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yuri
Who'sGOD Who'sDOG?
Joined: 04 Feb 2000
Posts: 5300
Location: South of Voivodland
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 Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:09 pm Post subject: Helmet - Monochrome |
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(2006) Helmet - Monochrome
Back in 2004, Page Hamilton had a hard time shopping the demos for his band "Gandhi" so he accepted Interscope's records (the label who released Helmet's groundbreaking Meantime) logical offer to re-record the Gandhi demos and release them as Helmet's return album "Size Matters"
Since "Size Matters" was less than well-received (check out our review here in voivod.net) Interscope promptly dumped Helmet, but surprisingly, Mr. Halmilton soldiered on and came back after that setback with a new album in a small record label, using a new backing band.
You would think that being in a smaller record label would lower Helmet's expectations of selling hundreds of thousands of records and give Mr. Hamilton the artistic freedom of doing whatever his mind desired and let him recreate the magic that helped sell Helmet's Meantime to millions of metalheads, but after listening to the new album...
The two opening tracks in Monochrome could easily have come from Meantime, but unfortunately things go downhill when Mr. Page starts singing and crooning pop tunes on top of distorted guitars .. except this time around his recording budget cannot cover for his vocal deficiencies..
Helmet inhabits that strange gray zone of not being heavy enough for current metalheads due to Mr. Hamilton's pop sensibilities, and not having a mainstream enough sound for pop audiences to really care.
So, two years after the comeback Size Matters we are still wondering, when is Mr. Page Hamilton going to get it right?
All metalheads who bought Meantime are still waiting for a decent comeback to that album...
I still have the Meantime CD in my collection, but sold Betty and Aftertaste a long time ago. |
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