Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible, August 21, 2002
This is a massively influential recording, especially when viewed alongside the contemporary 'nu-metal'/'rap-rock' scene. It is also one of the harshest, most tightly written and performed albums I have ever heard.
Helmet produced music that truly was an assault on the senses, from the searing guitar lines to the quirky stop-start dynamics on numerous songs, coupled with the jazz-influenced time signatures and extremely raw vocals. This is not an album for the faint hearted, yet it is similarly not a release that panders to the stereotypically moronic metal fan (a label which I will be the first to point out is entirely inaccurate); Helmet are unquestionably purveyors of intelligent, thoughtful sentiment shrouded in some of the highest quality songwriting I have ever heard the genre produce.
On the opener, 'In the Meantime', Helmet set the scene for the ten superb tracks in typically cataclysmic fashion, with 30 seconds of churning noise giving way to a hypnotic, persistent drumbeat closely chased by layered guitars cranking out one of the heaviest, most recognisable riffs in metal, then pulling back to hammer one chord in truly eloquent, unforgettable fashion. These 3 minutes of 'In the meantime' may define Helmet, yet this album showcases a band truly comfortable with their own niche, their own raison d'etre, perfectly.
Many of the albums songs sound similar: indeed, I often think this record runs like one extended suite. Yet upon repeated listens each track follows the other so precisely, and the album's themes are so cogent even when wrapped in the bizzare anecdotes of the lyrics, that the status of this recording as a masterwork is apparent.
Buy this album if you enjoy intelligent music, or even if you merely like to bang your head profusely whenever you can, or both: this album caters easily to each faction. Consider carefully the irony behind the line, 'Walk through no archetypal suicide: to die young is far too boring these days', when contrasted to the grunge explosion taking place on America's opposite coast when Helmet recorded this release.
An ambitious, original record, and a musical unit whose impact should not, indeed cannot, be ignored.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hands Down the Hardest Rockin' Band of the Nineties, June 28, 2001
Led by classically trained jazz guitarist, Page Hamilton, Helmet unleashes its unique brand of melodic punishment on their major label debut. Recorded by the anti-Rick Rubin, Steve Albini, Meantime is from start to finish a total aural assault with driving chords and drumbeats that undoubtedly influenced the new wave of rap-rocking bands that deal in heavy snares (Korn, Limp Bizkit) and downtuned guitars.Back before grunge when MTV actually looked for new talent to play, Helmet had a minor hit with "unsung" which made the rounds frequently on Alternative Nation and other such shows. But, thier image and clothes didn't make them cool, it was thier unbridled aggression and melodicism in addition to a great no holds barred live show, opening for bands like Faith No More before headlining and touring with the Rollins Band. If you like rap-rock you owe it to yourself to check out Helmet and explore one of the fore-runners of Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Tool. Another great band that should have been huge.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Mammoth Album, July 12, 2006
Strange....I keep reading all of these references to Helmet being the originators of nu-metal yet, when this album was released, the concept of nu-metal had not yet even begun to brew inside the mind of some soulless marketing executive, itching to brandish a newer and more simplistic sound to attract the masses with a short attention span. One can certainly make a path from Helmet to the spawn of nu-metal that followed a few years later if they felt so inclined but if you dig a little deeper, nu-metal only shares the most basic traits with this band that offered so much more to anyone who cared to listen.
In some ways, it almost seems strange to slap the "metal" tag on a band like Helmet. Sure, they wrote this album that is bludgeoningly heavy with songs that would blow your head clean off your body from the outset but beyond that, Helmet shared little with the dyed-in-the-wool metal bands from the early 1990's.
I suppose that this is where the whole nu-metal tag comes in, due to the nu-metal kingpins to follow utilizing the stop-start riffing that Helmet mastered out of the gate. However, those comparisons end when you get into these songs.
Unlike Korn and Deftones that followed, Helmet combined that riffing style with head-snapping time changes, absolutely monster grooves and a strange combination of vast musical influence filtered through a seemingly minimalist approach, all of this done with no use of samples, rapping or tortured soul gimmicks. Helmet was strictly about the music.
Maybe this is why their flirtation with the mainstream didn't last. They had nothing by way of gimmicks to offer the growing number of angst-filled teens that were a year or so away from the transition from grungy teen to Johnathan Davis impersonator. For those (and there are many of them) always on the hunt for the next fad to grasp onto for lack of true identity, Helmet provided those of us looking for music with substance an album that still could blow us away almost 15 years after it appeared on store shelves. "Meantime" is precisely that album.
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