Helmet - Helmet In 50 Tracks (A Hervé Guilleminot Special) CD1+CD2

A HERVE GUILLEMINOT SPECIAL

HELMET

Helmet - Helmet In 50 Tracks (A Hervé Guilleminot Special) CD1+CD2

Helmet is an American alternative metal band from New York City formed in 1989 by vocalist and lead guitarist Page Hamilton. Helmet has had numerous lineup changes with Hamilton as the only constant member. Since 2010, the band has consisted of Hamilton, drummer Kyle Stevenson, guitarist Dan Beeman and bassist Dave Case.

Helmet has released eight studio albums and two compilation albums. After releasing their debut album, Strap It On (1990), on Amphetamine Reptile, Helmet signed to Interscope Records and released three albums for the label, including the highly successful Meantime (1992). Their next two albums ― Betty (1994) and Aftertaste (1997) ― were also successful, but did not match the critical or popular acclaim of Meantime. Helmet broke up in 1998, but reformed in 2004, and has since released four more albums ― Size Matters (2004), Monochrome (2006), Seeing Eye Dog (2010) and Dead to the World (2016). The band's ninth studio album, Left, is released on November 10, 2023.

Musical style and image

Many critics cite Helmet as an alternative metal band; however, the band has been categorized under many genres, including post-hardcore, noise rock, experimental metal and post-metal. Jim Farber of the New York Daily News has jokingly labeled Helmet as "smart rock". Their music is characterized by repetitive, syncopated, staccato guitar riffs, often in unconventional time signatures, and almost always in a minor key with drop-D or drop-C tuning. The guitar sound is heavily distorted and dissonant, with choruses that often involve guitar feedback waves. Helmet has been described as a "thinking man's metal band"; according to Hamilton, the term came from original drummer John Stanier because he once heard an interviewer say it.

Eschewing the traditional metal image of long hair and black clothing, the band stood out with their preference for simple T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers, and short haircuts. Their atypical look was referenced in an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head, in which the pair's commentary on the video for "Unsung" included the lines "That drummer looks like a regular guy" and "If you, like, saw these guys on the street, you wouldn't even know they were cool. » (Wikipedia)

“If we had to summarize the sound of Helmet in a couple of songs, we would look at the case of their most famous titles like Unsung or In the Meantime. A very present bass, messy riffs, a dynamic groove that carries everything, the atypical playing of John Stanier on the drums (snare drum!) and the voice of Page Hamilton, both precise and strong.

Helmet's influence on a fringe of martial and powerful heavy metal, whether through Hamilton's involvement in industrial or grunge groups (Nine Inch Nails or Therapy?) or indirectly through metal groups (System of a Down, Slipknot), and even in the atonal distortion of rap-rock hybrids such as Korn and Limp Bizkit or the funkier Deftones.

Many critics cite Helmet as an alternative metal band; however, the band has been categorized into many genres, including post-hardcore, noise rock, experimental metal, and post-metal.

Helmet, a New York band formed by guitarist Page Hamilton, has enjoyed some success in the metal scene, albeit a hard-won one, as their uncompromising brand of alternative hardcore metal, groove/noise, and experimentalism was never designed to address the general public. A somewhat nerdy heavy metal band, Hamilton and crew adapted the New York look of bands like Talking Heads – dressing like college students – and offered impeccable style and fashion that was light years from the norm hair/thrash/death metal in vogue since the 90s/2000s.

Specializing in intelligent distortion and expertly honed syncopation and repetition, Helmet was able to explore multiple variations of the same systemic music. Their principle is to drive the same nail with different hammers... Quite phenomenal sound power (which allows you to test the VU meters of your Hi-Fi installation) at the service of merciless metal. 

One thing they claim to hate is being given the title of inventors of nu-metal – a pretty crude assumption since they look nothing like that and probably have more in common with English bands like Wire or Gang of Four than with any group of stoners who came. They have experienced two distinct periods of activity: active training from 1989 to 1998 then from 2004 to today. They remain very active, even if their latest albums show some weaknesses. So put on your helmets! (Hervé Guilleminot)

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TRACK LIST

01 Helmet - Iron Head 3:22 1992

02 Helmet - Street Crab 3:32 1994

03 Helmet - Disagreeable 3:45 1996

04 Helmet - Driving Nowhere 4:19 1997

05 Helmet - Unsung 3:57 1992

06 Helmet - Flushings 2:35 1994

07 Helmet - (High) Visibility 2:41 1997

08 Helmet - Rumble 2:26 1989

09 Helmet - See You Dead 3:47 2004

10 Nine Inch Nails Ft. Page Hamilton - No, You Don't 3:36 1999

11 Helmet - FBLA 2:40 1990

12 Helmet - FBLA II 3:22 1992

13 Helmet - Insatiable 2:34 1997

14 Helmet - I Know 3:41 1994

15 Helmet - In The Meantime 3:08 1992

16 Helmet - Welcome To Algiers 4:21 2010

17 Helmet - Impressionable 2:02 190

18 Helmet - Your Head 3:20 1989

19 Helmet - In The Ditch 4:22 2021

20 Caspar Brötzmann & Page Hamilton - Suburban Blight 5:56 1996

21 Helmet - Rock Messiah (Steve Albini Demo) 3:38 1991

22 Helmet - Murder 4:05 1990

23 Helmet - Turned Out 4:14 1992

24 Helmet - Tic 3:40 1994

25 Helmet - Broadcast Emotion 2:44 1997

26 Helmet - Lord Of This World 3:28 1994

27 Helmet - E. T. I. (Blue Oyster Cult) 3:37 2023

28 Helmet - Gigantor 4:14 1995

29 Helmet - Crashing Foreign Cars 2:31 2004

30 Helmet - 410 3:47 2006

31 Helmet - I Love My Guru 2:51 2016

32 Helmet - Distracted 3:12 1990

33 Helmet - Speechless 2:59 1994

34 Helmet - Borrowed 3:45 1992

35 Helmet - Just Like Me 4:42 2004

36 Helmet - Complete 2:50 1995

37 Helmet - Unbeliever 3:28 1994

38 Helmet - Wilma's Rainbow 3:54 1994

39 Helmet - Rude 4:13 1990

41 Helmet - Army Of Me (Bjork cover) 4:28 1996

42 Helmet - All The Accidents 4:38 2002

43 Helmet - Miserable 3:24 2010

44 Wire ft. Page Hamilton - All Fours 4:05 2008

45 Helmet - Shirley Maclaine 6:19 1989

46 Helmet - Role Model 3:33 1992

47 Helmet - Repetition 3:00 1990

48 Helmet - Exactly What You Wanted 2:36 1997

49 Helmet - Biscuits For Smut 2:53 1994

50 Page Hamilton - St Pius - Spirit Rising 3:57 2017

51 M'lumbo & Page Hamilton - In The Meantime (Bonus, Helmet cover) 5:26 2020

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