Helmet - Aftertaste

Aftertaste
Helmet
Interscope Records

An adequate review of any Helmet album could be a mere handful of words: “Aftertaste, new one from Helmet, more of the same, thank heaven.”

Bands are often praised by critics and reviled by fans for exploring new style elements, but recently, Helmet seemed to experience the exact opposite. The rockpress typically slighted 1994’s Betty for boldly going where they thought the band shouldn’t go, but fans eagerly welcomed the groove-heavy follow-up to the band’s 1992 breakthrough Meantime. Perhaps bowing to critical remarks about Betty, on which the band employed oddly effected vocals and delved into bastardized hip-hop, banjo blues, and jazz deconstruction, Aftertaste is a collection of concise, bare-bones songs subtly updated by changes to frontman Page Hamilton’s left-field guitar soloing and the warts-and-all production of Barkmarket guitarist/vocalist Dave Sardy.

Hamilton’s solos--anti-solos really--have historically been skittering atonal outbursts that careen through songs like out-of-control Indy cars, barely able to hold the track. On Aftertaste, however, the solos are brief, simple, legato lines. Based on a just a few notes, they lurk within the mix, sniffing out sonic territory until they fragment and the song returns. Check out Insatiable, for the best example of the kinder, gentler Page Hamilton. Perhaps his new approach extends from the experiment Hamilton and German avant guitarist Caspar Brontzman released in late 1996. Zulutime (Atavistic) presents the two guitarists creating barely mobile slabs of noise in which they seem to be more interested in the evolution and decay of sounds as opposed to melodies. Not only does this idea--in a simplified context--show up in Hamilton’s solos, it also comes through in full force at the end of Crisis King, where sheets of guitar nonsense and radio interference rumble on for nearly a minute to close out the album.

Aftertaste’s stripped down flavor also results from the fact that the band recorded as a trio. Guitarist Rob Eccheverria departed after Betty to join Biohazard, and Chris Traynor, formerly of Orange 9mm, only recently joined Helmet’s ranks. It must be added that bassist Henry Bogdan and drummer John Stanier turn in yet another phenomenal performance. The two comprise the most consistent and brutally heavy rhythm section since Led Zeppelin’s Jones and Bonham. In fact, to hear a brilliant, in-your-face recording of that rhythm section, check out Helmet’s take on Bjork’s Army of Me, found on Interscope’s environmental benefit compilation Music for Our Mother Ocean.

Sardy’s production reveals his fondness for the electric hum and hiss of the studio, and he seems to capture the band’s tightest, most energetic performance on each cut. All said, it’s good to have Helmet still among us, mining similar territory but employing new understated elements to keep things fresh. It will be interesting to see how Hamilton and company continue to work from their small, though very heavy, bag of tricks.