Helmet

After more than 20 years, six studio albums and 10 former band members, Helmet frontman Page Hamilton and company are still going strong. An integral part of influential post-hardcore/alt-metal bands like Quicksand, Orange 9mm and Rollins Band in the mid ‘90s, Helmet proved its staying power with 2004’s comeback record Size Matters — featuring a celebrity rhythm section comprised of Anthrax bassist Frank Bello and White Zombie drummer John Tempesta — in addition to the hard-hitting, return-to-form crunch of 2006’s Monochrome. Now four years later, Hamilton has returned from his various side projects (including film-scoring with longtime collaborator Elliot Goldenthal) to bring us Seeing Eye Dog, reportedly one of the band’s “most uncompromising and ambitious releases.” The record generally maintains Helmet’s unique crunch but also offers a handful of unusually no-helmet-required “power-pop” numbers, a moody soundscape piece and even a straight-up, faithful cover of the Beatles’ “And Your Bird Can Sing.” (Appearing with Intronaut and Bruiser at Double Door on October 12) –text: Mike Scales

Helmet

I don’t look at the charts; I don’t watch MTV. That’s not part of my lifestyle and I didn’t pick up the guitar with that in mind ever – I picked up the guitar because Jimmy Page kicked my ass.

story by Dan Marek
photo by Chapman Baehler

After tearing up New York City’s underground rock scene in the early ’90s with aggressive in-your-face guitars and severe stop-on-a-dime rhythms, Helmet sparked a flame that would later explode into a genre that would inspire nu-metal acts like Korn and Limp Bizkit to take over the charts and radio waves almost 10 years later.

It may come as a surprise that the mastermind behind this new breed of music was classically-trained and listened to jazz guitarists like Wes Montgomery as much as Led Zeppelin. Page Hamilton, who grew up in Oregon, moved to NYC to study jazz at the Manhattan School of Music in the late 1980s. He was inspired by post-punk acts like Sonic Youth and Killing Joke to make a new sound that combined punk themes like dropped-D tuning with alternate timing signatures found in jazz.

After recruiting a line-up of devoted members that wanted nothing more than to rock hard, fast, furiously and distinctively, Helmet released their debut EP in 1991. Strap It On went highly unnoticed by the general public, but left a stinging red mark on the cheeks of those who heard the slap-in-the-face aggression that wouldn’t stop leaving a ring in their eardrums.

Then their major-label debut in 1992, Meantime, became a Billboard “Heatseeker” after Interscope Records won a 22-label plus bidding war for what was considered the next Nirvana-esque change in the direction of music. Songs like “Unsung” rocked violently and fumed the fires of deceit, anger and a feeling of being overlooked to listeners across the country – which ironically brought them to the mainstream radio and video markets that typically didn’t cater to aggressive, in-your-face rock. By the end of the 1990′s, Hamilton had released four critically-acclaimed albums, but commercially ended up in too many bargain bins to keep label heads happy – which may have lead to problems in the band causing its break up in 1999.

Chicago Innerview caught up with Hamilton before going out on tour with a newly formed version of Helmet in support of their new disc, Size Matters. Hurriedly trying to finish piles and piles of dirty laundry before leaving, Hamilton filled us in on past problems, current projects and a view into the band’s tenacious history.

After taking a break from Helmet for seven years, Size Matters has taken Hamilton in a new direction of writing that steers slightly from his hard-core past, but keeps just enough antagonistic feel to be called one of Helmet’s best. Along with changing some of the underlying structure of the band, original members John Stanier (drums) and bassist Henry Bogdan decided to let Hamilton go on without them.

“I had kind of gotten to the point with John and Henry, with Henry in particular; where I knew that he wasn’t really into it anymore – just doing it for the paycheck,” said Hamilton. “That’s not a fun environment. You get tired for feeling responsible for someone else’s misery. I sort of had guilt, like ‘oh, these guys don’t really want to be doing this.’ John was always really diligent on arrangements, working his fills out, and he was always there, but in the years since we split up I don’t know what really happened. So apparently now, the whole Helmet thing doesn’t really interest him.”

