key Helmet Tracks
  • BIRTH DEFECT

    CONTAINS ONE of the best insults you could hope to unleash: 'I'd rather be insulted by you/Than someone I respect'. Saucer of milk for Mr Hamilton, please.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Aftertaste', 1997.
  • BORN ANNOYING

    RELEASED only six months after they formed, this may not be Helmet's best-ever tune, but it established their agenda in no uncertain terms. Great spazz-out at the end, too.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Born Annoying' seven-inch, 1989.
  • BROADCAST EMOTION

    IF RIFFS were waves, this titanic groove would be a fucking tsunami, topped off by a monstrous earthquake of a chorus.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Aftertaste', 1997.
  • CRASHING FOREIGN CARS

    AFTER SEVEN years of silence, Hamilton leads a new line-up back with this ode to pranging Fiats and Ferraris. Not really.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Size Matters', 2004.
  • DRIVING NOWHERE

    THE PERFECT combination of discordance and melody, complete with end-of-song noise assault. This is how you use dynamics, kids.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Aftertaste', 1997.
  • EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANTED

    'I GET a 'D' for disappointment', bellows Hamilton on this infectious head-nodder. Not from us, sir, you can be sure of that.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Aftertaste', 1997.
  • FBLA

    MELODY WOULD one day creep into Helmet's sound, but in the early days it was all about being as ugly as possible. The silence following the first explosions of riffs is crushing.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Strap It On', 1990.
  • GIVE IT

    'KILLING HURTS/Has to be done' shrugs Page Hamilton in this lumbering behemoth. Malevolent and ball-breakingly heavy - just how we like it.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Meantime', 1992.
  • IN THE MEANTIME

    HELMET'S SIGNATURE song, distilling everything that makes them so special into a breathtaking three minutes and eight seconds. Often imitated, but never - ever - bettered.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Meantime', 1992.
  • IRONHEAD

    LISTEN TO this opening riff and weep, all you wannabe shredders out there. Mosh-pits have been destroyed by this song.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Meantime', 1992.
  • JUST ANOTHER VICTIM

    WITH IRISH-AMERICAN oiks House Of Pain, Helmet proved that hip-hop and rock could have great sex. Try restraining your inner homeboy when House Of Pain's thumping backbeat kicks in. You'll fail.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Judgment Night' OST, 1993.
  • MILQUETOAST

    ALSO FEATURED on the soundtrack to cult fantasy thriller flick 'The Crow', bass players have been known to weep at Henry Bogdan's bass tone as it anchors the first verse with trademark precision.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Betty', 1994.
  • MONEY SHOT

    THE HIGHLIGHT of their latest album. Just listen to the sombre opening riff and how Hamilton builds an entire song around it. Genius.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Monochrome', 2006.
  • REPETITION

    AN EARLY indication of Helmet's precision, complete with the lyric 'Pig fuck your eyes shut'. That's one hell of a way to introduce your first album.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Strap It On', 1990.
  • SINATRA

    NOT AN ode to ol' blue eyes Frank Sinatra, but a cold, discordant, claustrophobic exercise in disgust and loathing: 'I hate everything as much as I hate me', roars Hamilton. Easy, fella.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Strap It On', 1990.
  • SPEECHLESS

    ONE OF the best examples of Helmet's mastery of dynamics, the silence that punctuates each intro chord helped redefine the concept of heavy in the '90s.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Betty', 1994.
  • TURNED OUT

    'MEANTIME''S ANGRIEST song finds Hamilton barking over a jerky, spasmodic riff like a whino shouting at the bus stop every morning cos he thinks it stole his booze.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Meantime', 1992.
  • UNSUNG

    ITS VERSE riff is tighter than an emo kid's jeans and its chorus more memorable than the first time you had sex. A classic, in other words.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Meantime', 1992.
  • UNWOUND

    THERE'S NOT an emo band on the planet that wouldn't kill to have written 'Unwound''s opening riff. Arguably Helmet's most melodic and immediate song.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Size Matters', 2004.
  • WILMA'S RAINBOW

    SURPRISE, SURPRISE, here's another neck-snapping groove to lose your shit to, with a clean vocal from Hamilton making this one of Helmet's more memorable moments.

    Find on iTunes Find It: 'Betty', 1994.
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