Band: Helmet

[Bill Swansea]

Kinda just clicked with Helmet despite what I said above. I don't think I could ever love 'em, but I can dig 'em and groove with 'em.

Not crap, though it is very hard to listen to some of their songs without thinking "nu-metal".

[timpickens]

I only have a copy of Meantime that I picked up at thrift store for $2. The title track is alright but it's tough for me to listen to the whole thing.

Not sure if I really dig em. I should probably check out Strap It On before making a decision.

[enframed]

Not crap, though it is very hard to listen to some of their songs without thinking "nu-metal".

Really, nu-metal? In which nu-metal bands do you hear Helmet? Aside from loud electric guitar chords I don't hear much else in common. Vocal stylings are entirely not metal nor speed-metal, nor are they rap; vocally they sound more punk. Until Betty Helmet did not play with a lot of dynamic range, they were just loud, there was none of that <whisper a verse and then SCREAM A VERSEEEEEEEEAYAYAAAH!>.

[Bill Swansea]

Not crap, though it is very hard to listen to some of their songs without thinking "nu-metal".

Really, nu-metal? In which nu-metal bands do you hear Helmet? Aside from loud electric guitar chords I don't hear much else in common. Vocal stylings are entirely not metal nor speed-metal, nor are they rap; vocally they sound more punk. Until Betty Helmet did not play with a lot of dynamic range, they were just loud, there was none of that <whisper a verse and then SCREAM A VERSEEEEEEEEAYAYAAAH!>.

The riffs and the grooves mainly. Where as Helmet seem very over-intricate to the point where the songs come full circle and come across as very simple and minimal, nu-metal bands are dumb enough to bash out one chord riffs with a funky drum beat because they have no imagination.

[STF]

Strap It On is the shit. Meantime is okay. Helmet was all about the riffs. By the time they got to Betty they had used up all of their good ones.

[GrantMcNeilly]

used to like them, now i'm pretty 'meh'. They have an itch no other band an scratch, but you need to listen to the rest of their music to do it...

[Red Square]

Strap It On is the shit. Meantime is okay. Helmet was all about the riffs. By the time they got to Betty they had used up all of their good ones.

absolutely! they had some great riffs that really drew me in and they had this weird articulate clunkiness to them that i still adore to this day...

[subprime]

Whenever I hear them it sounds like sort of generic alt rock with clean vocals and distorted guitars that dont feel heavy.

[Gramsci]

I found this old ditty of the legendary Reading 1994 show. This is easily the finest live footage I've seen, performance wise. It reminds just how weird and brutal they were... the "solo" in Wilma's Rainbow sounds like someone riding a rodeo bull, and Biscuits for Smut sounds like a wall collapsing.

Oh how far the mighty fall...

[Snowblinder]

We opened for them back in October. I remember being so excited to play with Helmet. I loved this band when I was a teenager, and I still put on Strap It On and Meantime every now and then. So...needless to say I was pretty happy to play with these guys.

Well....the current lineup of "Helmet" is just Page Hamilton and three young dudes, hired hands. I was aware of this fact going in, but thought to myself 'You know, lineup changes happen all the time with bands, maybe they've still got it.' Overall, I was wrong. Their entire, very long set was all new material that flat out wasn't that good. Then at the end, to appease the masses, they played "In the Meantime" and "Wilma's Rainbow." I would love to be able to utilize the "GGBB (good guys, bad band)" statement here, but...we had no interaction with them. They just hid in their dressing room for the entire show, up until the moment when they walked on stage.

Afterward, numerous people came up and told me that we completely blew them off the stage. Which should be a flattering statement. I mean, this was Helmet, a band that I once loved so dearly. But really, it wasn't a difficult task to achieve.

NC for everything up to and including Betty. Crap on everything else.

[madmanmunt]

the legendary Reading 1994 show

I was there. They came on right after the Jesus Lizard and were none the worse for it. The thing I remember most was the incredible sense of swing they had.

[Gramsci]

the legendary Reading 1994 show

I was there. They came on right after the Jesus Lizard and were none the worse for it. The thing I remember most was the incredible sense of swing they had.

I've got a bootleg of that show, near perfect set and kind the crest of Hamilton's vocals, which switch between a roar and "Americana" singing. I obsessed over Betty for a long time, I can still listen to it regularly and hear something new. I guess we all have our "musically coming of age" record and this was mine. Compared to most of that early 90s alt-rock period this was incredibly heavy and the "solos" were psychedelic walls of noise compared to the "shredders" of of the time. I have always hate the macho posturing of metal and the 50s retro artwork and cut-up lyrics were fresh air compared to all the monsters leather, plus just they looked like me and my friends.

It was all downhill from here. Aftertaste was a good record, but the problem was the lyrics went from Betty's weird beat poems to "I don't like stuff".

Biannual Betty eulogising ends.

-PM if you want me to dropbox you the bootleg.

[first2letters]

I first saw them on a bill with Jawbox at a small club in Pittsburgh (Upstage Lounge, RIP) -- 1991, maybe? I'd gone there as a Jawbox fan but left the place a Helmet convert. It was one of the most physically powerful sets I'd ever experienced up to that point, which I'm sure had a lot to do with the size of the room and the poor ventilation, but I recall this feeling like all the air had been sucked out (I mean that in a good way) and the place turned into a roiling pit of sweat and rage and volume the second they hit that first downstroke. It was like they'd just gotten a grip around my brain -- I made every attempt to catch them live after that.

Then band members started leaving and nu metal happened and Aftertaste sort of redeemed them for a spell, but to my ears, everything since then (EDIT: then = 1996/7) has been a pale imitation. I wouldn't take money to see them now, but I'll always call a solid NOT CRAP based on that first experience.

[subprime]

Whenever I hear this stuff the distortion always feels so clean and controlled. MAybe its cause I'm not hearing it live, but it feels less heavy than nivana. Maybe its the singing and the distortion combined, but it never feels even slightly out of control.

[Andrew.]

Whenever I hear them it sounds like sort of generic alt rock with clean vocals and distorted guitars that dont feel heavy.

Exactly my experience.

[Gramsci]

Whenever I hear them it sounds like sort of generic alt rock with clean vocals and distorted guitars that dont feel heavy.

Exactly my experience.

... Clean vocals aren't really the thing.

[Eugenius]

the legendary Reading 1994 show

I was there. They came on right after the Jesus Lizard and were none the worse for it. The thing I remember most was the incredible sense of swing they had.

I was there too and had no idea this show was considered "legendary".

[Gramsci]

the legendary Reading 1994 show

I was there. They came on right after the Jesus Lizard and were none the worse for it. The thing I remember most was the incredible sense of swing they had.

I was there too and had no idea this show was considered "legendary".

It was to Helmet nerds. However I was more meaning the Reading 94 line up



Afghan Whigs
Helmet
Jesus Lizard
Radiohead
Morphine
Barkmarket
Pavement
Therapy
Jeff Buckley
Deus
Lemonheads...

Not a bad line up of you ignore the Red Hot fucking Chili Peppers...

[Eugenius]

Afghan Whigs
Helmet
Jesus Lizard
Radiohead
Morphine
Barkmarket
Pavement
Therapy
Jeff Buckley
Deus
Lemonheads...

Not a bad line up of you ignore the Red Hot fucking Chili Peppers...

I only saw about half of those because of the two stage set up. There were some great performances in the tent that year.

[subprime]

There are worse bands in the line up than the chili peppers by far.