HELMET returns after a seven-year absence in September with Size Matters. This makes various internal organs hurt in anticipation.
Check out sneak previews of the vicious riff of See You Dead" and the nutty rudeness of "Speak and Spell" right here.
The new Helmet is Page Hamilton (vocals, guitar), Chris Traynor (guitar), John Tempesta (drums), Frank Bello (bass)
A press release tells what Page has been up to:
- Two years ago, PAGE HAMILTON singer, guitarist and founder of the proto-metal outfit HELMET, was driving around Los Angeles with the radio on. The jock on duty had just debuted the hotly anticipated new track from some nü-metal millionaires. Immediately after the airing, the DJ opened the phones for comments from the listenership. There was some expected best-thing-ever fawning, but what caught
HAMILTON's attention was the first dissenting listener. The caller said the track was garbage and should be forgotten as soon as possible. The DJ attempted to bait the caller by daring him to tell the radio audience what he was listening to. The caller replied that he was playing HELMET in his car and explained how he hadn't heard any rock music that good anymore. Not surprisingly, the DJ did not fight the caller on it.
"I thought I was going to hit a telephone pole," says Hamilton about hearing the exchange. "Seriously, it was just a shock to be acknowledged in that context. It made me feel confident about my past, as well as my future."
That future is right now. On September 14, Interscope will release SIZE MATTERS, the first collection of new HELMET music in seven years. The album's title refers to, according to PAGE, "An obsession in {American} culture with higher, louder, bigger and faster. There are no rewards {or regard} for integrity and progressive thought anymore." HAMILTON has reactivated the HELMET name with a lineup including guitarist CHRIS TRAYNOR (Orange 9mm, Bush, Helmet), drummer JOHN TEMPESTA (Rob Zombie, Testament), and bassist FRANK BELLO (Anthrax). Recorded earlier this year and produced by HAMILTON with assistance from producer Jay Baumgardner and former Nine Inch Nails associate Charlie Clouser, SIZE MATTERS isn't necessarily a return to form. Rather, it's an expansion of the vocabulary that HAMILTON has built his reputation upon (minimalist crushing riffs, taut rhythmic propulsion, clusterbomb solos and seething lyrical invective) coexisting with a greater melodic sense.
Article comments
1 - Seth Werkheiser
I can't WAIT for this album. Holy crap. Helmet is just TOO good to let so many mediocre "metal" bands crowd the market these days.
2 - Tom Johnson
This is turning out to be a great year for real metal. Helmet coming back just tops it off, along with a brand new, and from the sounds of it, incredible, new Megadeth album.
So Helmet's where Frank Bello fled Anthrax to? Kind of a shame, since Anthrax also appears, like Megadeth, to be back on top of their game. Well, if it gets Helmet back out there, it works out for everyone.
3 - clash77
Yawwwwwnnnnn...
4 - Eric Olsen
How could a Clash-lover not dig Helmet? They're both about total commitment to the riff.
5 - Mark Saleski
ah ya! i do remember my first listen to Betty.
that nice cover photo really tricked me into expecting, well, NOT what came blasting out of the speakers!
6 - clash77
Well Eric, it's not so much that I dislike Helmet, it's just that at the tender age of 46, I've been around too long to fall for any new marketing trends, like "nu-metal" and "grunge" (patents pending), and heck - let's face it - I've just been around too long. I'm old and tired and if you ever met me, you wouldn't like me. That's something I can live with. I spent my teen years in the 70's, an era in which we figured rock & roll couldn't get any worse. So much for prescience... Punk rock changed my life, but unfortunately it didn't change the world. It's been all downhill since The Clash and The Replacements broke up, rightfully so in both cases, and for me the 90's were a total wash (except for maybe Social Distortion's "Somewhere Between Heaven And Hell" and Oasis's "Definitely Maybe"). Feel free to convince me otherwise. Let's just agree to disagree, alright? Still friends?
Living in the past - hold all calls,
clash77
7 - Eric Olsen
Dude, I am 45, also love the Clash, the 'Mats, and Social Distortion (but not Oasis), but there's all kinds of great stuff coming out all the time. Listen without prejudice, or some such Michaelian nonsense. You are way too young to give up on popular culture.
8 - clash77
Point well taken. I haven't given up on popular culture, at least not all of it. Like you said, there's all kinds of great stuff coming out, but man do you ever have to look hard to find it! Seems like everything I buy these days is a re-issue (i.e, Faces box set or that Who compilation I picked up for the two new songs - should have saved my money - they're awful!). Hard for me to understand any common ground between Helmet and The Clash, though.
