Helmet- Dead to the World (2016)

Helmet- Dead to the World (2016)

By: Ghost Writer

This is kind of strange, considering that I'm a big fan of Helmet and an admirer of Page Hamilton guitar playing, I got really mixed feelings towards this record, Dead To the World is the return of Helmet, a band that had its big change in the 90s, after the “Nirvana” revolution, honestly, I was not expecting another Strap It On, a Helmet record I loved, that would be impossible for them at this point, a big plus here is that they are not trying to make another Meantime, despite opener Life or Death is as accessible as Unsung, or as Betty's Wilma's Rainbow, but with a record titled Dead to the World, my initial expectancy was that of a band hungry for revenge and far from the spotlight, trying to regain some early flame, but on the contrary, this time Helmet is evolving in really unexpected ways, and a song like I Love My Guru, along its twisted sense of humor shows a surprising sense of melody I haven't previously experimented while listening to a Helmet record, band leader Page Hamilton seems to be taking again the band for a wild ride through weird territories, at moments even bringing memories of the great and dark Alice In Chains, of course few people would do cathartic music the way Hamilton does, and also including a big dose of dark humor, like on the powerful Bad News, featuring also the trademark guitars of the band, along an unexpected big chorus, yes, is a very infectious be version number of Helmet, but is this really Helmet or something else? True and false. 

Perhaps Red Scare is precisely included here to remind us what this band is all about, and to show us again why along Prong, Helmet was  a big responsible of developing new and exciting ways for heavy metal bands like Korn, Pantera and Deftones among others, here we find the brutal riffing of their very early records, Hamilton´s unique piercing soloing and the mechanic rhythms, the integration of punk and thrash into a modern sounding metal format, but the big problem with this record really starts here, with songs like the title track or Green Shirt that sound like throw away or unashamed filler, songs that simply end up nowhere and that would be really awkward for even an amateur band, Expect the World follows the same path despite some bitter anger thrown there, Die Alone, with great guitars sounds really fragmented, like an idea not well materialized, unfinished, while Drunk in the Afternoon sounds exactly like that, a drunk guy thrashing away on his guitar and nothing else, despite a great half record Helmet is simply not capable of keeping the level of excellence and delivers a very mediocre ending half, is really shocking comparing both parts, and those last songs really send to hell what seemed to be a very decent recording, I guess there won't be no more records for Helmet in the future, as this one sounds like it is simply coming apart, I guess Hamilton is starting to look somewhere else got his future, sometimes free form when not done wholeheartedly is not as satisfying.