There’s no preamble to this review. Why? Because there’s no preamble to “Holiday” – the opening song on “Left”.
In fact, it takes about 35 seconds to do what Helmet were always brilliant at and change tune and tone totally. One minute there’s melody, and the next insults are being yelled.
Honestly, there’s only really Helmet and perhaps The Wildhearts who do it like this, but you’d pick “Gun Fluf” as being a Helmet song anywhere. Thick riffs, great slabs of them as it happens, played in the way that Paige Hamilton has done for over 30 years, but always with an eye to the melody.
Indeed, he’s an underrated guitarist, Hamilton, his soloing throughout the record- the band’s first for seven years – is excellent, but never better than on “NYC Tough Guy”.
For all the line-up changes they’d had in the past, this line-up has been together since 2010 and there’s a definite chemistry on show on work like “Make Up”, while “Big Shot” is a throwback to the early days almost. Certainly, there’s a feeling of the band I first found when getting into Prong in the early 90s and trying to find bands somewhat similar.
Because they have such a desire to push the boundaries, and their songs are so full of ideas, Helmet always manage to sound so fresh. The sloganeering lyrics in their choruses, which have always mixed so well with the harsh guitar are all still in evidence here, but never more than on “Bombastic”.
“Dislocated” has a sleazy riff, but it can only have come from this band, and that band, Helmet, have never really had enough credit in my book for what they bring. The originality, the skill. Perhaps, like Therapy? And others, they simply aren’t flashy enough, whatever.
Things take a distinctly odd turn on “Tell Me Again”, the acoustics, the strings. Not what you imagine at all.
And if there’s a discordant, almost Killing Joke tinge to “Powder Puff” then the Jazz noodling of “Revolution” dials up the weirdness – and bands like this aren’t supposed to be covering John Coltrane.
Some artists get pigeonholed and it annoys me on their behalf and it must annoy them. Helmet are “protagonists of the NYC sound” and of course they are. But as ever they show a willingness to push the boundaries and do what they damn well please.
That’s why they have been so good for so long, and if we may paraphrase another band of that era with a tenth of their originality and who have done nothing good for two decades: in contrast to Bon Jovi, for Helmet, this “Left” feels right.
Rating 8.5/10