Stanier, who is currently playing with Mike Patton (of Faith No More) and his new project Tomahawk, never said he wasn’t interested in playing with Helmet again. He just ignored Hamilton’s requests whenever he called.

“We still don’t speak,” Hamilton barked. “It’s unfortunate because John was always like my little brother in the band, he was always on my side. When there were battles between me and Henry or Peter, John always stood by me and musically he always stepped up. Maybe I’m biased, but I still think he’s one of the greatest drummers in the world and I absolutely honestly wish him nothing but the best in the world. But for whatever reason, John and Henry think that I fucked them or I’m a jerk or whatever. I’ve had plenty of time to think about it, try to please people and do the right thing, but it doesn’t really matter what you do, it’s never going to be enough. It’s kind of beyond my control and whatever problems they have I have to say at this point that those are their problems and not mine.”

Picking up the pieces, Hamilton decided that despite his old bandmates’ decision to put Helmet in their pasts, it was time to resurrect the project with new members. Picking up former White Zombie drummer John Tempesta, former Anthrax bassist Frank Bello, and guitarist Chris Traynor, the band recorded Hamilton’s work and set out on tour late last month. Though Hamilton has written all the songs for Helmet and continued to perform them over the past few years with a few drinking buddies in his side project Gahndi, many critics have said he’s left his signature sound behind for lighter, more melodic styles that he began exploring while writing soundtracks and filling in guitar parts for David Bowie.

“I think that making progress as a singer and a writer, it’s kind of natural that you don’t want to stand still,” said Hamilton. “It’s been seven years since I put a record out, so to sort of continue what I’ve already done wouldn’t be that interesting to me. As far as people criticizing the record, I’ve gotten it from day one. When we put out Strap It On, there were people praising it because it was a new thing in 1990 in New York and there were other people that hated me because I had straight teeth or whatever. So when Meantime came out it was sort of soft rock compared to Strap It On, and then of course Betty was highly criticized for whatever reason. But I’m the first person I have to please, I write what I want to write – I don’t write what people expect me to write. In my limited ability as a guitarist and a singer, it is going to dictate what we’re going to sound like. I formed Helmet in 1989, sang and wrote the songs and it’s going to sound like me. This album sounds like Helmet. People can respond to it in any way they want based on their sort of love for punk rock purity because we started in 1989 and ‘that’s Helmet’. And I will have to deal with that, but I’m at the point in my life where no one that plays or has played with me can dictate what I can do musically.”

Doing everything he can to please himself and not cater to mainstream influence or label executives may sound easy, but when nu-metal acts begin to take off in the charts and rake in the cash, you have to ask, “Does it ever bug Hamilton that all these bands that followed in Helmet’s shoes took off so big?”

“I don’t think in those terms, because if I did I’d drive myself crazy,” he said. “When we were on tour with other bands and my bandmates were like, ‘that sucks, why don’t we sell that many records?,’ I’d be like, ‘well, do you want to be in that band or be in fucking Helmet?’ They were always like, ‘fuck no, I wanna be in Helmet.’ That’s the way it goes. I don’t look at the charts; I don’t watch MTV. That’s not part of my lifestyle and I didn’t pick up the guitar with that in mind ever – I picked up the guitar because Jimmy Page kicked my ass. I’m not listening to other people’s music to see ‘what can I steal from this?’ then glorify myself with it. A lot of rock bands, that’s what they’re interested in. They want to be rock stars [with] Playboy girlfriends, but that has no bearing on my life. I listen to a lot of kinds of music and work out many different things. But Limp Bizkit and Korn selling how many millions of records? Great, whatever. I get along with those guys, I know them, I don’t sit around thinking, ‘you took my sound to the bank.’ It’s a completely different thing and I like what I do. All I ever hoped for was that I could continue to make a living so I can continue to make records and indulge myself in guitar chords or whatever.”

Helmet :: November 6 :: Empty Bottle.