Seminal hard rock band HELMET released their seventh full-length album Seeing Eye Dog - in September last year - their first since 2006’s critically acclaimed Monochrome. After sold-out tours of the U.S. and Europe, the seminal LA rockers are gearing up to head back to New Zealand this June for the first time in 14 years.
In 1989, Page Hamilton co-founded the New York-based Helmet, fusing Zeppelinesque riffing with a vehement post-hardcore precision, augmented by dense chords and offbeat time signatures based in Hamilton's formal jazz training. The combination was that rarest of visionary creations - it was successful in its own time. After their 1990 debut album Strap It On, Helmet unleashed the major label Meantime in 1992; a widely acclaimed album that earned a Grammy nomination, went gold, and influentially launched a thousand other bands. Betty followed in 1994, successfully branching out from the band's ferocious attack into more varied musical waters. Aftertaste followed in 1997 and after nine years and thousands of shows, Helmet finally called it a day in 1998.
But some dogs weren't supposed to lay sleeping. In 2004 Hamilton restarted Helmet, releasing Size Matters in 2004 and Monochrome in 2006 - and co-headlining the Vans Warped Tour that year. Helmet undertook extensive US and European touring in 2009 in preparation for the new album. Marking their first release on the indie label, Work Song, Seeing Eye Dog was produced by Hamilton and is one of the band’s most uncompromising and ambitious releases to date, embodying the classic and utterly unique Helmet sound and pushing it into regions the band has never before explored.
Acts such as the Deftones, Rise Against, Pantera and Tool have all cited Helmet as an influence, and not just for Helmet's blistering, aggro approach but for the band's sheer musicality and brains. See Helmet, among other things, is a work of art. Hamilton is a trained musician who happens to make heavy, brutal music, a guy who digs Bartok and Minor Threat. Which is why, as Seeing Eye Dog proves, Helmet is a surprisingly flexible concept.
“It’s so important to have great musicians in this band….I can’t stand the sound and anti-human feel of edited rock music. People have always commented that we sound like our albums live. This has a lot to do with it. Humans playing music will always be better than chop shop rock so one has to find the right players.”
RW ENTERTAINMENT, SIXSIXTEEN and THE GROOVE GUIDE presents
HELMET
The Kings Arms, Auckland
Saturday June 18th
Bodega, Wellington
Sunday June 19th
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY APRIL 15th from www.undertheradar.co.nz, www.moshtix.co.nz, Real Groovy (Auckland) and Slow Boat Records (Wellington)
