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Okay hit me. Betty is hands down my favourite 90s rock album. It was a total revelation for me when I discovered it. The David Lynch cover, the “brown sound” crushing guitar and probably one of the best drum rock performances period. Plus when I found out they just looked like regular dudes I was confused. Metal dudes looked like Pantera… cue Bevis and Butthead video.



I think Hamilton’s guitar work really took traditional rock tropes and filtered them through the noise scene at the time. Right down to technically difficult solos that often sort of appear out of squalls of feedback and noise.

The rest of the original output is solid, I’d probably go.

Betty
Strap It On
Born Annoying
Meantime
Aftertaste

For me they were the gateway band for all the stuff that would be regarded as 90s PRF bands.

Mixed vibes for me, but certainly not crap.

Loved the early stuff before the LP, when there was a lot more Killing Joke and downtown NYC churn in the guitar department and song structures. Tight rhythm section. Not a common opinion, but I think this is Helmet at its best. And Hamilton's singing actually works well w/this sound.

That probably makes sense b/c I got into Helmet in real time, as it formed, well after listening to stuff like Sonic Youth, Rat at Rat R, Swans, Live Skull, or even early Prong. Was kinda like, oh, the dude from Band of Susans has a new group.

Strap It On is cool, and they were great live around this time. Turning into a minimalist riff machine. Amazing how oddly popular they're getting, impressive. Meantime is more of same but slightly slicker. Just fine. "Unsung" has that glorious outro and might be the best thing Helmet ever did. Not a huge fan of Hamilton's vocals, but whatever, that's not really the point. Still, the music is now starting to have a lot more in common w/say, Rollins Band than some weird spawn of Sabbath and Branca.

Sorry, but Betty is where it starts to unravel for me. That record is all over the place and you can tell there were tensions w/in the band. So solid stuff like "Milquetoast" mingles w/experiments that don't really work. Funkmetal alert! And Page Hamilton sings da blooz! Not what I wanted to hear.

The rest of this band's canon, I do not care about.

Furthermore, I don't find myself often wanting to go back to that 1990s major-label-aggro Andy Wallace/drop-D sound these days. It reminds me of shiny black plastic, for some reason. It's even worse than '80s overproduction b/c it's less clumsily distinctive and doesn't even have much comedy value.

Speaking of which, the funniest, most cutting comment about Helmet I can remember in the 1990s was someone saying they looked like a Gap Kids ad. I think I read it in a zine, and it stuck in my head for some reason. That's what you get for rockin' out in prep clothes and shorts, I guess.

Still, not crap at all. Some waffles.

Page once said they got confused for Dave Mathews Band after a Spin Magazine photo shoot.

It must have been great to see the emerging noise scene. I got on board when Betty was released, it was like discovering a new kind of music for me. At the time I hadn’t really progressed beyond the 120 Minutes alt-rock wave. I had no idea you could be incredibly heavy without the whole metal aesthetic. A lot of great albums landed in 94 and that just opened the door for me. I still probably listen to that one once a month, I’m mean actually listen, not just on in the background.

Gramsci wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2024 2:18 pmPage once said they got confused for Dave Mathews Band after a Spin Magazine photo shoot. It must have been great to see the emerging noise scene.

Hilarious! Hamilton definitely had a sense of a humor about such things. And was pretty much just a regular, very pleasant guy in terms of his demeanor, albeit deadly serious and fairly uptight about music. Probably b/c he was much more skilled (in the classical, academic sense) than many of his early peers, who just kinda bashed away or were coming from a no wave and/or post-punk background. Whereas he actually knew how to play and studied this stuff, which was not so common in that scene. Way less accessible (totally instrumental, for starters), but Blind Idiot God was probably Helmet's closest cousin in terms of precedent or early peer, and there was a lot of mutual respect btw. the two bands.

Gramsci wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2024 2:18 pmI got on board when Betty was released, it was like discovering a new kind of music for me.

As a gateway drug, that's not a bad one at all! Would lead backwards and forwards to all kinds of cool shit.

NC

Unfuckwithatable.

Strap and Betty my are my faves.

Aftertaste is their weakest, still has some bangers.

Not crap through Meantime. "In the Meantime" fuckin' slaps. I don't think much of Betty. There’s a lot of bland radio rock on that one. Great drummer.

When I listen to them now, they don't sound heavy. The guitar just has no weight to it. It did back in the day, but so did "Sad But True."

Love Agenda is one of my favorite albums, and Live Skull were incredible.

Krev wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2024 2:37 pmLove Agenda is one of my favorite albums, and Live Skull were incredible.

I just discovered Live Skull! Thanks, they sound great.

Gramsci wrote:

Krev wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2024 2:37 pmLove Agenda is one of my favorite albums, and Live Skull were incredible.

I just discovered Live Skull! Thanks, they sound great.

Cloud One + the Pusherman EP are the shit!

Cold as ice but ringing and aggressive as hell guitar sound. Absolutely bizarre rhythm section, w/James Lo's ghost note-filled drum mastery and dubby, minimalist basslines that sound like Flipper riffs played on a fretless. Dispassionate vocals and surprisingly brilliant lyrics that resemble cut-up snippets from B movies and psych textbooks about emotional abuse. Weird tempo shifts and non-repeating parts, despite a mostly steady 4/4 throb.

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2024 2:32 pm
Hilarious! Hamilton definitely had a sense of a humor about such things. And was pretty much just a regular, very pleasant guy in terms of his demeanor, albeit deadly serious and fairly uptight about music.

I’ve hung out with him a few times over the years. I got sat beside him at dinner after a London show. We spent the evening mostly talking about gear and jazz which was on brand. He’s definitely got a traditional “band leader” attitude that comes with academic study of music. In the end it caused massive tension between him and John. The publishing was all going his way because he’d written completed compositions. It’s a very “Jazz” way of viewing a band relationship. Personally I think the band is him and John regardless of the songwriting. John’s drumming was a foundational part of the entire aesthetic.

It was definitely a band that should have had a specific life and ended. I wish Hamilton had started something completely new, even with a different singer of something. It seems he’s made a decent career/living out of flogging the Helmet horse but it kinds feels a waste of his abilities.

In the AmpRep doc Stu Spasm goes off about them in shorts. So good.
That and the Albini mix of 'Unsung' are the only two fond memories I have of these guys.