I really need to give Aftertaste more spins. Just never grabbed me at the time. Yeah man, nice catch, I’m a huge fan of Catherine Wheel, Chrome is a great 90’s record.
Jeez I need to scour some boxes to find that Handsome Cd lol...I remember thinking it was pretty good, had some good tunes but some that were just meh...
Yeah, it’s pretty strong in my opinion, but a few songs are kind of weak. Great lineage in that band with Cro-Mags, Quicksand, and Helmet all being represented. The bass player, Eddie Nappi, plays with Mark Lanegan and Troy van Leeuwen these days.
Strap It On, Meantime and Betty are all classics. I love Aftertaste, Size Matters and the leftovers comp Born Annoying as well. Love the tricky time signatures, the fat grooves and occasional jazzy textures. I've played Monochrome once. Too streamlined.
Heh, I bet a lot of us "used" Helmet for these purposes. My main jam was "Born Annoying" - love how it switches from the lurching tempo to a 4/4 that just pummels you into submission or whips you into a focused rage. Anyway, I was with Helmet from the beginning through Aftertaste, which is one of those albums that I enjoyed when it was on but never felt the need to listen to or remembered much when it was over. Have yet to hear any of the "reunion" material.
I like the first 3 Helmet albums a lot. Quicksand is probably the best band on your list. I need to give the new one a shot, but their two albums from the 90s are classics. Was fortunate to see them once back then. The Handsome album didn't do that much for me at the time but I like it a lot now. Supposedly they had another album written and partially recorded but label and internal band issues held it back. That's too bad. It would've been interesting to see how they progressed. Leeway I like, regret not buying their first 2 albums years ago when it was cheaper and easier to get ahold of. There are reissues of those on a Brazilian/German label on both LP and CD but the singer had a falling out with the labels and plans to eventually reissue them himself IIRC. He also has a new band that sounds a bit like old Leeway. Anyone have those reissues? I wonder if the sound on them is good or just boosted and compressed to hell like so much stuff these days. Orange 9mm were great live but their albums never did it for me. A couple of the guys were in the NYHC band Burn, who I like a lot more. Of course Burn only recorded and released one 4 song EP (it is great though!) while they were originally together. Everything else is just unreleased archive stuff or reunion recordings. I need to give their new one another shot - it didn't grab me on first listen. Wish I could've caught them live on their last tour. Band of Susans I've not listened to in years. Their stuff had more in common with bands like Live Skull and Sonic Youth than some of the other stuff on your list.
"Attention wandered, I'm left with it" I liked the Meantime album, listened to it a lot when it came out. I liked their clean, unaffected presence. I really liked the lyrics, kind of mathematical and interchangeable. Didn't rely on emotions. Funny story, I starting writing as a teenager and continue 20+ years later. Not professionally, but it's definitely a habit. Anyways, there has always been a vague/meaningless phrase in my head: "Attention wandered, I'm left with it." It's like an earworm, and it has appeared in the margins of my notebooks or repeated in my head on sleepless nights. So, last year, I heard Meantime for the 1st time in 20 years and what stupid throw-away phrase did I hear in Unsung!? Your contribution left unnoticed some Association with an image Just credit time for showing up again Attention wandered I'm left with it Brains and music are weird.
I'm a still a big time Helmet fan of the albums up to Betty. They have an awesome Symptoms Of The Universe cover on the Jerky Boys Soundtrack that would have been one of the top tracks had it been on either of the Nativity In Black tribute albums. Anyone used to listen to Stompbox - Stress (Epic, 1994), another of those Helmet type bands?
Good run down but I’d put The Mark of Cain and Leeway above Quicksand. I was in a band that toured with Burn. They were, er, interesting guys with a provokive stage show. We’ll leave it at that.
Stompbox is a great one off band. Check out Zeph’s band after that which is Milligram. Heavy stuff. Raw Radar War (spell it backwards) is great, too.
I'm a fan: First time in 1993 in Austin, still have the scar from a broken bottle someone smashed on the floor. Then again with Therapy? and Wider in 1994; then 1995 with Primus for the Tales From the Punchbowl tour. I saw a lineup in the 2000's that had the bassist from Anthrax and the drummer from White Zombie. That was very strange. Loved "Just Another Victim" from the Judgement Night Soundtrack with House of Pain. And I wore my blue and white Helmet shirt quite a bit in the 90s. Some friends of mine did an acoustic cover of "Unsung" for a college talent show. Confused many people, I thought it was great. I wish I still had my Amphetamine Reptile compilation dvd that they were on with that crazy "VJ" named Dr. Sphinctor. That was a great label with metal-punk, or punky metal bands, bands Fugazi-like with metal chops. I remember The Cows (who I once opened for Tool in 1996) on that dvd as well. I also met a former Helmet bassist who was later in a Hawaiian style jazz band, said he wanted to make music where he could keep his hearing. I understand Page Hamilton was also quite the classic jazz expert. Heard a story about him doing a college thesis on John Coltrane or something...
Salvador Dream - Ur (1994, Warner). They were a Helmet-dreampop hybrid. This was only released in Canada. They had a few videos on Muchmusic then disappeared and there's nothing about them on the net.
Interesting, I remember seeing this album around but never heard anything by these guys until now. Not bad at all, although the vocals could've used some more work. Reminds me a lot of Hum, actually. I might have to pick this up.
That's the original bass player, Henry Bogdan. He lives in Seattle now and is still playing the same kind of music. Page has always claimed influence from John Zorn and Glenn Branca. I think that's what made Helmet a bit different was during their jackhammer, precision tight rhythms you'd get this messy, free form jazz 'solo' from Hamilton which introduced a bit of chaos and miasma into the machine like pounding. Personally, I was never a fan of Hamilton's style of guitar playing, but outside of Helmet not soloing at all, it was probably the only thing that would have worked.
I like that. I think it's quite good. Actually, I think the vocals are better than Matt Talbot's but I definitely think you're on the right track in terms of the Hum comparison. I can't think of any other band other than them that Salvador Dream sounds like. I mean there's some Big Black, Tar, and whatever else there, but Hum is the closest.
Helmet and Prong were always 2 bands I struggled to get my metal or hard alternative listening friends into.
These guys are little different than some of the American bands being posted here, perhaps a bit more Tool-ish (I believe Sylvia Massey produced their early stuff), but this is a solid song & record from around 2005. I think they have about 3 LP's, and have since broken up. Good stuff, a 3-piece band from Australia.
I still really dig Betty...spinning the Amphetamine Reptile 2x10" right this very second due to this thread. I had the CD first so the vinyl's revised track list can really throw me off, most especially the absence of "Sam Hell" closing. Are any more dedicated fans able to enlighten me on the rationale as both CD & record were released in 1994. (For those who don't know this is the track list: Side A1 Wilma's Rainbow / A2 I Know / A3 Biscuits for Smut / A4 Milquetoast Side B1 Tic / B2 Rollo / B3 Street Crab / B4 Flushings Side C1 Clean / C2 Vaccination / C3 Thick / C4 Beautiful Love Side D1 Speechless / D2 Pariah / D3 Silver Hawaiian / D4 Overrated
