Artist: HELMET
Album: MONOCHROME (CD)

Release date: 2006
Media type: CD

HELMET certainly needs no introduction to retail. Helmet has created a history of musical respect and credibility. Never to follow trends, Helmet has long distinguished itself by charting a unique course unlike any other. Helmet is considered the principle musical progenitor of post hardcore. With the current popularity of the post-hardcore scene, Helmet is poised to reintroduce its music to a larger audience then ever before. Reuniting with coproducer, Wharton Tiers (Meantime, Strap It On), the sound of the new album represents a return to the same dense, rich and intense analogue results as on Helmet’s earlier seminal albums. Please see the discography below...

HELMET return September, 11 with MONOCHROME, a record that finds the band’s full circle return to the sonic template that cemented the band as one of the primary forefathers of the post-hardcore/punk genre. With the return of producer Wharton Tiers to the fold, a lineup shift, and a headlining slot on this summer’s Warped Tour, Helmet and founder and vocalist/guitarist Page Hamilton are in prime fighting shape.

For MONOCHROME, Hamilton enlisted collaborator Wharton Tiers to co-produce with the intention of a return to the organic sound the band is known for. Tiers recorded the band’s first two releases Strap It On (1991) and Meantime, (1992), the latter of which sold over a million copies and defined the brusque element of American’s underground rock scene.

“Wharton was my only choice to co-produce this project with me,” said Hamilton. “Apart from the sounds he can get in his studio, he was also a major influence in terms of helping me shape my guitar playing.” On this, the band’s sixth full-length, Hamilton knew what he wanted otherwise. “This album was made quickly, like the first two Helmet records, and I didn’t want anybody else’s opinions to slow me down. I’ve done this before and I wanted to do it my way.”

The current band lineup is a group of musicians carefully selected by Hamilton to carry on the Helmet tradition. “Chris (Traynor, guitars) has been putting up with my shit for twelve years… he probably needs therapy by now. Jeremy (Chatelain, bass) is just fantastic and I can tell he’s feeling the itch to go out and play. Mike (Jost, drums) is a guy who hasn’t been through this whole band experience before, but he has the technical ability that he needs to play with Helmet.”

HELMET’s catalog also includes Betty (1994) Aftertaste (1996), and Size Matters, (2004). Helmet’s forward fusion of metal, punk, indie-rock, and jazz has inspired countless bands--many that have come to define their own disparate threads of heavy rock. The HELMET sound sparked a new brand of metal, crossing all traditional music boundaries, paving the way for bands like Chevelle, Deftones, Killswitch Engage, Norma Jean and Silverchair, among many others. The New York Times called HELMET “a band that made important connections between indie-rock and metal…” (September 12, 2004).

“I’m always stoked when people tell me that they do what they do because of my music,” says Hamilton. “I’m always surprised. People like David Bowie and Gene Simmons are fans of my band. That’s as good as it gets.” Hamilton attributes much of the band’s success to his uncompromising search for self-satisfaction. “Only 20% of the music I listen to is rock, and of that an even smaller percentage is new music. I try to stay focused on creating my own music.”

HELMET formed in New York City in 1989 by founding members Page Hamilton, Henry Bogdan, Peter Mengede and John Stainer. The group signed to Amphetamine Reptile Records, and released their first full-length album, Strap It On, in 1991. Interscope Records soon came calling and signed the band in 1992. Monochrome is Helmet’s first release for Warcon Records, one of the leading post-hardcore/punk labels in the industry today.

TRACKLIST:

1) Swallowing Everything
2) Brand New
3) Bury Me
4) Monochrome
5) On Your Way Down
6) Money Shot
7) Gone
8)Almost Out Of Sight
9) Howl
10) 410
11) Goodbye

LINE-UP:

Page Hamilton : vocalist/guitarist
Chris Traynor : guitarist
Mike Jost : drummer
Jeremy Chatelain : bassist

DISCOGRAPHY:

Size Matters - (Interscope 2004)
Unsung: The Best Of - (Interscope 2003)
Aftertaste - (Interscope 1997)
Impressively, over the span of Helmet’s career they have sold over 3 million albums world-wide.
The new album MONOCHROME will be a return-to-form of sorts, recordedand co-produced by Wharton Tiers,
who recorded Helmet's first two albums, Strap It On and Meantime.
Betty - (Interscope 1994)
Born Annoying - (Amphetamine Reptile 1993)
Meantime - (Interscope 1992)
Strap It On - (Interscope 1992)