It's hard to believe that I basically got into Helmet and the album Meantime because of Beavis and Butt-head. I saw the the video for the song "Unsung" and was just totally blown away by the riff and the sound of Page Hamiltons vocals. I bought Meantime shortly after seeing the video and was not let down.
It's hard to believe sometimes that music heard on Meantime comes from such clean cut looking guys. I remember reading a concert review regarding they came out on stage in polo shirts and jeans and blew the audience away with their set. But don't be fooled by appearance because the music that Helmet delivers on Meantime is pummeling and will throw you against wall relentlessly. Meantime opens up with the very heavy "In the Meantime" and continues on with songs just as riff heavy. "Unsung" proves to people that you can be hardcore and still melodic. The rest of Meantime continues on chugging its way through with thirty plus minutes of pure heaviness, while mixing in melodic parts in the process.
One reason that I enjoy Meantime and the rest of Helmets albums is because of Page Hamiltons vocals and lyrical harshness. The lyrics that Page comes up with are famous for pointing out faults others have made or just criticizing certain things, which a lot of fans tend to relate to. Page's vocals can range from the ever popular scream to just singing which can be found in such songs as "Unsung" and "You Borrowed".
It's too bad that when Helmet came out that not many caught on to their sound and the band soon got shuffled away after the semi-success of the single "Unsung". Helmet was considered before its time and when the late 90's rolled around Helmet continued to be ignored because by this time many bands had already developed a similar sound, which left Helmet to mixed in with the crowd once again.
Meantime is not like Helmets independent release Strap it On for the fact that it was more raw and had that underground feeling to it. You can clearly tell that Meantime was a polished up sound and somewhat different from Strap it On. After Helmet released Meantime it would be two years later before they would release Betty and two more before the release of Aftertaste. Betty was a more transitional album for Helmet and is considerably different from Meantime. Betty features more of a distorted sound and takes advantage of the Drop-D tuning throughout it. Aftertaste is more like Meantime but still fails to grasp the overall heaviness that is featured on Meantime. After about 10 years together and all the above mentioned releases Helmet disbanded.
Helmet can be compared to many bands such as Quicksand, Orange 9mm, Fugazi, and Clutch. Many other bands site Helmet as an influence to them including Silverchair, which with some of their earlier stuff sounds quite like Helmet. The Deftones have also sited Helmet as an influence. It's good to see some bands giving the recognition that Helmet deserves at times.
Out of the four full-length albums Helmet released I highly recommend getting Meantime before getting any of the others and then maybe move on to other albums.
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