HelmetLeft

New York noise purveyors Helmet have had a wobbly time of it since the heady days of the early to mid-90s when their landmark albums Meantime and Betty made them a touchstone for dozens of acts in the ill-defined “alternative metal” scene for the rest of the decade.

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LEFT, the band’s first album in eight years, bears all the hallmarks of their signature style: tight, mechanical rhythms, sparse arrangements and, of course, the hammering of Page Hamiton’s fractured, staccato riffs.

Into this melting pot of post-hardcore groove Hamilton adds infectious pop vocal hooks in the likes of Holiday and Make-up to temper the roiling riffs and jagged, off-kilter guitar solos that explode out of tracks like the fabulously well-named Bombastic.

With both the rhythmic drive and dissonance of their best albums, LEFT also has plenty of surprises and nuances that should please both fans of Helmet’s more experimental side and those who enjoy the pummelling excess of their pioneering 90s period.

Reprise buries the vocals under a shoegaze drone and disjointed riff while Hamilton snarls through some kind of harsh, deconstructed blues in Dislocated and Resolution is a brief jazzy close-out that takes him back to his roots. With both the rhythmic drive and dissonance of their best albums, LEFT also has plenty of surprises and nuances that should please both fans of Helmet’s more experimental side and those who enjoy the pummelling excess of their pioneering 90s period.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Dislocated, Bombastic, Reprise
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