Helmet, Spirit in the Room, et Slumlord Radio

In their two and a half decades spent rocking like nobody’s business, Helmet have cultivated a reputation as “the thinking man’s metal band”. A band that dials down the silliness and excess often associated with riffs the size of planets and plays it a lot straighter than most bands do.

This is nothing if not a risky move; ironically enough leaving them open to more derision than most metal bands are. So it’s just as well that Helmet are an absolutely sensational band that more than lives up to the “Thinking man’s metal band” tag and then some.

Hamilton formed the band in 1989 after leaving his previous group Band of Susans. They were an immediate success, with Halo Of Flies frontman Tom Hazelmyer spotting them perform live the same year and signing them to his record label Amphetamine Reptile Records very soon after. 1990 saw the release of their debut album, the critically acclaimed and highly influential “Strap It On”.

Such a band could only have been a success in the early 90’s. It was a time when a band as profoundly straight-laced, intense and straight up heavy as Helmet could command a million dollar record deal with Interscope Records while still retaining almost total creative control over their records. An even better sign of the times though? It paid off.

The first album the band made on the label, 1992’s “Meantime”, was certified Gold in the States and sold over 2 million copies worldwide. However, come the mid 90’s and friction between the band members was starting to become a legitimate problem and after two albums that failed to live up to the commercial success of“Meantime”, the band split in 1997.

However, the Helmet story was far from over. The band came back together around Hamilton and bassist Chris Traynor when Hamilton was convinced by Interscope to take a solo album of his and release it under the more commercially viable Helmet moniker. Since then they’ve released a further two albums and counting, and led by Hamilton, they continue to be one of heavy metal’s modern masters to this day. Highly recommended.