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Helmet.

Not Crap, but with a waffle of 9.

They redefined the power of live music for me, 'lo these many years ago.

Strap It On was brutal and beautiful

Meantime was razor-honed and massive and taut

however,

Betty was lukewarm and juicy

Aftertaste was a sedative.

I did see them at the Empty Bottle pre-/post-Aftertaste, and they killed.

Strap It On was good, the production seemed so muddy though. Meantime rocked hard. Betty sounded like noodlewater, Pitchfork gave Aftertaste a good review so it might suck, even so NOT CRAP.

Few, if any, do harmonicall-saturated-razor-sharp-stop-start-dropped D crunch like Page Hamilton.
John Stanier gave militaristic precision to Bonzo-esq beats (and refused to tape down his snare).
Henry Bogdan - well, he kinda kept it simple and stayed off the high frets.
The other guitarists didn't manage to leave much of an indellible mark, but they were mainly Page's bitches anyway.

I'd buy additional copies of any Helmet album over most of what passes for "rock" these days. I miss 'em.

like I care

Holding Helmet accountable for bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit is kind of like saying The Eagles were The Byrds' fault. Sort of. Didn't like them as much as I did Band Of Susans, but if the world needs to be subjected to drop-tuned drill-press metal, I preferred Helmet's variant on the formula. Something did seem amiss from "Betty" onwards, though. Maybe Peter Mengede contributed more than I thought. 4

ignore this space - how did I show up twice?

I just got a look at Page's POS guitar. You damn well know he doesn't play that thing. He's busy playing reverse birds and shit.

Cockbag supreme.

Helmet = Crap, utterly.

"Bad Mood" alone kills your crap votes.

most everything after Meantime was lacking, though I hear Monochrome was actually good - a return to the Meantime style - but c'mon. Strap It On is a monolith, a half hour of pure power.

MEANTIME is the only one I've heard, but I really enjoy the heck out of it. I think what made Helmet's music unique is that they didn't just focus on only being a "heavy" band--they made the songs interesting by using compelling vocal melodies, washes of detuned double-guitar dissonance and Stanier's almost hip-hop-like drumming.

They also played around with interesting time signatures, shifting around the riffs and beats until they glided together like tectonic plates creating the perfect earthquake.

I don't listen to them that much, and they were far less interesting than the Jesus Lizard (who were a contemporary of theirs with whom I sometimes associate them), but I will gladly drink a beer and crank a Helmet song any morning of the week.