Left Helmet

• 1 Holiday 03:22
• 2 Gun Fluf 03:29
• 3 NYC Tough Guy 02:34
• 4 Make-Up 02:48
• 5 Big Shot 02:43
• 6 Bombastic 03:11
• 7 Reprise 01:41
• 8 Dislocated 03:19
• 9 Tell Me Again 02:43
• 10 Powder Puff 03:41
• 11 Resolution 01:43
• Total Runtime 31:14

Info for Left

Helmet wurde in den späten 80er Jahren in New York City gegründet und eroberte die Musikszene mit einer unverwechselbaren Mischung aus Alternative-Metal, Post-Hardcore und Punk-Einflüssen.

Angeführt von Ausnahmetalent Page Hamilton ist die Band für ihre schmetternden Riffs, nachdenklich stimmenden Texte und ihre Rhythmusgruppe bekannt, die das Fundament eines jeden Veranstaltungsortes erschüttern kann. Die Liste der Künstler, die Helmet als persönlichen Einfluss nannten, ist lang und reicht von Nine Inch Nails, Tool, System of a Down über Slipknot bis zu Limp Bizkit, Korn und Marilyn Manson. Das mit Spannung erwartete neue Album »Left« markiert die triumphale Rückkehr von Helmet ins Studio nach einer siebenjährigen Auszeit. Dieses klangliche Meisterwerk, fachmännisch gemastert vom 20-fachen Grammy- Preisträger Howie Weinberg (Beastie Boys, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins u.v.a.), festigt Helmets Position als eine der einfl ussreichsten amerikanischen Rock-Bands aller Zeiten.

"Auf "Left" spielen HELMET ihre bekannten Trümpfe aus, ohne altbacken oder gewollt "rootsy" zu klingen. Page Hamiltons zynisch nölende Vocals, dazu abstrakte Minimal-Solos zwischen purem Lärm und Melodiefetzen ('Bommbastic'), punktgenaues Drumming und quasi-poppige Refrains, mehr braucht es nicht, um Fans der legendären ersten drei Alben der Gruppe hinterm Ofen hervorzulocken. Bitte auch die Tour besuchen!" (Andreas Schiffmann, musikreviews.de)

Dave Case, Bass
Page Hamilton, Gesang, Gitarre
Dan Beeman, Gitarre
Kyle Stevenson, Schlagzeug

Helmet
In 1989, Page Hamilton co-founded the New York-based Helmet, fusing Zeppelinesque riffing with a vehement post-hardcore precision, augmented by dense chords and offbeat time signatures based in Hamilton's formal jazz training. The combination was that rarest of visionary creations-it was successful in its own time. After their 1990 debut album Strap It On (on revered indie label Amphetamine Reptile), Helmet unleashed the major label Meantime (1992), a widely acclaimed album that earned a Grammy nomination, went gold, and launched a thousand other bands. Betty followed in 1994, successfully branching out from the band's ferocious attack and into more varied musical waters. (In 2010, Helmet issued via their website a digital-only deluxe version of Betty that includes 14 original album tracks plus five bonus tracks.) Another acclaimed album Aftertaste followed in 1997 and after nine years and thousands of shows, Helmet called it a day in 1998.

Hamilton went on to do soundtrack work for major Hollywood movies like Catwoman, S.W.A.T., Titus, and Saw, among others, formed the band Gandhi, and, following in the footsteps of greats like Adrian Belew and Stevie Ray Vaughan, played lead guitar in David Bowie's band in 1999. In 2004 Hamilton restarted Helmet, releasing two acclaimed albums-Size Matters in 2004, Monochrome in 2006-and co-headlining the Warped Tour that year. Helmet did extensive US and European touring in 2009 in preparation for the new album.

Bands such as the Deftones, Rise Against, Pantera and Tool have all cited Helmet as an influence, and not just for Helmet's blistering, aggro approach but for the band's sheer musicality and brains. See, Helmet, among other things, is a work of art. Hamilton is a trained musician who happens to make heavy, brutal music, a guy who digs Bartok and Minor Threat. Which is why, as Seeing Eye Dog proves, Helmet is a surprisingly flexible concept.

"The Helmet musical vocabulary is well established at this point, but I continue to work on a variety of musical projects that inevitably influence the Helmet songs," says Hamilton. "I've been working on movies with Elliott Goldenthal and co. for 17 years now and had never really experimented with incorporating these soundscapes (or shit sculpting as I prefer to call it) into Helmet songs. We had a much better recording situation in which I felt much less time pressure and was working with an engineer who was patient and very creative (Toshi Kasai), so away we went. I started layering upper parts of the chords and was digging the sound so I went with it."

"So Long" and the title track embrace the classic Helmet approach: raging slabs of guitars, drill-sergeant vocals, drums like an expert beating, and guitar solos that scrawl hectic graffiti across the band's monolithic attack. The lyrics, as Hamilton has said, spring from a combination of "comedy and disgust," particularly in the scathing Welcome to Algiers and In Person.

But Seeing Eye Dog also finds Helmet pushing at its own boundaries-the grimly affecting White City, for instance, is as close to a ballad as Helmet has ever dared. LA Water sounds like a Beatlesque Helmet and later, And Your Bird Can Sing is a Helmetesque Beatles, with the band wielding the Fab Four's standout Revolver track like a molten sledgehammer. The mostly instrumental Morphing, the luminous sound sculpture in the middle of the album, might seem unlike any other Helmet track, and yet it has the same monumental quality as the band's most brutal work. (And if you hunger for Helmet in all its live glory, Seeing Eye Dog comes with a bonus disc, a blistering live set from the San Francisco stop on the 2006 Warped Tour.)

This album contains no booklet.