Classic Album, Helmet, Meantime
Posted on 2nd Feb 10 by Paul Groome | 
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I get the best of both worlds here. To write about an awesome album is one thing, but to have their entire catalog of albums they released in the years following as a reference… Well, Im smiling. Let’s just leave it at that. ’ Helmet never get enough credit for the influence they’ve provided to [...]
I get the best of both worlds here. To write about an awesome album is one thing, but to have their entire catalog of albums they released in the years following as a reference… Well, Im smiling. Let’s just leave it at that. ’
Helmet, Meantime
Helmet never get enough credit for the influence they’ve provided to the hard rock world. The “nu-metal” genre was heavily steeped in Helmet hardcore. Shamefully, even bands like Good Charlotte (I think Page Hamilton may have apologised or this) cannot avoid giving a tip of the cap to Helmet without feeling very guilty. The underground scene always determines what happens in the commercial arena. Always.
Helmet have almost always delivered when it comes to album releases. It sounded like Page Hamilton might have been phoning it in on Aftertaste, but by that stage the revivalry between Hamilton and drummer, John Stanier, was at it’s peak. Prior to this, Helmet had three studio releases: Strap It On, Meantime and Betty.
When Meantime dropped in 1992, I remember being given a C90 cassette (Texet, the poor mans piracy aid) with a third generation copy of the album. The pitiful cassette sound quality only added to the intense energy emanating from my walkman. Dear God! Compared to Metallica‘s, Black Album from the previous year (which I worshipped), this was unruly, carefree, unrestricted. Anarchy for the ears.
Opening track, In The Meantime, lays it all open. Cryptic lyrics have always been part of Helmet’s progression. They really don’t make much sense at all. But the venom that’s used to spit them forward is contagious. Hamilton is screaming “help me spread right, ash is cow fertilised” (whaaat?), but it’s the method of how they words are channeled that matters rather than the words themselves.
Give It and Better keep with the stop/start guitar riffing while Stanier takes thumps to skins like they owe him money, and the breakdown in FBLA II makes you want to learn drums. The melancholy vocal style on You Borrowed is a precursor to that on Betty, and in hindsight Meantime seems to be an album that Helmet were trying a few new ideas out on. And they worked. If you don’t already own a copy of Meantime, you’re missing out.
Incidently, Helmet’s famous snare “crack” sound was introduced by Andy Wallace using trigger samples while Steve Albini produced the track, In The Meantime. A year later, Nirvana hired the expertise of Albini as producer for In Utero. Kurt Cobain specifically asked not to have Andy Wallace, who had engineered on Nevermind, at the desk. Did they like the anarchy of Meantimes production but wanted to avoid direct comparisons to Helmet’s sound? Maybe. The underground scene always determines what happens in the commercial arena. Always.
Tags: Aftertaste, Andy Wallace, Betty, FBLA II, FLBA, Good Charlotte, Helmet, John Stanier, Kurt Cobain, Meantime, metallica, nirvana, Page Hamilton, steve albini, Strap It On, You Borrowed