REVIEW: Helmet
- Martin Bate
OK, for all those who were worrying about the new Helmet album, I'm here to put your mind at rest - maybe.
For starters, contrary to the previous thread, Butch Vig does *not* produce the album - only the one song 'Milquetoast'. The rest is produced by the band with T-Ray, the same as the 'Just Another Victim' (with House of Pain) track.
The first side is the pretty much what you'd expect - a half-way house between the brutality of 'Strap It On' and the mechanical riffing of 'Meantime'. The only song that hints that Helmet have got a few surprises coming is the third track 'Biscuits for Smut', which is very dark and twisted funk.
On the second side Helmet go for it!
"Clean" is almost an indie pop song - albeit with huge guitar riffs.
The cover version of 'Beautiful Love' starts off as a delicate no-effects guitar instrumental before degenerating into Sonic Youth style guitar chaos.
'Silver Hawaiin' is stoned, heavy funk.
'Speechless' and 'Overrated' are laid back but brutal in a way that only 'Unsung' had previously hinted at.
And the closer, 'Sam Hell' is twisted, distorted, bottle-neck accoustic blues.
Verdict ? The album Helmet needed to make - their trademark stop-start grinding had become old by the time you got half-way through 'Meantime'. They have branched out and diversified although - and this is important - all the songs are still unmistakeably Helmet.
Some people will scream "sell out!" because they haven't churned out another 'Meantime', but the fact is that the band have done stuff here that nobody would have expected, and made themselves stronger in the process.
Word from my friends in the UK was that they were even tighter than before on the live dates (a frightening thought!) and I'm looking forward to their co-headlining tour with the Beastie Boys here, later in the year.
