Helmet is an extremely influential Alternative Metal band from New York City formed in 1989. They consisted of Page Hamilton on lead guitar and vocals, Henry Bogdan on bass, Peter Mengede on Rhythm Guitar and John Stanier on drums. Their sound, which blended Heavy Metal with Noise Rock and Post-Hardcore, was hugely influential on the metal scene in the Nineties. They broke up in 1998 but have reformed in 2004.
Discography
- Strap It On (1990)
- Meantime (1992)
- Betty (1994)
- Aftertaste (1997)
- Size Matters (2004)
- Monochrome (2006)
- Seeing Eye Dog (2010)
- Dead to the World (2016)
- Left (2023)
Examples:
- Alternative Metal: Trope Codifier.
- Cover Version: Black Sabbath's "Symptom Of The Universe", Killing Joke's "Primitive", Led Zeppelin's "Custard Pie" (with guest vocals by David Yow). Perhaps a bit more surprising are versions of The Beatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "Beautiful Love", a jazz standard originated by the Wayne King Orchestra (which isn't THAT surprising when you consider that Page Hamilton originally went to New York City to study jazz guitar before he fell in with Glenn Branca's orchestra).
- They also contributed a cover of the Gigantor theme to the compilation Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits
, and a cover of Björk's "Army of Me" to the first Music for Our Mother Ocean.
- They also contributed a cover of the Gigantor theme to the compilation Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits
- I Am the Band: Page Hamilton wrote all the songs back when they started, and now he's the only original member left. A sign of this is the fact that the song "Throwing Punches" first appeared on the soundtrack album to Underworld (2003) credited as a Page Hamilton solo work, but then the same version of the song appeared on Helmet's album Size Matters a year later.
- Metal Scream: Page's main vocal style is a Type 1.
- Noise Rock: Much more heavy though.
- Perishing Alt-Rock Voice: When he's not shouting, Page's singing is quite subdued.
- Post-Hardcore: Particularly their early material.
- Rap Metal: "Just Another Victim", their collaboration with House of Pain. In live performances, they tend to slightly Rearrange the Song by skipping the extended rap section entirely, though they have also brought Everlast onstage to perform it live.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Page Hamilton's trademark magenta guitar.
- Signature Style: Downtuned syncopated guitar riffs with waves of feedback and unusual time signatures.
- Uncommon Time: Almost all of their songs are written in this manner.
- Ur-Example/Unbuilt Trope: For Nu Metal, though the band themselves aren't too keen on the label; while their use of drop d tuning and bouncy guitar riffage has influenced acts such as Deftones, Limp Bizkit and Korn, they have denied it and said that the true Ur-Example is Faith No More. Also Ur-Example of Post Metal with songs such as "Sinatra" and "Milquetoast" which featured repetitive, atmospheric sections building up to massive climaxes.
- The most "unbuilt" sounding album might be Betty, which found them experimenting more with their sound - on the one hand, tracks like "I Know" blend metal and Shoegazing in a way that hints at Deftones' style, and on the other, there's things like a jazz cover that descends into chaotic noise ("Beautiful Love"), or a song that combines Noise Rock and Blues Rock ("Sam Hell").
