Helmet
Liberty Lunch
Tuesday, July 29
Helmet drummer John Stanier is calling from the “lovely Phoenix hotel in San Francisco” and can’t hear a thing. Could be a lousy phone hookup or it might be that eight years with the NYC quartet has taken its toll on his hearing. After all, all that grandiose verbiage — “bone-shattering,” “teeth-rattling,” and “piledriving” — isn’t just hyperbole. Still, nearly a decade of redundant adjectives is a long time.
“I don’t want Helmet to be remembered or thought of as just a `piledriver, head-exploding, eardrum-bleeding’ band, because there’s so much more to us,” says Stanier. “There’s so much more to it than that. We’re really heavy and really loud and powerful and all that, but it’s like there’s way more underneath that.”
And what is it that lurks beneath the surface of this oft-inscrutable outfit? An extremely precise, informed approach to music that stems from the telepathic interplay between the members — Stanier, guitarist/singer Page Hamilton, bassist Henry Bogdan, and brand-new second guitarist Chris Traynor, who made the jump from Gotham’s hard-hitting Orange 9mm.
It’s true, Helmet make Korn look like frat boys passing the mike after a few Bud Lights too many, and never more so than on their new Interscope release, Aftertaste, the band’s fourth full-length; Amphetamine Reptile’s Strap it On came in 1990, Meantime, source of the semi-hit “Unsung,” followed in 1992, and Betty, which found the band dipping their toes into more experimental, less brain-bashing waters, made its bow in 1994.
So, do these guys ever smile?
Of course. Stanier chuckles when he recounts how he swiped a kitchen pot in Boise for found-object percussion wizard (and recent tourmate) Rick Lee of Skeleton Key. And he’s a little reluctant to say so, but yes, there is a softer side to Helmet. Ready for this?
“I guess it was that one year when we all just kind of lived in the woods and listened to a lot of Carole King.”
— Christopher Gray
This article appears in July 25 • 1997 and July 25 • 1997 (Cover).