Protect your Head

HELMET. Discography

I recently acquired the Helmet Discography including their new album released this year called Seeing Eye Dog. From a quick listen the new album seems to be fairly decent but is not breaking any new ground which is exactly what Helmet did for a long time in their heyday in the 90's. Helmet are a grinding, punchy and totally groove-orientated band that seemed to be able to create endless rhythms, endless hooks and endless songs over a career that saw them release over 112 tracks. They really coined a very compressed production style, thin hollow-sounding snare drum, vocals that sound like they were recording in a train tunnel and they always made beautiful use of what came to be one of their signatures of their distinctive style - stop/start rhythms with tiny gaps in almost every song.
Helmet are totally under-appreciated for their influence on all kinds of music ranging from Hardcore to whatever genre you might want to fit Tool into. If you know an aussie band called Cog then take a listen to their Size Matters Album - a direct precursor. Aligned with skateboard culture for a long while Helmet found an appreciating audience but for some reason never became that popular. Big respect to these guys who fast found a sound and continued to explore their style through a series of really quite excellent albums. Check the Helmet Discography out.