HELMET
Press Release, May 30, 2006
Press Release, January 6, 2005
Helmet and Amnesty
International USA
Press
Release, September 13, 2004
Press Release, August 23, 2004
Press Release, August 13, 2004
Press Release, June 22, 2004
Page Hamilton (vocals, guitar)
Chris Traynor (guitar)
John Tempesta (drums)
Frank Bello (bass)
Two
years ago, PAGE HAMILTON singer, guitarist and founder of the proto-metal outfit
HELMET, was driving around Los Angeles with the radio on. The jock on
duty had just debuted the hotly anticipated new track from some nü-metal
millionaires. Immediately after the airing, the DJ opened the phones for
comments from the listenership. There was some expected best-thing-ever fawning,
but what caught HAMILTON's attention was the first dissenting listener. The
caller said the track was garbage and should be forgotten as soon as possible.
The DJ attempted to bait the caller by daring him to tell the radio audience
what he was listening to. The caller replied that he was playing HELMET in his
car and explained how he hadn't heard any rock music that good anymore. Not
surprisingly, the DJ did not fight the caller on it.
"I
thought I was going to hit a telephone pole," says Hamilton about hearing
the exchange. "Seriously, it was just a shock to be acknowledged in that
context. It made me feel confident about my past, as well as my future."
That
future is right now. On September
14, Interscope will release SIZE MATTERS, the first collection of new
HELMET music in seven years. The album’s title refers to, according to PAGE,
“An obsession in {American} culture with higher, louder, bigger and faster.
There are no rewards {or regard} for integrity and
progressive
thought anymore.” HAMILTON has reactivated
the HELMET name with a lineup including guitarist CHRIS TRAYNOR (Orange 9mm,
Bush, Helmet), drummer JOHN TEMPESTA (Rob Zombie, Testament), and bassist FRANK
BELLO (Anthrax). Recorded earlier this year and produced by HAMILTON with
assistance from producer Jay Baumgardner and former Nine Inch Nails associate
Charlie Clouser, SIZE MATTERS isn't necessarily a return to form. Rather,
it's an expansion of the vocabulary that HAMILTON has built his reputation upon
(minimalist crushing riffs, taut rhythmic propulsion, clusterbomb solos and
seething lyrical invective) coexisting with a greater melodic sense.
"In
the past few years, I've been fortunate enough to be able to sit in the company
of people like Bono, David Bowie and [film composer] Elliot Goldenthal and I
soaked up a lot of ideas from those people," says HAMILTON, illuminating
the path that got him to make SIZE MATTERS. "It gave me the
confidence in my own writing. You listen to those early HELMET records and
you'll hear that 'anti-songwriter' vibe I had going around back then. I was
using my voice as a rhythmic instrument, with less regard for the meaning of the
words. Now I appreciate clarity.”
Over
the course of nine years and four coruscating albums, HELMET was the vehicle for
HAMILTON's reductionist rock aesthetic, a vision that bridged the gaps between
underground-rock geeks, cosmopolitan art-snobs and populist headbangers looking
for a new fix. Their 1991 Amphetamine Reptile debut Strap It On helped
define a brusque element of America's underground-rock scene, while its
follow-up for Interscope, 1992's Meantime sold over a million copies and
helped lay waste to America's vacuous hair-farming metal scene. The band
released two more albums, Betty (1994) and Aftertaste (1996),
prior to breaking up in 1998. Interscope/Universal
Chronicles issued Unsung: The Best Of Helmet 1991-1997, earlier
this year, a collection whose parts still sound as fierce as they did on their
respective release dates.
HAMILTON
had remained busy since HELMET's dissolution six years ago. He went to New
Orleans to write songs with programmer Charlie Clouser down at Trent Reznor’s
studio. He did many sessions for film scores (S.W.A.T, The Good Thief, In Dreams, Titus) and worked
on a rock-guitar opera (“Transposed Heads”). In addition, HAMILTON
recorded with a diverse array of artists including California electronica
merchants Uberzone, mutant trumpeter Ben Neill, as well as a four-month stint
touring with David Bowie behind his ”…hours” album.
In
2002, HAMILTON formed Gandhi, with a bunch of friends from NYC. The outfit
played a few shows, but frequently ended up at the bar after rehearsals. While
all this was happening, America was in the throes of nü-metal mania, a genre
that owes much of its existence to the musical language HAMILTON had developed
in HELMET. In the liner notes to Unsung, Tom Hazelmyer, founder of
Amphetamine Reptile, the label that foisted the band onto the world, nailed it
when he said, "I think those bands need to fess up where they stole the
sound from. You don't blame the guy who let E=mc2 out of the bag."
