The Frying Pan

Music Review #6:

Helmet

Meantime

1992

Interscope Records

Due to the booming success of Grunge in the 90's, record labels were hungry fora new cash cow band to sign on. Out from the darkness emerged Helmet, a band who seemed perfectly fit to take Nirvana's place for the next big band. Helmet was very distinguished from Nirvana when the time came around, however, bringing a slamming rage to their music when 1992 rolled in with Meantime. Hailed as an extremely influential album to others of it's genre that came in the late 90's and 00's, and critics absolutely loved it. Meantime sold relatively well in the years after it's release, and was certified gold with two million copies sold in 1994.

Meantime is a very well-structured album, and utilizes the 90's grunge/hard rock mix to a stretched out limit. The bad thing here is that with so much fury and pure noise blaring from every track, it's very hard not to get burned out, which sometimes they did. Many of the songs sound similar at first but do tend to become more diverse with multiple spins. It's a unique yet comfortable album that earns the top spot as one of the most influential alternative metal albums of all time.

© 2015 - The Frying Pan & Thatcher 

Originally written for Metal Music Archives on 10/1/2015.

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