9 - Eric Olsen
only in their viciousness of attack and riff-happiness. I like all kinds of different things, maybe I am too easy to please
10 - clash77
Too easy to please? I say there's no such thing. It would be a pretty boring world if everyone liked the same thing, eh?
I'm out of here for the next five days. We should continue this next week.
Regards,
Clark from Detroit
11 - Eric Olsen
Have fun Clark, talk to you then.
12 - SFC SKI
You 2 old dudes should have enough music stashed away that you could spend all your time listening and never catch up to today, I know I do, and I am not even 40 9but I can see it from where I am.)
More Helmet will be a good thing.
13 - Eric Olsen
God is old
14 - Vurt
I can see the relation between Clash and Helmet.
I was a bit surprised by the news of a new Helmet album and to my 'horror' John Stanier isnt playing. Man... that guy is divine.
I've had a chance to listen to some of the new tracks and I kind of dislike the vocals, sounds too much like your standard nu-metal. To paraphrase Pages own words, less clarity and more rhytm please. Terry Date > Clouser.
The old Helmet albums are still among my top 10 records. The focussed and disciplined energy coming from a punk/jazz inspired metalguitar was awesome.
15 - Eric Olsen
Vurt, very perceptive observations, and I am less pleased with the tendency toward growling on these two songs than the almost disembodied dispassion of earlier Helmet - that contrast was among the strengths. We'll have to see what the rest of it sounds like.
16 - Tom Johnson
Clash77, you don't have to like Helmet, but your dismissal of them as "nu-metal" is painfully uninformed and close-minded sounding. But if you're convinced that nothing of real substance or worth came out after the punk movement, well, then I guess it's a lost cause. I still urge you to give Strap It On a listen and tell me that's not vital stuff. That it was a precursor of the mindless nu-metal that's abusing the airwaves today is not Helmet's fault. They stand head and shoulders above everything that lifted their style (but couldn't lift their substance.)
17 - Tom Johnson
. . . Now that I've listened to the two tracks, I have to ask - where's the "growling" you guys are talking about? That's pretty clear, clean singing. The growling that so marked the earlier albums seems to be entirely missing, in fact. What is also missing is the fire, the spit, the anger of the earlier Helmet. It's just a little too . . . pleasant sounding. What I'm hearing here sounds more like Betty than the other three albums, unfortunately.
18 - Eric Olsen
there are moments on the two songs that invoke the benighted vocal style of James Hetfield
19 - Kirk
Well, I know I am posting to a very old set of comments, however, it will all become clear in a moment...I am listening to Helmet's "Unsung: The Best of Helmet (1991-1997)". I very recently purchased "Size Matters"...man, what a letdown...I'm not sure why, but it sucks, kind of...the riffs are ok, the drumming seems solid, nice bass groove, so, what's the problem? It is just too POLISHED and all kinda runs together...sounds like any other Nu-Metal band out there...maybe Page Hamilton wanted to show he could out nu-metal the young nu-metallers, if you know what I mean...and, so, I am listening to the old stuff, almost in tears cause the old stuff is just that damned GOOOOD! All I can say is, weak ass music like 50-Cent, Justin Timberlake, and Korn all suck, I hate them equally...someone please save rock!
20 - Eric Olsen
I agree that something is missing, Kirk,and I think you're nu-metal observation is correct. Old Helmet was so maniacally AmRep-sounding, from "Betty"-on is not
21 - Anonymous Poster
I've stayed away from a lot of the recent so called metal music after just a few tastes, but just happened to see that this album was out. I had no idea they were even coming back, but they were an important band to me. I feel that Size Matters is the natural progression of Aftertaste, Betty, Meantime, and Strap It On, all of which were great albums. It has a lot more polish than the earlier albums, but in my opinion it sounds great to me. I enoyed the album from the first track to the last, and it gets better with each listen, just like classic Helmet.
22 - Harold
It's so ironic that Page keeps talking about how all the nu-metal bands sound the same, how they are unoriginal, and whatnot. Because this new album is flat out boring, by-the-numbers, pro-tooled, radio-friendly dad-rock.
WHERE ARE THE RIFFS? If Page thinks everyone loved Helmet because of his vocals and melodies, he's wrong. Betty was a great mix of Riff and Melody, as were a couple of songs on Aftertaste. But we all know that without the Riff, there is no HELMET. We could give or take the melody, bro.
Size Matters has none of the passion, none of the rawness, none of the riffs, none of the things that made HELMET so special in the first place.
I'm sure the satisfaction of record sales, radio play, and JC Penny commercials will convice Page that he made the right decision to completely sell out.
23 - Eric Olsen
word, Harold: Helmet=crushing, abasive riffs