Having
grown weary of traveling between Los Angeles and NYC to play with Gandhi,
HAMILTON put the brakes on the unit, and concentrated on writing songs. Around
Christmas of 2002, Reach 454 singer Rene Mata introduced HAMILTON to drummer
JOHN TEMPESTA. TEMPESTA’s career began with him woodshedding in Bay Area metal
band Testament, before being picked up to man the engine room in White Zombie,
as well as leader Rob Zombie's solo career. When Zombie said he was taking a
break from recording to concentrate on film, TEMPESTA relished the idea of
jamming with HAMILTON on some of the guitarist's new songs. HAMILTON was still
in contact with CHRIS TRAYNOR, who played guitar on HELMET’s Aftertaste
tour, and asked him if he wanted to join. TRAYNOR, who for years had been
suggesting HAMILTON reconvene HELMET, jumped on board, without question.
HAMILTON was happy with the noise the three of them made in the studio, and
started writing more songs. A demo of "Throwing Punches," made it into
the hands of former NIN bassist, Danny Lohner, who was the music supervisor for
the film Underworld. The track was credited to HAMILTON, and appeared on
the film's soundtrack last year.
Earlier this year,
Interscope label chairman Jimmy Iovine called HAMILTON. He wanted to speak with
him about two things. He first asked if PAGE would like to produce acts for his
label. (HAMILTON’s first job, the solo album from Bush singer Gavin Rossdale,
is slated for release later this year). And then, Iovine told PAGE he would like
for him to return to Interscope and make HELMET records. "After all these
years, I was offered the opportunity to have the band name I started with,"
says HAMILTON. "That's kind of hard to pass up!"
SIZE
MATTERS
is a powerful return to the kind of fury that raged under the HELMET banner.
Recorded as a trio with TRAYNOR on bass, the disc features all the punishing
riff economy HAMILTON has built his reputation on, but instead of delivering
“Meantime In 2K4,” HAMILTON has added more melodic parts for TRAYNOR and
TEMPESTA to drive. HELMET 2K4 has all the vision and the energy level needed to
stand out in these dangerous times. The disc's 11 cuts offer a plethora of sonic
invention and punishing riffage. There's the vicious big-dumb-sex of
"Smart"; the bone-snapping pit bull disguised as a C-(maj7) chord
that's anchoring "See You Dead"; the menacing chromatic scales on
"Throwing Punches"; and the closing "Last Breath," which
delivers a decidedly "old-school" HELMET vibe. SIZE MATTERS is
a rare thing: a record made by veterans who haven't mellowed with age, but have
no reason to erect a monument to their past.
"I
look back at those old albums with wonderment" says HAMILTON, “like how
we ever played ‘Vaccination’ without a click track, or why the snare drum
sounds on ‘Betty’ are so high-tuned. The more you make records,
the further you want to go from your previous work. SIZE MATTERS is
merely an extension of it all."
Former
Anthrax bassist FRANK BELLO signed on to fill the bass slot so TRAYNOR could
return to his guitar duties when HELMET tours in support of SIZE MATTERS
later this fall. HAMILTON is joyous about how the new disc turned out, and
swears by the work TRAYNOR and TEMPESTA put into it. He is also well aware that
some people will bristle about the absence of Henry Bogdan and drummer John
Stanier. (Bogdan lives in Hawaii and has left heavy music behind, while
Stanier does time in two bands, Battles and Tomahawk.
"They
were great musicians,” says HAMILTON. “I knew back in 1997 that we needed a
year off. We were getting on each other's nerves, but I wasn't ready to quit.
People can hear those old records and there's a certain kind of nostalgia
attached to them. But really, it's all about the vocabulary of the music,"
he continues. "I think if you found someone who had never heard HELMET and
played them a track from Aftertaste and the new album, back to back, they
would think it was the same band."
Like
every person who bemoans the state of today's rock culture, HAMILTON didn't sit
at home and bitch about it on an Internet bulletin board: he went out and
redressed the balance.
"I
still like rock music," he says. "I love to plug in and have the
volume surround me. But there's not a lot of rock out there that's inspiring.
There's still hope: I got turned on to the Dillinger Escape Plan, because as
soon as you hear them, you can tell they give a fuck. They play with passion and
not some vague notion of being rockstars. Part of the job of being a musician is
to have respect for the past and help bring things along now, and do something
special. Whatever's trendy or whatever the kids are buying, I won't be
doing."
And
if you're that guy who called the radio station all those years ago, or if you
found no reason to go to a record store for the past eight years, come in from
the cold, and try the new HELMET on. For Size. And the head rush.
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